The Little Features Of Your Phone System That Make A Big Difference

I just watched Pursuit of Happyness (yes with a "Y") for the second time and although it's the big decisions in Gardner's life that affected his life, it's also the small things in his life, portrayed in his movie, that shaped his life, and those around him.

When you think of your telephone system you think of the big things like "dial tone", or "transferring calls" and "caller ID". These things are important. But what about other things that you might not have thought of such as if callers are on hold too long for someone they are automatically transferred back to the original person they were speaking to. (Customer service boost).

Microsoft's Response Point (telephone system) has recently been upgraded to Service Pack 2 and includes several new features, some you'll readily notice and some you won't. If you have not recently upgraded the software of your phone system you should check with your vendor and see if there are upgrades available.

Maybe there's a feature you've always wanted in your phone system. It could have been included in the newest release.

Business Week's cover story this week was all about the stars of customer service. Customer service is first and foremost about the people in the company who decide to make customer service a priority. However, technology has an important role to play in ensuring that the companies vision of customer service is indeed a reality. Having customers on hold for 30 minutes is NOT showing a customer centric attitude. Not being able to quickly find the status of an order is NOT a customer centric attitude.

Going back to your telephone system. If your business relies on the telephone system for customer interaction, find out the little things (and big things) your phone system should have to ensure each in-coming telephone call is an opportunity to demonstrate great customer service.

tags: custoemr service , microsoft response point , telephone | 3 comments

Comments

#1 posted by Sean Wilder, February 25, 2009 1:09 PM

Great post. The point of these should be to increase customer access to your company and not to place a barrier. For example, many small business owners think that they are giving their customers more of a "personal touch" by having a receptionist answer (and probably screen) every call. I would bet, though, that most callers would prefer to be answered by a menu that easily directs them to the right person without having to deal with an operator, especially if they call that business frequently and have to continuously explain who they are and what they want.

There are several examples where this same technology can also create more of a barrier. For example, if most callers have no idea to whom they need to speak, a live operator is the best choice. In general, it is wise for business owners to understand how his/her customers want to interact with their company before making any big changes.

#2 posted by Tricia, February 26, 2009 10:26 AM

I wasn’t aware that Microsoft's Response Point recently been upgraded to Service Pack 2. Teleconferencing and video conferencing via http://www.24conference.com is another phone product that is good to use.

#3 posted by CJ, February 26, 2009 12:54 PM

Enhanced features can definitely help make a customer service dept run better.But is that all you need to have a great phone system? So what makes a phone system great,is it the features, is it the reliability of it?Who should be paying attention to whether or not service packs are up to date?See blog post at http://phblog6.notlong.com