If someone hangs up mid conversation, it’s usually easy to tell what you said that ticked them off. But when a customer hangs up before that conversation has already started, it’s a little less so. Most customers tend to hang up if they don’t feel like they’re going straight to voicemail. It’s therefore crucial to have a phone system in place that helps customer along the journey. So how can you turn it around and figure out how to avoid the key mistakes that make customers hang up? We’ve listed 4 tips of what to avoid that might make customers hang up.
1. Long wait times
Even if it’s a standard nowadays with some wait time, it’s important that it’s not too long. Customers tend to hang up if it’s a few minutes so a tip here is to set a standard for your company and that’s reasonable for your customers. Even if it does end up in the voicemail, just getting to talk to a human being along the way helps to avoid customers hanging up. Another tip here is to fill the waiting silence with some music or a message that someone soon will get to them.
2. The call forwarding loop
When customers try to reach a business asking for a specific question, the funnel system needs to be as short and concise as possible. When you have an overly complicated phone structure, it will just frustrate customers when they have to go through several people to actually get their question answered.
3. Script or no script?
If a customer is calling your business, it’s important that they feel like you seem real. This is all too familiar with companies trying to sound authentic by sticking to a pre rehearsed script. While it might sound like a good idea at first, a script might makes you lose sight of why you needed a script to begin with. In addition, customers actually tend to have a negative impression of calls that sound too much like a repetitive script.
So, if you’re setting up your phone and voicemail system for directing calls, you sure do have to use automated messages to some extent. But our tip is to try to keep it simple and professional with just the essential information included to allow the customer to move forward.
4. Unclear information
If you got a little inspired from the tip above in this. This is the time to think the opposite way. You never want your voicemail to include too little information. For example, Hello, leave a message after the tone”. That will only make customers feel like they’ll never get a reply back, because who knows who even listened to it? While there’s nothing wrong with simple, you still want to engage customers with your phone system. So, a tip here is to show a little personality and include the appropriate amount of information, so they don’t feel like they’re getting an automated response.
Another important tip here is to provide customers with clear options from start. While it may seem like a good idea to have plenty of them, it’s much easier for customers to make a selection if the options are clear in order to navigate smoothly. This will help you avoid frustrated customers stuck in a loop of never-ending call forwarding.
Want to read more tips how you can optimize your phone system? Read our blogpost HERE about 3 ways you can improve your company’s telephony system.