Category Archives: Customer Service

Boost Customer Satisfaction with Your Virtual Phone

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Your virtual phone system can support your core business priorities, particularly those involving customer satisfaction. One of the primary strengths of small companies is their ability to tailor their service to customers with whom they have personal relationships and knowledge. Leveraging this natural advantage to its fullest becomes increasingly important as global supply chains and the Internet creates more competition in the market. While large companies may have natural advantages in bulk pricing and networks, customers of all shapes and sizes frequently continue to prefer responsive partners and vendors who can provide individualized service. Continue reading →

Identifying Your Small Business Phone and Voicemail Priorities

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The single most important principle to keep in mind when you are ready to invest in any new technology is its strategic importance to your business mission. As business owners, you’ll only want to acquire technology that helps you:

  • Impress your customers;
  • Control your costs; and,
  • Support your longer-term strategic objectives. Continue reading →

Small Law Firm Never Misses a Call

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Ari Law attorneys focus on small business, litigation, intellectual property, contract and defense. Located in the financial district of San Francisco, they serve the entire Bay area as well as numerous other locations, including China.

Ali Aalaei, the Principal of the firm, noticed a discrepancy between the number of calls directed to the firm by a referral agency and the number of calls that the firm was registering. The referral agency indicated that they were missing three to five calls a week. Mr. Aalaei and his colleagues were shocked by the realization that they were losing potential business. This prompted further investigation into the customer experience of a caller to the firm. Continue reading →

Is Your Customer Support Number Impossible to Find?

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Getting in touch with a “real” person at some companies is getting more and more difficult. Numerous companies, particularly those that are primarily web-based such as Microsoft, Google, or Amazon, make it nearly impossible to find a phone number for a customer service line. In part, this transition is due to increased Internet access by consumers. With more customers online, companies have an easier time directing customer service questions to forums or frequently asked question pages. But, is this increasingly popular tactic the right choice for your business?

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Hold Music and the Customer Service Experience

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Researching “On-Hold Music” reveals an extensive amount of information on the topic. It is an entire industry in itself, plus there are numerous opinions, studies, and articles that focus solely on the type of music you should play for customers when you put them on hold.

NPR’s MarketPlace recently featured a segment discussing “What Makes You Happy When Your Call Is Put on Hold?” This piece explored the evolution of the industry and how hold music can impact customer satisfaction.

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WATS – The Origin of the Toll Free Number

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The year was 1967. The Doors released their self-titled debut album, Louis Leaky announced the discovery of pre-human fossils in Kenya, the Vietnam War raged, and NASA launched the first Saturn V rocket into orbit.

It was also the year that AT&T launched the “inward WATS,” or Wide Area Telecommunications Service, better known as “toll-free” telephone service. INWATS was introduced to reduce the time spent by operators processing toll-collect calls for businesses. Back then, long distance calls were expensive and businesses quickly seized the opportunity to use the service to provide superior customer experiences. The oldest and most well-known of the toll-free area codes in the United States, “800,” was the “.com” calling card for successful businesses.

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