For small businesses, any opportunity to make a sale is an opportunity that cannot be missed. In today’s highly competitive business environment, it is too easy for a potential customer to find the solution to their problem from a competitor who has prioritised customer interaction more than you have – but VoIP services are the answer.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a convenient and flexible communication solution for businesses, which allows users to make and receive calls using a broadband Internet connection, rather than a traditional phone line. We discussed the fundamentals of VoIP in a previous article.
This technology can help save both time and money but, more importantly, business owners can ensure that they never miss a sales call with VoIP.
In this article, we are going to look at the ways VoIP services can support a sales call strategy and enhance the customer experience.
Four ways VoIP Services boost sales call strategies
Over time, missed calls can have a disastrous impact on sales, where a business develops a reputation for poor service and frustrated customers instead gravitate towards competitors, with 17% of consumers stating they will walk away from a business after just one bad experience.
Here are four VoIP-based strategies to ensure that you never miss a customer and you never miss the chance to make a sale:
1. VoIP Services help you keep a schedule
Business owners often wear many hats. From operations, finance, marketing and sales, they are expected to be everywhere all at once.
Realistically, however, this is simply just not possible. It is highly unlikely that a business owner will be available for every incoming sales call, particularly when there are a host of other areas that also need attention.
Depending on the size of the team, one approach to resolve this issue would be to create a schedule and divide out call responsibilities.
Using VoIP, calls can be routed accordingly to who is on duty at any given time. Directing calls to a point person, creating rules around forwarding and adding automation for time-based handover will ensure no calls are missed and any voicemails can be actioned promptly.
2. Choose a Phone System with a mobile app
VoIP technology is ever-evolving and has features that simply were not available before.
One of the most powerful is a mobile app with capabilities that allow businesses to maintain the same high level of customer service, regardless of location or device.
For example, if a sales call is directed to a business mobile, there is an option to transfer that call to a member of the sales team efficiently and with the least amount of inconvenience to the customer.
Features such as in-call transfer make this possible with a single click on your mobile device, without you or the customer having to hang up.
Other features available through mobile applications include voicemail to text, email messaging and integration with your CRM tools.
3. Direct calls using an automated assistant
When it comes to sales calls, speed is key. Directing customers to the right department promptly lays the foundation for a greater customer experience.
With VoIP, features such as the automated assistant, allow businesses to set up multiple options for the customer to choose from when they call to better direct their query to the right department.
For example, dialling ‘1’ for sales, ‘2’ for customer care and so on. This demonstrates a level of professionalism and shows the customer that their time is valued.
It also supports productivity for customer service and sales teams, saving them time transferring calls or dealing with unqualified leads.
4. Prioritise calls using a Call Rules system
As mentioned earlier, VoIP technology offers a wide range of ways that you can create ‘call rules’ to ensure calls are not missed. This can be very useful in instances where the appointed contact or sales representative is unavailable. Using VoIP and the ‘call rules’ feature, the call is directed to a secondary point person to avoid missing the sales opportunity.
Another option is arranging for calls to be directed to multiple devices or extensions, increasing the likelihood of someone picking up the call promptly.
Finally, the numbers of certain high-profile clients can be programmed in to ensure that they are automatically transferred to mobile and assisted without delay.
Empowering your sales team with VoIP
A business is only as good as the team it has behind it and any opportunity to build on their skills will only benefit the business. VoIP phone systems can play a key role in staff training through the call recording feature.
This feature can be used to help assess how sales teams are communicating with customers and where there is room for improvement.
The gained knowledge from recorded customer exchanges allows for adjustments to be made where needed which ultimately leads to a higher success rate in productivity and sales.
One Contact – your provider of VoIP services
One Contact offers a service to ensure you’ll never miss a sales call. Our VoIP phone system provides your business with a flexible and reliable solution that helps you and your sales team achieve your sales targets.
When supported by our strong, stable and secure Business Broadband, our VoIP services ensure you stay connected to your customers, whatever the nature of your business.
Get in touch with us today to implement an efficient, trustworthy and secure VoIP system so your business is always there for your customers when they need you the most.
