The Problem

Do you run a small business with a few staff members attempting to market nationally or internationally over the web? If you do and are publishing a telephone number, your potential customers can be calling anytime during the day or night. When potential sales leads make the effort to call on the phone, they want to talk to a live person who can give them immediate answers about your product or service.

Most small businesses do not have the staff to answer phones 24 hours a day or even the extended hours required to take calls from both coasts of the United States. Further, sales personnel could be on other calls, conducting sales appointments or traveling in between – making limited sales resources even less available. When potential clients do not get a knowledgeable person on the phone, the lead is lost and the resources expended to get that lead become wasted time, money and effort.

What Not to Do

Do not answer the calls with voicemail boxes. Callers who are seeking immediate information are unlikely to give contact information before they get the information they seek. Callers will hear the voicemail greeting and hang up. The lead is lost.

Automated Attendants will encourage callers to hang up as well. Time and pain navigating automated attendants results in caller impatience. The caller’s goal is to talk to a live person. The more difficult it is to do that, the more leads will be lost.

A better option than a voicemail box or automated attendant is to answer the calls with less knowledgeable staff during work hours. Live people are far more likely to get contact information from the caller. However, lack of knowledge can frustrate the potential client and leave them with a bad image. Further, it is not a solution for after hours.

What to Do

One advanced solution is to answer the call with a recorded message stating that a salesperson is being located. The call will ring the first salesperson’s desk phone and mobile phone simultaneously. If the first salesperson is unable to answer the call in a certain period of time, the call is then sent to a second. Should neither salesperson answer their call on their mobile or desk phone, then the call is sent to a live phone attendant during working hours and a specific salesperson’s voicemail box during off hours.

The solution requires Hosted VoIP or Hosted PBX service, mobile PBX, uniform call distribution (UCD) hunt groups and “guaranteed” recorded messages. The Hosted PBX service can place company phones on a salesperson’s desk no matter where they are located including homes and offices across town, in other cities, states and around the world. Mobile PBX integrates their mobile phone with the desk phone allowing both to ring at the same time enabling the salespeople to answer calls even while they are away from their desk.

UCD will ring a sales person from a list. Should they not answer in 15 – 20 seconds, then it can redirect the call to the next salesperson. Although it can be done, sending the call to a third salesperson is not advisable as callers will only wait so long. With UCD, the phone system remembers who received the last call in the list and will send the next call to the next person on the list. The recorded message explains the call process to the caller and encourages them to leave a message if a salesperson is not reached.

This solution is designed for businesses with limited sales resources to answer call in leads. It greatly increases the chances of a live answer by a knowledgeable person, improves the caller’s experience and captures the sales lead.

Flexible Hosted VoIP providers can solve many communication problems similar to this one. They can tailor solutions to your available resources and specific needs.

And now you are invited to visit my website and learn how Hosted VoIP or Hosted PBX services can solve communication problems for businesses with limited resources. You may also contact my knowledgeable Hosted PBX sales staff at 866-242-6161.