The impact of missed calls for your business

While the internet, email and social media are all powerful tools for businesses communication, they lack the same efficiency as the telephone. Customers often find it much easier to deal directly with a person.

A phone call is still a popular communication method with innovative technology evolving the way we can make a call.

Businesses can use phone systems for a number of setups including helplines, technical support, ordering products, appointment cancellations and more.

With mobile working and hot-desking proving popular IT trends, missed calls could be on the increase. You don’t need a physical handset to answer calls with unified communications and alternative devices.

What counts as a missed call?

The customer hangs up after losing interest
The customer is placed in a queue and offered a call back at a later time
Your voicemail service activates and the customer is given the option to leave a message

Why are calls missed

You have insufficient staff to answer the phones
Your business chooses not to prioritise incoming calls
A customer calls after business hours
You don’t have effective technology

Why does it matter

According to research, businesses lose around £90 million a year due to missed calls.

Just two missed calls each week equates to 104 potential lost sales each year. Even if one-third of those callers leave a message, you are still potentially losing 72 sales each year.

Many businesses are under the impression a person will simply return the call. But with 85% of unanswered calls not calling back can lead potential customers to contact a competitor who’s more responsive.

It’s not just the loss of revenue – missed calls can have a lasting effect on the business. Customer loyalty can depend on a number of factors. Ensuring that customers can quickly speak to someone in the event of a problem is an essential requirement for providing top quality support. Every unreturned missed call is a missed opportunity and can result in a dissatisfied customer.

What can you do

With cloud-technology there are many factors your business can consider:

On-hold messaging

Statistically, callers who experience silence on hold will often hang up within 40 seconds, while callers with on-hold music will stay on the line up to 4 minutes reducing the risk of lost business.

73% of UK callers prefer to hear sound other than silence. Callers perceive shorter wait times when uplifting music is played whilst giving the reassurance their call is still connected and in the queue.

Furthermore, a company can use messaging for announcements. For example, a utility company can announce a service outage in a particular area and provide an estimated time for service restoration.

Auto attendant

This feature ensures that every call is routed and answered. It is important to make sure you convey the right message at this point, as it’s the first impression a prospective customer will make of your business.

In an ideal world, a real person would be able to answer the phone and do the job of auto-attendant every time. This is not always possible, as there may be too many callers and customers will be left on hold.

Auto-attendant will direct the caller in the right direction, so they speak to the right person and precious time is not wasted.

Call mobility

There are applications which can connect other devices such as mobiles – meaning extensions, voicemail, and other complex features are available regardless of the user location. Your mobile can be used in the same way as your office handset.

88% of companies believe that they provide excellent customer service. However, only 8% of these actually do. So, by your employees being readily available on their mobile phones, then this could be a solution.

Call groups

Having the hunt group feature on your telephone system means that less time will be wasted directing a call. A hunt group is how phone calls are distributed from a single telephone number to a group of several telephone lines – it’s an algorithm that selects which line receives the call.

iCall Suite

iCall Suite’s missed call report identifies a list of missed calls and giving the opportunity to call the customer back. This call-management application could save your business hundreds of pounds a year.

The unreturned-missed-calls report will provide:

A list of callers who have not called back within a certain time period
Missed calls in real-time
The opportunity to quickly view and return missed calls
This key information can even be displayed on a television or wallboard within an office.

When employees, management, and executives can view the same key metrics, the entire business is encouraged to work towards their targets and goals. Seeing the missed calls increase from zero

TV dashboards keep teams focused on key business analytics and help to promote data-driven decision making throughout an entire company.

The most powerful function of the phone conversation is the connection you make with your customer. Whether that’s making the big sale or solving a big problem, it’s an opportunity – and a phone call – that you can’t afford to miss.