How the Telephone Customer Experience Impacts Business

If you’ve ever wondered whether or not the caller experience is important or not, it’s no longer even a question of whether it’s important or not — we know it is! Especially in today’s “not-so-new normal” business life due to COVID-19, in fact the telephone customer experience has become well frankly, the new business battlefield.

That’s right businesses are fighting to win or lose customers in the trenches of the telephone customer experience (aka the caller experience). In commerce, “customer experience” is the product of an interaction between an organization and a customer over the duration of their relationship. This interaction is made up of three parts: the customer journey, the brand touchpoints the customer interacts with, and the environments the customer experiences during their experience.

A good customer experience means that the individual’s experience during all points of contact matches the individual’s expectations. Are you providing a consistent experience across all channels, both online and offline?

If you haven’t upgraded the telephone customer experience with professional automated attendant recordings, and engaging on hold messaging, then the answer is a resounding “NO”… 

Why the caller experience needs to be a priority!

Did you know that the average business places a staggering 70% of all callers on hold? Better yet, did you know that when placed on hold with silence or canned music, the average caller hangs-up in less than a minute, of which nearly 40% of those callers will never call you back. This is also known as caller abandonment.

On the flip side, studies show that when companies implement the necessary tools to enhance the caller experience such as professional on hold messaging for their callers that; callers will wait up to 3 minutes longer for you to serve them. Better yet, a survey by Call Center Metrics shows that most businesses experience an increase in sales of nearly 30% of those items mentioned in an on hold ad.

How you feel after an interaction with a customer service center has a huge impact on your future purchase decisions. A good interaction keeps you happy and satisfied, while a poor interaction could lead to you stop doing business with that company again.

Caller frustration will lead to churn.

A bad caller experience can do serious damage to your brand! Customer expectations are at an all-time high and it’s a tough time for companies to meet and exceed them. Even if you provide a positive customer experience 9 out of 10 times, that one time you do not could be fatal. Unhappy callers will immediately take to social media, and even websites like #onholdwith to announce their displeasure.

When companies overlook the caller experience, there is a huge gap in this critical customer touchpoint that needs to be taken seriously. As noted above, unhappy callers will hang-up in under a minute. Now not only have you lost a potential sale, but you’ve also just wasted valuable marketing spend to generate that call in the first place. Lost calls, lost sales, lost customer, lost marketing spend — none of these are good for business!

The most common factors that lead to abandoned calls are lengthy wait times and unnecessary hold times. An inefficient IVR system may also cause callers to abandon the queue.

Final Thoughts…

With 9 out of 10 businesses competing mainly on customer experience, it’s the organizations that take customer experience seriously that will stand out from the noise and win loyal customers over.

One thing is for sure, in order to deliver a positive experience, you have to have all your customer touchpoints covered, especially the caller experience with the surge of inbound calls due to COVID-19.

If you make sure their interaction with your company is smooth, pleasant and continuously improving, you will drive brand loyalty. If not, you frustrate them, and you’ll give your competitors the best gift you can – your customers.

Are you ready to enhance the caller experience at your brand? Still not convinced that you need to provide a better caller experience? Contact Original On Hold today

Why not take is a test spin and see our creative juices first hand with our 100% risk-free custom on hold demo trial offer.