Not some. Not a few. Not most. All. That’s how many of your messages you should be committed to returning. After all, you’re not interested in satisfying some, or even most of your customers, are you? In order to truly be recognized as an industry leader, you’ll need your business to have the reputation of a brand that can be counted on. And returning all of your messages can help you to gain that reputation.
We all have, at least, one friend who is impossible to get a hold of. No matter how many messages you leave or how frequent you call, that person just seems to be perpetually unavailable. What happens after a while? You stop calling, don’t you? What’s the point? If the person can’t be bothered to give you any of his/her time, perhaps it’s not time you should be interested in. This isn’t the way you want your business to be thought of, is it?
There are many problems can you avoid by returning all of your messages. Here are four:
1. Customers changing their minds. Just because you’ve already processed a sale, you shouldn’t automatically assume that the customer has been satisfied. Let’s suppose he/she wants to make an amendment to the order. For all you know, the customer may want to order more items. By not promptly checking and returning your phone messages and emails, you may cause a customer to change his/her mind about buying from you again.
2. Losing customers to the competition. So, a customer locates your business website and phone number and decides to put in a call to your company. He/she leaves a message. This same individual calls another company with the exact same query. In both instances, he/she makes the call outside of business hours and is required to leave a message. The other company calls the customer back first. Which company is more likely to get the customer’s business?
3. Hurting someone’s feelings. You know the old saying, “it’s not personal, it’s just business”? Well, not everyone feels that way, even when that statement is completely true. People have feelings. Obviously, it’s important to remember that your customers are people who have feelings. And when they’re hurt by the fact that it appears you’re ignoring their messages, it’s hard to regain their trust and confidence in you.
4. Having outdated information. Neglecting even the smallest changes can have huge implications. One of our clients recently reported a problem he had with a vendor who simply didn’t understand how to update his new address. He had moved his place of business to a new unit within the same building, so the only change to his address was his unit number. It’s a simple adjustment to make, right?
Our client informed us that he sent three different emails and left three different voice messages regarding this change because he wasn’t receiving the inventory he had ordered. It turns out that it had all been addressed to his former unit. Needless to say, our client felt that this vendor could no longer be trusted as a top tier industry professional. Again, not being prompt in checking and returning messages can severely hurt the impression of your brand.
At MeloTel, we offer a number of solutions, via our Commercial Phone Services, that assist business owners with being a lot better at returning their messages. Among them are Voicemail in your Email, which is a fantastic service that places your voicemails as WAV files in your email inbox! For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-888-MELOTEL or use the “Live Chat Support” feature on our website!
