Customers Who Call Businesses After Hours

In the service industry, it’s always hard to break the tether between you and your phone line. As a business owner, it’s always hard to put away the phone and focus on the matter at hand, or even exit the world of work and enter the realm of personal life and family. The intention you have when trying to answer every phone call is right, but with limited resources you can only do so much, and you often resort to taking phone calls yourself after hours in order to help customers, provide excellent customer service, and obtain new customers as well. However, it’s time to turn your phones over to a competent answering service, because customers who call businesses after hours expect a high level of customer service, and there is simply no way for you to provide that 24 hours a day. Not only that, but when your potential and existing customers call you, they expect a quick response, a competent representative, and a prompt solution to their problem.

Your Phone System After Hours

According to Harris Interactive, 75% of customers believe it takes too long to reach a live agent. This means that if you’re using an auto-attendant, a recorded message, or simply taking too long to answer phones that you are essentially providing what customers would view as “poor customer service.” This is especially true for callers trying to reach you after hours. In fact, according to an American Express Survey, 67% of customers have hung up the phone out of frustration they could not talk to a real person. When a caller encounters your auto-attendant or voicemail they become frustrated, hang up the phone, and look for someone else that can help them with their problem.

What can you do to fix this?

During the day, you can turn off your auto-attendant that prompts customers to dial by name, or listen to various menu options before they are connected with a live person! This will help to eliminate the frustration of the 67% of people who hang up because they could not speak with a live representative. It will also ensure that their experience with your law firm is a positive one, since they won’t have to wait on hold or navigate a difficult directory before speaking with a competent agent.

After hours, again you can make sure to turn off your auto-attendant and dial by name directory. However, this does not fix the problem of customers hanging up on your voicemail and looking for help from another attorney. According to Forbes, 72% of callers hang up on voicemail without leaving a message. So how do you ensure that your phones are answered 24 hours a day?

Hire a Live Answering Service

A competent live answering service can answer customer calls 24 hours a day, and provide legitimate phone support to your callers who need help from a live person right away. By hiring a live answering service, you can eliminate the 72% of callers who hang up on voicemail and capture their business by having a live representative always answer your phone. You also eliminate the 67% of people who hang up in frustration when they can not speak to a live person!

Remember, you might think that your current customer service is “superior,” but the statistics surrounding customer experience says otherwise. Consider making changes to your current system in order to treat your customers better and obtain more new business than ever.

Souces:

https://www.jitbit.com/news/bad-customer-service/

https://www.helpscout.net/75-customer-service-facts-quotes-statistics/

https://www.continentalmessage.com/blog/should-companies-answer-phone-calls-after-hours/