Ensuring that your company’s communication systems are efficient, cost effective and running smoothly is crucial to the day to day operation of your business.
All incoming enquiries need to be dealt with in a professional manner and passed on to the relevant person or department to be dealt with. If this system breaks down, calls can go unanswered, callers can become frustrated and you can loose business as a result.
A great way to make sure that your phone network works brilliantly every time is to set up an automated phone system. Affordable and efficient, you’ll never have to worry about missing a call again.
Replacing an old, out of date phone system will help your office to communicate more efficiently with clients
What is an automated phone system?
An automated phone system answers calls to your company with a recorded greeting. It then gives the caller a list of options to choose from to decide how their call will progress.
Once they’ve selected their preference the call is then forwarded on to a landline or mobile or if no one is available to take the call, a voicemail service.
Different call handling options can be set up for out of hour’s callers and the service can be customised to suit your exact business needs.
Efficiency
This system allows for increased efficiency on a few different levels. Firstly all calls are handled in a professional and efficient manner. This means that queries, complaints or enquiries go straight to the most relevant recipients without having to be passed through various different departments.
And secondly, having an automated system in place allows you and your staff to focus on the important work in hand, like getting new business and ensuring that you deliver great results to existing clients.
Even if you already have a secretary, this system will allow them to spend more time on complex queries and less time routing calls to various extensions and numbers.
Professionalism
Having a personalised message played as soon as a call is answered gives your customers and suppliers a great impression of your company from the very beginning.
It allows each call to be dealt with as soon as it comes in so callers don’t spend time on hold or hours waiting to be called back, and it gives the impression that you company is much larger than it actually is.
All of these factors will improve and enhance the user experience for your callers, without any extra effort having to be put in by you.
If you have an existing secretary, you can combine them with automated system or just have the system answer calls when they’re unavailable. This can help to take the pressure off of a busy secretary and allows them to fulfil their work to the highest standard.
Cost
Another important factor for any business, whether a global corporation or a one-man start up, is money. All companies try to save money wherever they can in order to create a streamlined and productive organisation, and a phone system is no different.
Luckily, most automated phone systems are very affordable. You can expect to pay around £20 per month with a small charge per minute for forwarded calls.
Saving money is an important factor for most businesses
This is significantly cheaper than hiring the man power it would take to replace the system, freeing up funds for more important areas of your business like growth and development.
So if you’re sitting there watching your secretary try to answer four different calls at the same time whilst simultaneously trying to forward other calls onto the correct recipients, have a think about an automated phone system. It could help your company to work more smoothly, be more efficient and save crucial funds in the process.
