Poor Caller Experiences Costs Money and Lost Customers

For more than a decade, we’ve heard the phrase that content is king. While this is an accurate statement, the reality is that in today’s modern business era the “customer experience” is actually the new king, in the “telephone customer experience.”

In fact, research carried out by New Voice Media, a global leader in enterprise-class cloud communications technology reveals very compelling consequences of poor customer service in the U.S.  “Each year U.S companies lose an estimated $41 billion dollars due to bad customer experiences.”

The customer’s perception of you and your organization is formed immediately upon calling your business. And, if your telephone customer experience isn’t up to par, then you’re wasting advertising spend, and losing sales — a double whammy in which no business can afford!

While marketers are focused on creative marketing techniques and engaging content to drum up more business, as we covered in a previous blog post digital marketing is driving more inbound sales calls. This would seem like great news, but what’s not so great news is that generally, people have little tolerance for poor customer service, and they will gladly take their business elsewhere.

Here’s a few eye-popping statistics that may surprise you about your inbound calls.

• 70% of all business calls are placed on hold ( AT&T)  
• 60% of customers will hang up after waiting on hold for less than one minute ( Velaro)
• 34% of callers who hang-up, won’t call back ( Kismetrics)
• 94% of all marketing budgets are spent on inducing a customer to call, while only 6% is spent on handling the call once it is received (Inbound/Outbound Call Center)

With today’s sales cycle being so competitive, companies are spending small fortunes getting customers interested in calling their business, but they often times fall short on the importance of the caller experience, and its impact.  There is however a time-tested, proven strategy for improving the caller experience – telephone on hold messaging.

Here are some of the statistics and benefits of an effective on hold strategy:

• 88% of callers preferred on-hold messages to other hold options. (Maxi-Marketing)
• Callers stay on the line up to 25% longer when provided with On Hold Messaging versus “dead air” or “background music (InfoMax Group)
• 20% of callers make a purchase based on an on-hold offer. (Inbound Tele-Center)
• Callers presented with messages on hold are less agitatedwhen having to wait. (Jefferson Denneandrus Research Firm)

Many businesses do not pay enough attention to the telephone customer experience, and the impact it has on their bottom line. Not long ago we conducted an “Undercover Boss” style telephone customer experience test with several business owners in which they were completely shocked at the results.

In the modern business era, firms that concentrate on providing an exceptional customer service do well, so you cannot afford to have anything less than a great telephone customer experience.