Daily Business Bite

How much is a call potentially worth to your business? If you run a retail business could it be a £75 basket of designer clothing, or could it be a larger business to business order? The call may not even have a monetary cost but it may have customer service values… the key is not to miss that call. Either you want to take the order, address the issue and maintain the high standards of business you strive to achieve in every other area.

Business realities however mean that there are probably times when you or someone else will not be able to answer the phone and that is when you need to start considering the value of the missed calls. If the business begins to see a significant value being missed in these calls then The Daily Business Bite would recommend you look into a phone answering service. Professional telephone answering services mean that you can redirect calls that you cannot answer to a personal PA within the UK who can take a message, deal with an order or begin the process of addressing a customer service issue by ensuring that the customer is spoken to, reassured and the message passed on promptly.

There are specialist call answering services operating in the UK who can provide your business with this piece of mind and we are sure that call answering services will soon provide a suitable ROI to support their investment.

Here are The Daily Business Bite’s quick top tips to look for when selecting a call answering service provider:

• UK based – pick a company based in the UK who can provide a professional and courteous service
• Clarify how the provider will relay the missed messages to you – speed can be critical
• Look for a provider who can offer more – as your business grows you may want to invest further in additional telephone lines, mailing addresses or even virtual office, having one company who can provide that will be a benefit
• Read their testimonials and search online for reviews – take these with a pinch of salt but good feedback online should be looked for

Those of us, who are in hospitality business, have to make a lot of choices and tough decisions. We deal with people’s pleasure, not basic needs. We have to convince them to pay huge bills and have to do it by satisfying them. We have to create an image loyal enough to pull customer time and again to avail our service. But sometimes we lose it all just by not deciding to do the right thing. For example, if you are a person who enters a restaurant to use the washroom and when you ask where the wash room is, you are said that it’s only for the customers, are you ever going to go back to that place? NO, you are not. I will tell you what you will do. You will come back home and tell your friends how unfriendly that restaurant is. Not allowing you to use the washroom was not a critical executive decision but it still cost them some business. If they could have done the opposite, you would have definitely dined there sooner or later. These types of small things separate great hospitality business from bad ones.

If it is a restaurant, hand your customers something complementary. It’s not necessary that it has to be expensive, but maintain a standard. Give them a nice postcard with a view of your property. Make them feel welcomed. They will surely go home and share the pleasant experience and the post card with friends, family and neighbours. it is serving you 3 purposes. First, you gain these customers loyalty and they are likely to visit your restaurant regularly. Second, they will spread the word of mouth and your company gets marketing worth thousands of dollars at the cost of a post card. You are likely to have more customers without having to do anything. Third, you will have a company that has got a good will and reputation growing rapidly. I guess a post card is worth all of it.

Go in front of your building and take a few snap shots. Keep it as the wallpaper in your desktop. Pay attention and see how your property looks. This is how your customers see it every day. Is your driveway too clumsy? Is the building too old or looks tired or faded? If yes then make it look good. After all, it is our business depends on customer’s satisfaction. Ensure all these and you are likely to have a great season ahead of you.