Picture this: Business is booming and your company is welcoming a heavy inflow of phone calls. Unfortunately, your separate phone lines are constantly engaged and thus, customers cannot communicate with your agents. In this scenario, you may be potentially encouraging your consumers to trust your competitors instead. How can the matter be rectified?
It’s as simple as a single phone number. Switch to a virtual mobile number to better manage the calls received by your agents. By enabling call transfers, remote working and performance monitoring, you can enhance sales, productivity and consumer experience.
What is a virtual phone number?
Before discussing how a virtual mobile number is beneficial for your sales and customer support departments, we must understand what the technology entails.
A virtual number is essentially one that is not limited to a particular device. Also known as Direct Inward Dialling or DID, it is an internet-based telephone system that allows the company to route the phone number to multiple devices. This means any call can be received by different agents or departments. Additionally, you now have a unique contact to provide to your customers, avoiding any confusion and streamlining the process.
A virtual number also shows professionalism and creates a single and easy path to communicate with the representative of your business. There are many features that accompany the employment of a virtual phone number:
Features of virtual phone numbers
Companies that employ this calling system are empowered to conduct various operations beyond the capabilities of a traditional phone line:
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- No hardware: Traditional telephones are set up using power lines from the service providers to the user device. This increases an organisation’s cost on tangible infrastructure. A virtual phone number is beneficial as it eliminates the need for the same by using cloud services for its operations. All you require are an internet connection and a device to host calls.
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- Assorted numbers: Companies lose opportunities to connect with their users when hundreds of calls clog their distinct phone numbers. Virtual numbers allow you to purchase multiple extensions for diverse departments. You can market a unique number to avoid confusion amongst the masses.
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- Rerouting calls: You can divert a call to a preferred agent by using IVR (Interactive Voice Response) along with your virtual phone number. This allows for first-point conflict resolution. Make your consumer happy while showing that you care.
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- Procuring local area numbers: Showcase a local number in areas with a concentrated consumer base. This builds trust and enables effortless communication with your business. Additionally, you avoid the requirement of buying office space in multiple geographic areas. Virtual phone number allows you to centralise your work operations to limited workspaces.
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- Call recording: There is no provision for the management of calls in conventional communication structures. Fortunately, you can use cloud telephony to enforce call recording settings. You can keep track of individual performances of your employees—an undeniable advantage during appraisals and for maintaining accountability.
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- Call Monitoring: There is no provision for the management of calls in conventional communication structures. Fortunately, you can monitor all your communication lines on a web admin portal on a system that utilises the internet. You can keep track of individual performances of your employees—an undeniable advantage during appraisals and for maintaining accountability.
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- Toll-free number: Toll-free numbers have been known to be effective, catchy and convenient. Attach a toll-free number to your virtual phone number and ease the process of communication for your customers. The same can be added to promotional campaigns with a memorable jingle to create recall value.
How to use virtual numbers in sales and customer support?
One could easily argue for the installation of virtual phone numbers by an organisation. However, can the same be employed in the sales and support department for better results?
Following are ways whereby a company can strengthen its sales and support staff with a virtual number.
Track progress of marketing campaigns
Consumers are made aware of fresh products and updates through advertising and marketing efforts. They constitute a vital portion of sales forces. However, different strings of marketing can be hard to track with no established programme. So, how can you determine the success of a promotional endeavour with no help of a third-party?
When you purchase a virtual phone number, you can also buy various extensions for different agents or departments. You can allot certain extensions to individual marketing campaigns and evaluate the responses and feedback for each. This will save you money and effort otherwise spent on outsourcing. You can use this information to invest or pull back from a campaign according to the success rate. You can also understand the patterns of customer demand by analysing the data you gather.
Improve customer satisfaction
Effective customer support ensures repeat orders and a superior brand image, which eventually will lead to higher sales.
Every consumer you have is a potential query you might receive. To appease your user base, you must ensure that everyone feels heard. With classic call settings, you might lose their attention on account of busy phone lines. However, with a virtual phone number, you could queue devices so as to connect each call to numerous agents. By doing so, available agents can make use of their time while simultaneously freeing up those who are busy. Constant reception also shapes trust in your consumers.
By using IVR Integration, you can ensure that each caller is guided to the best-suited department. This avoids unnecessarily reroutes that might annoy a caller and solves queries quickly, promising a delighted customer.
Ensure better quality connectivity
Nobody wishes to be on a call with bad reception. It wastes time and also leaves a bitter taste of the communication. Several external forces can deter the quality of calls on the telephone. However, no such issue is required to be addressed on the internet. Virtual calls are not subject to any physical forces, and thus are more likely to enable better quality communication.
Your customers will be pleased, hot having to repeat themselves or face consistent interruptions. Seamless connection lets you address them without wasting time on both fronts.
Do not forget: a bad support experience is a lot more memorable than a satisfactory one.
Evaluate employee performance
A drop of water is enough to create a ripple effect through the ocean—the same can be said about a business. Every individual effort is responsible for the larger success of an organisation. Hence, each employee must contribute towards their target.
With a virtual phone number, you can observe the performance of each employee using the call tracking dashboard. You can also make use of call recordings for the same. The surveillance acts as a tri-forked operation: your workers are more vigilant under notice, you can analyse and delegate accountability where required, an award system can be implemented to boost employee morale. With the improved work ethic and increased efficiency, you can cater to your audience better as well as reach sales targets.
Ensure convenient remote working
The events of 2020 have boosted the trend of work from home or remote working. It has been a rather challenging shift for many companies on account of dependence on hardware. A virtual number, however, is not tied to any particular device. This means that you can rearrange the destinations of communication lines yourself. The setup is extremely convenient, considering no infrastructure is required to be relocated.
You can hire people based on expertise with no geographic restrictions. This also allows for work on-the-go. Travelling employees can still clock in hours of work. Increased productivity and widespread communication are easily achieved.
Conclusion
Sales and support services go hand in hand in an organisation. Better customer service eventually leads to a higher sell-through rate. Hence, you must ensure an unparalleled customer experience. Virtual phone numbers allow you to streamline your communication services and save time for both, you and your customer. First-point resolution and better distribution of calls will enhance customer satisfaction, eliminating long wait times and unnecessary back and forth.
Ensure an unbeatable sales and support force for the success of your organisation. To get a virtual number for your business contact us at 1800-120-4132 today.
