Understandably, you always want someone to be available when a customer calls. This is one of the crucial components of exceptional customer service which, according to 60% of customers, is vital to building trust. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible and it could happen that some calls fall between the cracks.
To prevent this, you can use an automated phone system. These systems can answer your business’s phone when a customer calls and even provide them with the information they need. And this all happens without the input of any of your employees.
But what is an automated phone system and how do they work? More importantly, what are some of the benefits of using one for your business? In the post, we’ll look at these questions a bit closer.
What is an Automated Phone System?
As the name implies, an automated phone system is a telephone system that can interact with callers automatically. As such, it can place or answer calls without any human input or interaction.
Types of Automated Phone Systems
There are three types of automated phone systems you can use depending on your needs and requirements. Let’s look at these in more detail.
Outbound Automated Phone Systems
Outbound automated phone systems place automated calls to human recipients. The main aim of these calls is to deliver a recorded message to the recipient or to connect the recipient with one of your employees.
Inbound Automated Phone Systems
Conversely, inbound automated phone systems answer calls from human callers. These systems can then either provide the caller with the specific information the caller needs or connect the caller with an employee.
Hybrid Automated Phone Systems
Hybrid automated phone systems combine the features of both inbound and outbound systems into one system. As such, these systems can make calls to recipients and receive calls from callers.
How Does an Automated Phone System Work?
An inbound automated phone system answers calls using your business’s existing phone number. They then typically play a recorded greeting message which can be tailored to your specific requirements.
The system will then ask the caller to choose an option from a menu by pressing a key on their phone or saying which option they choose. Depending on their response, the system will provide them with the information they need, route them to another menu, or connect them with one of your employees.
In contrast, outbound systems use a bank of phone lines to make bulk phone calls to several recipients. Once a recipient answers the call, the system will play a pre-recorded message or, depending on the specific use case, connect the recipient to an employee.
Benefits of Using Automated Phone Systems
Considering the capabilities mentioned above, it’s easy to see why automated phone systems can have several benefits for your business. Let’s look at some of these in more detail.
Give Information Quickly
Customers often want information but don’t necessarily need to speak to an agent. In these cases, an automated phone system is invaluable because it can give these customers the information they need quickly and efficiently. In turn, this allows you to serve your customers better which directly translates to improved customer relationships and the ability to generate more revenue.
Save on Manpower
One of the main benefits of an automated phone system is that you don’t have to hire more people to answer calls from customers. You’ll also be able to configure the system to provide the information customers often want. As a result, you’ll also be able to free up the time of your other employees who need to deal with these queries. Ultimately, this leads to a significant saving on labor costs.
24/7 Attendant
What do you do when your receptionist is not available? You could either train other employees to answer your phones in between their other work or you could hire temporary help. With an automated phone system, however, this won’t be necessary.
This is because you’ll have access to an auto-attendant feature that will answer customers’ calls at any time of the day, even when no one is at the office. This feature is invaluable as more than 50% of customers still use phones to reach out to businesses for customer service calls.
Professional Call Handling
When you use an automated phone system for your business, you can set it up specifically based on your needs and requirements. You’ll also be in complete control of the recorded message that greets customers when they call. Considering these aspects, your business’s phone is answered quickly and professionally which improves the customer experience.
Easy to Integrate With Other Systems
You’ll be able to integrate an automated phone system with many of the other systems your business already uses. These include, for example, communication platforms and customer relationship management solutions. The result is that you’ll be able to serve your customers better and more efficiently which improves the customer journey.
How to Setup an Automated Phone System
How you set up your automated phone system depends on your business’s specific needs. For example, if you only need to answer customer calls and divert them to the right team member, you can basically use the phone system as a digital receptionist.
Conversely, if you want to provide your customers with more valuable information and help them solve their problems, you can set up a menu system that will help customers get the information they need when they need it.
Final Thoughts on Automated Phone Systems
To provide your customers with a stellar customer experience, you must use an automated phone service that can help you manage your business’s communications and make it more efficient.
When you want to implement an automated phone system in your business that offers the features mentioned above, get in touch with ULTATEL. Our Cloud Contact Center solution has everything you need for your customer call management processes. And with its competitive pricing, you’ll end up saving costs too. To learn more about ULTATEL and how our products can help you, schedule a demo today.
