Is Unreliable Telecommunications Infrastructure Hurting Your Brand?

Customers feel frustrated when they can’t reach your company easily. If it takes too long to answer their call, if the line is noisy or the voice quality is poor, or if they can’t easily leave a message — it all reflects poorly on your brand. They may even think your company is behind the times if you don’t have unified communications to provide video conferencing and integrated chat, or if they have to try multiple numbers to reach a specific team member. Customers even expect that your call center team will have access to the info in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system so they don’t have to identify themselves multiple times or repeat the issue. After all, your competitors can do it — but then again, they probably have Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony systems.

Unanswered calls, dropped calls, echoing lines, tinny voices and a hodge-podge of phone numbers printed on your website or business card all make a poor impression. That’s why more and more companies are turning to VoIP for their telecommunications systems instead of PBX. In fact, Infonetics reports that VoIP unified communications (UC) revenue is increasing at double-digit rates, including a 31 percent increase in the second quarter of 2014.

With VoIP, incoming calls ring at multiple handsets until they are answered. The system recognizes the customer and brings his/her name and history to the CSR’s screen. This, in turn, can make customers feel valued.

VoIP systems can forward customer calls to other numbers, even mobile devices, so your sales team never misses a call. Some VoIP systems even provide handsets with an integrated mobile device so the team can take it with them when they are on the road.

VoIP UC solutions include present information, so your team can see if the person the customer needs to talk to is at his/her desk before transferring a call. That eliminates transferring calls that won’t be answered. VoIP solutions often include chat capabilities, so your CSRs can obtain product or status information from the experts while on the phone with the customer — rather than putting him/her on hold. If necessary, it’s easy to set up a three-way call, to share screens or even jump to a simple video call to satisfy the customer’s requirements.

VoIP systems are flexible and cost effective, so your team becomes more productive and efficient. They provide capabilities such as “follow me” so that calls can find people no matter where they are. Voice mail messages can be converted to emails and delivered to the mobile devices of people who are out of the office. That allows them to listen to messages without complicated retrieval procedures, allowing them to return urgent calls quickly.

One of the best parts of VoIP systems is line quality during calls. You will not experience the crackles, pops and other distracting noises that are so common with older systems. By coupling low cost, high quality and advanced features, VoIP telecommunications presents an image of a company that cares about its customers, and there’s no better image for your brand than that.

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