Don’t you just hate it? You dial a number and get through to a non-personalised voicemail?
Here are a few harsh facts for you regarding voicemails:
85/100 people reaching a voicemail on a business number will hang up and call a competitor*
68/100 people that do leave a voicemail are likely to call a competitor immediately*
90/100 people reaching a voicemail in business hours regard the business as small and unreliable*
The cost of businesses in the UK failing to answer phones is £33bn*
- Data from Marvin Henson – Cloud Solutions for Business Tel:0330 6600464
Of course we can take the calls if people want us to, but there are things that you can do to manage things yourself….
Just personalise your voicemail, a simple “you have reached your name voicemail, please leave a message and I will return your call within x hours”. At least callers getting through to your voicemail will know that they didn’t misdial.
Divert your calls back to the office – that is if there is someone there that can answer them
If you have a landline number then look to divert it to your mobile number when you are out of the office
Divert to a call handling company – we know a very good one 🙂 https://imyourpa.co.uk/clients-services
So why is it important to actually answer your calls? Many of us spend hours networking, some will spend a small fortune advertising, but if the first call from a potential client, results in a voicemail, the chances are that you will not even get a message, let alone a chance at the business. All that time, money and effort just wasted.
When someone calls for the first time, it is normally because they have a need, they have taken the plunge, and in this day and age we are all impatient! When the caller gets the non- personalised message, it is almost as though we don’t have an interest in our own business, the caller will often try the next supplier they can find to fulfil their need.
There are excellent phone systems out there which enable people to use call forwarding systems really easily – just make sure that if you do divert them that there is someone at the end of the phone answering them
If you want help in handling your calls please give us a call on 01902 585222
