As I begin the new year, one question is on my mind and I know it is on the mind of many other business owners: how do I build and grow my business in 2011?
The key to building a successful business is obvious, but somehow often overlooked. To build a successful business you have to talk to your customers. Yes, it’s that simple. Just talk to your customers. But, talking to customers sometimes gets lost in the shuffle amid e-commerce, online advertising, CRM solutions and marketing automation. Thankfully technology is bringing down the cost of voice interactions, a good example is Skype and other internet-based telephone systems. But, the problem remains, how do I talk to my customers more when other areas of my business demand more and more time and attention?
One of the reasons customer interaction gets lost is that not everyone knows just how much can be accomplished over the phone. Let’s walk through a short case study detailing the advantages of managing, measuring and automating voice interactions with your customers.
Let’s say you run a chain of retail appliance stores. Your business advertises in a number of places including newspapers, radio and cable TV. You also spend thousands of dollars on pay-per-click advertising. But still when a customer calls you, you have no idea which ad the customer saw that made them call. Or, which keyword they typed into Google. Or, on which page of your site they were looking at when they decided to call. Help is on its way
Instead of using one telephone number for all offline ads, use unique numbers to track each ad. You can also use unique phone numbers to monitor Web site conversions. Then when a prospect calls you, since a unique telephone number is associated with each ad or campaign, it is straightforward to manage and measure ad efficiency. These unique numbers can be forwarded to anyone inside your business, to a virtual call center of home based workers, or to a traditional call center.
Unique trackable telephone numbers are just the beginning. By using dynamically generated numbers associated with search engine keywords, you can also track a call to a specific keyword and then optimize your PPC spending. What’s more, why not forward the call based on the keyword? If the customer typed “refrigerator” and was directed to your refrigerator Web page, that customer’s call can be forwarded directly to the refrigeration department of the closest store. The caller will hear your store’s greeting that is specific to refrigerators. And, the system will whisper into the sales person’s ear to tell them exactly what the customer was looking for on your site. Your sales person can then answer the phone “North Shore Appliance, this is Bill speaking, I see you were looking at Kenmore refrigerators, how may I help you.” Wow. Now that’s the way to make an impression on a customer.
But, that’s not all. Two days later when it is time to deliver the refrigerator, you can automatically call the customer to verify the delivery time. If the previously agreed time doesn’t work for the customer you can easily give the customer the option to reschedule right then and there or be transferred to a service rep.
And finally, after delivery, once again automatically call your customer with a brief satisfaction survey.
By managing, measuring and automating voice interactions with your customers you can not only give a greater level of service but you can cost effectively build your business, too. While the business used in this story is fictional, the examples in this story are real and in use across the country within all types of businesses. And, while some of the ideas here are about automation calls, each idea actually heightens your connection with your customers making it possible for you to talk to your customers in any place, at any time.
