Whether your company is big or small, you know the importance of answering all calls promptly, courteously. That’s where an auto attendant can help.
Your business probably started from day one with a telephone number. But the time eventually comes when just one number isn’t enough to handle all of your callers. You’re growing internally, and the number of people trying to reach your people is rising too. That means it’s time to think about using an auto attendant.
What is Auto Attendant?
A typical feature of many business phone system solutions today, auto attendant is the equivalent of a digital receptionist. Your business can use pre-scripted menus or customize its own phone trees to help callers navigate to the right party in your business with the press of a button.
Before one of your human employees is distracted from the work they are doing, the call is answered first by the auto attendant which can screen calls to connect them to the correct extension. For callers, this streamlines the experience and can enhance satisfaction. For your employees, it encourages continued productivity by efficiently letting the caller navigate services without human help. While that probably already sounds good, consider these added advantages of the auto attendant feature.
5 Benefits of Auto Attendant Feature
Immediacy.
Humans hate to wait. They want their questions answered or issues addressed right away. But your business is busy, right? Your people are regularly juggling a queue of callers. If they had to answer every call immediately, no one could actually finish a conversation! Auto attendant guarantees quick, efficient, courteous answers to every caller.
Cost savings.
Instead of hiring a full-time receptionist, you’re using an automated feature that comes as part of the phone system solution you are already paying for. Plus, without the need to hire, train, and retain a receptionist you are saving on the cost of benefits and the time expended recruiting and onboarding the right individual to represent your brand.
Always available.
In our increasingly globalized society, businesses can’t afford to only be available from 9-5 in their own time zone. Rather than having to hire round-the-clock human representation for your brand, the auto attendant is always available. Even when you’re out of the office, it can be programmed to cater to prospects and clients when they want, wherever they are. Uninhibited by borders on a map or time zones, the auto attendant can properly route calls at any time of the day (or night) 7 days a week.
67% of customers have hung up the phone out of frustration they could not talk to a real person. — American Express
Consistently professional.
Your business typically controls all elements of its auto attendant. Your team can decide the welcome message, the outgoing greetings, the attendant’s voice style, the options available to callers, and even customize these for particular times of year or disaster situations. No matter what, your auto attendant isn’t going to suffer from a bad day or get distracted by the recent news of its sister’s divorce.
Integrates with other applications.
Since your business has developed to a point at which it has more than one phone line and email and may even be dealing with global clientele, we can bet you’re also relying on business-related third-party apps. For instance, your sales team might rely on customer relationship management (CRM) system to consolidate its data about customers, leads, and prospects. Most auto attendant technology will integrate securely with a CRM to further enhance your customer relationship building from the first contact.
We recommend reading our blog about the differences between Auto Attendant and Interactive Voice Response before making your final decision. Evolve IP’s Unified Communications as a Service solutions can dramatically increase your productivity and enhance your customers’ experiences. Talk with one of our business phone system experts today!
