Don’t Greet Your Callers With Phone Drones

 

When people call your business, do you have phone drones answering? If the answer is yes, you should consider a professional, friendly answering service, because phone drones can have a negative impact on your company.

Image of a drone with a phone icon on top

What is a phone drone? No, it’s not actually a drone that flies around answering phones like some mellow version of Terminator where machines have taken over with a bad customer service twist. A phone drone can actually come in a few different forms and none of them do much good for your business.

Phone Drone Type 1: Answering Machine

Voicemail is the original phone drone. Callers who dial a business and end up getting voicemail are always unimpressed. Apparently their call isn’t important enough to even answer. Most folks have been in this position before. They don’t even know if their voicemail will ever be heard, let alone when they can expect a call back. Studies have shown that a majority of people won’t even bother leaving a voicemail for a company. Many will opt to dial the direct competition of that business instead.

Phone Drone Type 2: Automated Answering Systems

“For sales, press 1. For customer service, press two…” We have all been frustrated by a bad auto attendant. Why is there rarely an option to just skip that jungle and speak with a real person? Automated phone systems can be confusing, difficult to navigate, and by the time you finally get a live human on the line to help you out, you’re already fed up and irritated. That’s not the kind of customer service experience businesses should be providing for their callers.

Phone Drone Type 3: A person that might actually pass for a cold, lifeless robot

Sometimes it actually takes a few seconds to distinguish the person you are talking to from Phone Drone Type 2. Answering the phone with a live person is certainly a step in the right direction. However, if that person sounds like they have been programmed to regurgitate a script, isn’t warm and friendly, or brings no helpful value to the conversation, then the business they are answering for is falling short of the target. This type of phone drone can either be an in-house receptionist that is less than enthused with their job or a bad answering service that doesn’t pride themselves on excellent service.

The ability to care is not a skill that a phone drone possesses. We pride ourselves on our enthusiasm for caring about each and every call. Care is the base ingredient for great customer service and that’s a dish we love to serve each time the phone rings. So don’t leave a critical element of your business like customer service to a heartless phone drone. Always opt to answer your calls with a professional, courteous human being!

 

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