What do Missed Calls Cost?

Even with omnichannel customer contact like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, phone calls are still the most preferred method of contact by people contacting businesses. In the United States alone, 34 million small businesses receive over 400 million phone calls daily.

High call volume can quickly overtake any small business, especially with increased call periods and increased numbers of spam calls. Declining any call can be a missed opportunity with a new or existing customer and missed revenue. Calls sent to voice mail are more likely to be a “missed call,” since many callers don’t want to wait for someone to return a call. If they do, in many cases, what follows is “phone tag,” wasting more time.

The results of these missed calls go beyond an initial sale. Instead of leaving a message, a caller may contact another company that answers their phone. Dealing with a backlog of voicemails can take considerable time for you and your teammates before you can get back to serving customers.

From the first sale, the losses continue with missed additional sales, as well as potential referrals from satisfied customers. Your company’s brand reputation can be tarnished very quickly with a negative online review. But today’s technological improvements mean that small businesses don’t have to miss calls and lose revenue.

How much does a missed call cost?

For every missed call, a company loses the opportunity to foster a relationship with a customer and make a sale. Every unanswered call can mean losing a customer to another company. Over time, not answering the calls or sending them to voicemail can lead to losing thousands of dollars.

First, determine how much your company makes from an initial successful conversion.

First, determine how much your company makes from an initial successful conversion. For this example, let’s set that number at $500, and each missed call is a missed $500. Ten missed calls in a week mean potentially losing $5,000, just from first-time customers.

Now consider how much that customer might spend with your company after the initial sale, and over the lifetime of the customer relationship. Added up, this sum could mean a significant dent in your monthly and yearly revenue.

Answering more calls

With traditional landlines, most tools like Call Waiting are paid add-ons that can add to your monthly bill. Modern VoIP phone systems include tools and features in the monthly service. Callers don’t need to wait for someone to answer the phone, because the telephone answers them.  Once answered, they are directed to self-help options or the department or CSR they need.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response)

One of the best features for answering more calls is the Interactive Voice Response (IVR), also called Auto-Attendant. It’s the initial touchpoint that directs callers to a specific extension or offers them options:

“To place an order, press 6” or “To place an immediate order, please visit our website at. . .”

“For technical support, press 7”

“To get answers to our frequently asked questions, press 9” or “Find answers to our frequently asked questions on our website. . .”

“To speak to a customer service representative, please press 4 or stay on the line.”

From there, callers can find what they need or talk to someone directly who can give them the help they need. The callers can input identifying information so the CSR has everything they need when they pick up the call.

Call Routing

Callers hate being transferred, especially if it’s more than once, or to the wrong department. They find themselves waiting too long for someone to answer, on hold, and teammates spend their time transferring them. But getting them to the correct person or department is easy with Call Routing.

Callers hate being transferred, especially if it’s more than once, or to the wrong department.

Automatic call routing is flexible for every company’s needs. Call routing can be individualized for each section or department using different parameters. Routing can be based on a caller’s specific area or country code or individual caller ID, reducing call wait times and call abandonment. From there, each call is answered by a specific department or even individual CSR, depending on their needs. Routing calls can help with all stages of a customer journey.

Callers are routed automatically to the correct staff member or department without needing someone to answer and transfer their call. The calls aren’t disconnected during a transfer, callers reach the right person, and they don’t need to dial a specific extension.

This level of call management means that your teammates can focus on more positive customer interactions and specific assistance instead of answering general and frequently asked questions. With a distributed workforce, your company can offer 24/7 assistance and better customer service.

Other Ways To Avoid Missing Calls

IVR and Call routing can greatly reduce the number of missed calls and voicemails your small business handles daily. But they’re not the only way to avoid missing calls.

Your VoIP phone system can produce call history reports and analytics on your daily call numbers. Use these metrics to determine how many calls your company is missing, and how you can mitigate this issue with additional resources, such as:

• Customer call centers and round-the-clock answering services
• Virtual assistants
• AI phone assistants, aka “bots”
• Including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and other alternate channels for customer assistance, and monitor these channels
• Test everything before implementing

Begin by training your team members on call flow handling, routing options, and IVR menus, and new responsibilities for handling customer calls and contacts. Continue to monitor and gather data on your call volume, feedback from customers, and other metrics to optimize your system to reduce or eliminate missed calls.

VoIP’s advanced system includes a variety of tools to improve your company’s call handling and communications. Is your company ready to upgrade to a VoIP-based telecom system? Contact Press8 Telecom for a free quote. They will answer any questions or concerns you may have while searching for the right solution.