While voicemail was once a groundbreaking means of communication and contact, it is no longer the preferred method for most customers today. Your business’s customers have far more options today than ever before, which has caused voicemail to fall behind as an underwhelming and inefficient contact method.
If you currently rely on in-house voicemail to keep on top of customer inquiries and service requests, consider upgrading to an outsourced contact center. A contact center can keep your customers engaged and satisfied with flexible, personable, and modern solutions while saving your business money and time.
Today’s Customers Want Quick Results
Voicemail cannot provide the instant response times that today’s customers want. In fact, many customers do not leave voicemails if their phone calls go unanswered. This is because confidence in voicemail communication is dropping steadily. Customers do not know when their voicemail is going to be heard.
Many companies listen to voicemails at the end of the business day, meaning the customer’s voicemail may go unheard with no response for several hours. Often, customers’ voicemails are not met with a sense of urgency, which can reduce your business’s customer satisfaction scores.
Today’s customers want instant communication and results. Each individual customer wants to feel as though their issue is as important to the company they are calling as it is to them.
For small business owners, it is often impossible to dedicate manpower solely to answering phones and returning customer calls. Outsourcing to a contact center ensures your customers’ calls will be answered by well-trained, highly professional contact center agents who can work to boost your customer service scores.
Voicemail Is an Inefficient Means of Communication
Voicemails can go unheard for unknown periods of time. While most companies want to return calls as soon as possible, many unforeseen circumstances can often get in the way.
If an employee is out of the office unexpectedly, their personal voicemail might go unchecked. If an office experiences an unusually high call volume, voicemails might pile up more quickly than staff can return them.
Additionally, leaving voicemails can lead to back and forth missed calls, where customers and businesses fail to reach one another. Certain generations dislike talking on the phone at all. So, after enough failed contact attempts, a millennial customer might simply give up and move on with an unsatisfied impression.
At a contact center, highly trained agents are available to answer the phone calls coming in, even when there is a high call volume. In turn, there are fewer instances of calls rolling over to voicemail.
Customers Prefer Human Interaction
A common issue with voicemail is that important information is often lost. Speaking to a voicemailbox is very different than speaking to a real person. This can lead to common issues with voicemail messages:
- A caller can forget to leave their name or callback number.
- A caller can ramble, requiring the listener to listen multiple times.
- A caller can leave an unclear message, confusing the listener.
When a customer calls and speaks to a real person, like an experienced call center agent, the agent can ask all the right questions to gather pertinent information at the front end of the call.
Customers Prefer Other Options
Today, customers have more options than ever for communication. Customers are no longer tied down to ineffective voicemail when they can use any of the following:
- Live chat
- SMS text messaging
- Social media
With an omnichannel approach, businesses can fulfill their customers’ needs in new ways that appeal to a wider range of audiences. Consider outsourcing your customer service needs to a contact center that can handle all of these contact channels seamlessly, improving customer support through preferred contact methods.
About Ansafone Contact Centers
Ansafone Contact Centers is an award-winning BPO provider with 50 years of world-class customer experience and brand care. We are a national call center with omnichannel services, fully equipped to help you with your business and with any special circumstances.
Please request a quote or call 800-510-0514 to learn more about our custom solutions for creating exceptional customer service experiences for your clients. We’re happy to offer insight into what your customers seek from your company’s language offerings and tailored customer solutions.
