Delivering a consistent experience for your customers is one of the foundations of good retail marketing. For better or worse, customers know what to expect when they shop at Walmart, order McDonald’s or buy the latest Apple iPhone. One key reason for the success of each of these organizations is they have a carefully cultivated reputation that is reinforced every step of the way.
Likewise, smaller companies struggle to compete in part because they are an unknown next to these certainties. What can be done to build a big-business’s visibility and reputation on a startup’s budget? First, it’s important to know some of the main things customers look for:
- Stability: No one wants to buy something from a company that won’t be around for the long haul. When you visit a store that is poorly maintained, understaffed or unprofessional, it’s not exactly a vote of confidence for that organization’s ongoing success.
- Expertise: When making a purchase, customers want answers to their questions. You wouldn’t buy a car from someone who couldn’t point out the key differences between two similar models — why should a lesser purchase be any different?
- Availability: Above all, customers want convenience. Establishing a presence in local markets is one of the best ways to grow your business’s visibility and stay competitive with the big box stores.
How a Professional Phone System Can Help
The phone is just one of many ways businesses and their customers can communicate. While phones may seem increasingly irrelevant in a time of email and text messaging, smart and successful businesses realize phone service plays a large role in how their organization is perceived.
The good news for smaller organizations with limited resources is a phone system upgrade is a cost-effective way to appear more professional on a budget. Some of the ways an AccessDirect business phone system can help level the playing field with your larger competition include:
- Connecting incoming callers to the people who can help most. When customers are routed to the correct person, they can get answers to their questions faster, which makes your organization look more professional. One of the key advantages of being a small business is your ability to offer this kind of personalized service — by making the most of it with a sophisticated phone system, you automatically make yourself more competitive against larger organizations.
- Making your organization look bigger than it really is. A professional phone answering service not only directs incoming calls more effectively, it also makes callers feel as though they are contacting an established business, with multiple departments and a large staff — even if you’re just a small team working out of a garage.
- Establishing a virtual presence in local markets. A customized toll-free number means any client can reach you, free of charge — an important consideration when trying to expand into new territories. Alternately, we can set up local numbers in other markets so that potential customers think they are dealing with a company in their neighborhood.
Impress Customers With Your Professionalism
Clearly, the right phone system can go a long way toward establishing your business’s visibility as stable, knowledgeable and available to respond to your customers’ needs. When calling your office is simple and seamless, it instantly makes you look more professional and more reliable.
You’ve worked hard to develop a product or service that delivers exceptional value for your customers. You’ve refined your processes to offer better customer service and a better overall experience. Don’t let a cumbersome, unprofessional phone system ruin that goodwill. To learn more about AccessDirect’s business phone products, contact our office today.