Business Telephone Etiquette: 7 simple rules to follow

Business Telephone Etiquette helps you make the right first impression.  That’s important. Because you only get one chance.
Doing it right is easy.  Undoing a bad impression can be nearly impossible.  So here’s a way to keep from sabotaging your business.

Etiquette gets a bad name.  It’s from your Grandmother’s generation, right?
Actually etiquette is just the way you treat people.  In business that’s important if you want to succeed.

Most marketing today may begin on the Internet, but it doesn’t usually end there.  For sales that are more complex than picking the lowest price for Earbuds on Amazon or a six pack of beer in a supermarket you interact with the customer, and a phone call is often the first step. That’s why…

Business Telephone Etiquette starts when the phone rings

AT&T actually used to offer free classes on business telephone use.  They gave you simple suggestions like:

• Answer every call by the third ring
• Pay attention to your caller, not other distractions
• Smile when you answer the phone: your caller can actually hear it! Try putting a small mirror behind your phone so you can see your expression
• Answer every call the same way
  • Say the name of the business
  • Be brief and to the point
  • Speak clearly. Never eat, chew gum, or drink while answering
• Listen to the caller: ask for any needed information and remember it or write it down the first time. Have a notepad and pen at hand.  Don’t make the caller repeat their information if possible.
• Help the caller right away, or transfer the call to the right person. Don’t make the caller responsible for trying to find their way around your organization.
• Don’t be afraid to place a call on hold: if you need information or to find the right person, ask the caller is you may place them on hold. But don’t abandon them there!

Business Telephone Etiquette shouldn’t be taken for granted

These telephone answering rules may seem simple, but think about how businesses answer your calls.  How many times have you called a business to be answered with “hello?”  Or answered by a person engaged in a conversation with someone else?  Or asked to speak with a specific party and be asked “who?”

Business Telephone Etiquette can make a difference.

You know when you call a professional organization, and can hear the professional approach the take right from the start.  Consider how you’d like your customers and prospects to think about your business, and model yourself after others that impress you most.

How’s the business telephone etiquette at your office?

It’s easy to figure out: just dial your business and see how many (or few) of those simple rules your organization follows.  Because good business etiquette is good business.

And when you do place an caller on hold, sound more professional with Informer Messages on hold.  Find out more about Informer Messages by clicking here.

The post Business Telephone Etiquette: 7 simple rules to follow appeared first on Informer Messages on hold.

Groupon Advertising doesn’t just mean selling at a loss

Groupon Advertising offers consumers “really great deals” every day with discounts of at least 50%, and sometimes up to 90%.    Then you pay a 50% commission on the deals you sell to the company, leaving you as little as 5% of your original price.  Discounts like these eat up your profit, and often end up costing you money to sell.

It’s a classic “loss leader” strategy: tempt consumers to notice you, and to come into your business to get a deal, and then buy more from you at a full price.  Does it work?

Groupon Advertising reaches customers

That much is true.  Every day the company sends deep discount offers to their list of over 10 million people.  That means that you can gain huge exposure.  But Groupon’s own published research shows that 83% of Grouponers never purchase anything from you again after your promotion.

Why doesn’t Loss-Leader Advertising build future business?

Most businesses who try this discounted coupon marketing don’t have a plan for long term success with their bargain hunting customers.  They simply “hope” that these new customers will return for additional sales.  Failing to plan means planning to fail.

There are proven strategies for making your discount deal more profitable.  Here are just a few:

1. Educate your customer about more of your (full priced) products and services.  The best ways are with
   1. For retailers: Point of Purchase Advertising, End Cap Displays, and stocking deal items with other products customers usually buy with them (eg milk and cookies)
   2. If your customers call you for a reservation or appointment, use marketing messages on hold to give them information about additional products and services, the value you offer, and how you help them best.
2. If you offer a service: turn your “deal” into a repeat purchase: don’t just offer one spa treatment or one physical training visit.  Make it two visits to your business: bringing your new customer back for a second visit gives you an additional opportunity for “add-on” sales, or up-sell opportunities
3. Try deals that usually are paired with additional sales: sell two for one burgers, knowing that most customers add on fries or a soda.  Don’t forget to coach employees to up-sell.  McDonald’s does it perfectly with “Want Fries with That?”

Groupon Advertising: does it work?

It’s a good question, and one that you should really consider before jumping in.  If you have a solid plan to sell a product or service that usually leads to “add on” sales, if you prepare your employees with “suggestive selling” training, and use the opportunity with new customers to promote additional sales with POP Advertising, product displays, and marketing messages on hold, it might.

Want to talk about it?  Call to schedule your free 15-minute Strategy Session and let’s come up with ideas you can use today.  Call (800) 862-8896 today.

 

 

The post Groupon Advertising doesn’t just mean selling at a loss appeared first on Informer Messages on hold.

VTech Phone Plays Messages on hold so you sound more professional

VTech phone designers have finally done it. The model CM 18445 you gives you the ability to sound like a Fortune 500 business: you can now play messages on hold on a 4 line phone.  This feature used to only be available on expensive PBX phone systems, or by switching to Hosted VoIP phone systems.  That makes this phone a game changer.  So what can you do with it?

VTech phone feature

Successful big businesses look and sound that way because they spend more on their marketing.  To survive, small and medium sized businesses (SMB) need to “up their game.”  Forbes magazine says that even startups can appear professional with a few simple steps:

1. Have a professional website: it doesn’t have to be extensive. A few professionally
   designed pages will do.  My wife set up her business with a 2 page website, but it
   shows her clients everything that they want to see.
2. Have a professional email address: don’t use Gmail. Use your website domain’s URL
3. Have a business phone number: don’t use your home phone number. Don’t let your kids answer the phone.

How the VTech Phone helps you succeed

Your customer judges you on everything you do.  New Yorkers only want the best.  One “false step” and you’ll blow it.  Why should a customer choose you if you don’t look and sound like their best choice if their Google search shows them 12,695,000 other choices?  The CM18445 gives you the option to record a custom Automated Attendant Greeting.  That’s the recorded greeting that answers your phone.  If you’re not going to have a “live” operator answer your phone, the second best choice is a professionally recorded greeting.  It just sounds better.

VTech Phone Messages on hold

But the V Tech phone lets you do more…much more.  Although it comes with “default” music on hold, this hold music can be changed, and replaced with custom hold messages.  That can be a game changer.

On hold advertising with Informer Messages in New York gives you the chance to sound more professional and sell more on every phone call.  A professional on hold script will let you

• tell callers about what you do, and how you do it.
• educate customers about your products and services
• show how you’re different from your competition
• hit your customers’ “hot buttons” and focus on their problems and needs

This inexpensive 4-line phone can help you sound like a Fortune 500 marketer.
What do your callers hear when they’re on hold?  Canned music?  Dead silence?  Turn every opportunity into a marketing opportunity, even when #holdhappens.

Interested in VTech Phone Messages for business?

Get the facts, and find out how they’ve worked for other businesses in your industry.  Call for your Free 15-Minute Discovery Session, and get ideas you can use.  Call (800) 862-8896.  In New York, call our headquarters at 212-355-6980.  In Connecticut call 203-655-3920.   Or click here to schedule your free consultation.

The VTech Phone works in businesses that want to sound more professional in Manhattan, Queens, The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten Island.  In Connecticut in Stamford, Hartford, Danbury, Bridgeport, West Haven, and Greenwich.  And wherever you are.

The post VTech Phone Plays Messages on hold so you sound more professional appeared first on Informer Messages on hold.

Grasshopper VoIP Phones Can Sound More Professional

Yealink T42 phone in White Plains uses Informer Messages on hold

Grasshopper Phone: the best way to make it a marketing tool

VTech CM18445 feature that your business needs to succeed

The VTech CM18445 has a secret feature.  Sure, it’s an inexpensive 4-line phone with lots of bells and whistles: it lets you answer calls with an automated attendant greeting, voice mail, and it can use cordless phones.  But the VTech phone has a feature that will help your business sound more professional.

VTech CM18445 can play a professional Greeting and Messages on hold

Call any big company and you’ll probably be answered by a recorded “Auto Attendant” greeting.  Why?  Because your call is answered promptly, and they always sound professional.   Big companies get lots of phone calls, so callers frequently have to wait (“in a queue”) for “the next available representative.”  It can be frustrating, but it’s a fact of life.

What do you hear while waiting?  Professional Messages on hold.  They tell you about news about the company, and about their most profitable products and services.  Statistics show that these marketing messages are highly effective:

• Callers listening to information on hold will continue to wait in a queue twice as long before hanging up (US West Communications)
• Over 85% of callers prefer on hold messages over silence (Cellular Marketing Magazine)
• 1 in 5 callers make a purchase or decision based on information they ear on hold (Telemarketing Magazine Survey)

Your callers don’t want to sit in dead silence.  They want help.

The VTech CM18445 helps you succeed

In the past only “big business” PBX phone systems offered “Automated Greetings” and could play messages on hold.  Then came VoIP phones that included this feature.  But the CM18445 is the only 4-line phone on the market that offers this feature.

Tell me more about how it will work for me!

Playing Messages on hold on the VTech CM18445

Loading greetings and on hold messages onto your Tech Phone is easy.  Step by step instructions take about 5 minutes to get you up and running, and sound more professional.  When you do

• every caller will be greeted promptly and professionally
• every caller in the queue, or placed on hold, will learn more about your business and how you can help them better
• every caller will know that you’re the best choice to help them.

Considering the VTech CM 18445?

Right now your callers probably sit in “dead silence” on hold.  Turn every opportunity into a marketing opportunity, even when #holdhappens.  Call for a Free 15-Minute Discovery Session, and get ideas you can use to sound more professional and accomplish more on every phone call.  Call (800) 862-8896.  In New York, call our headquarters at 212-355-6980.  In Connecticut call 203-655-3920. Or click here to schedule your help session.

The post VTech CM18445 feature that your business needs to succeed appeared first on Informer Messages on hold.