How useful is my phone in the online age? You might ask. It’s a lot more useful than you may think. Driving calls instead of clicks is a smart marketing and customer support strategy. Studies have shown that compared to clicks or forms, phone calls win when it comes to conversion rates. From a customer’s perspective, nothing is more frustrating than not being able to get your business on the phone when they have a service issue.
How you attract and manage your inbound phone calls should be an essential part of your marketing, sales and customer support strategies. Here are some ways to make the most out of your inbound phone calls.
Choose the right type of phone number
Using your mobile number as your primary business number should be avoided. It limits you to a single answer point and can make your business look like a one-man-band.
1300 numbers, 1800 numbers and local numbers are virtual numbers that let you choose which answer points to route your calls. Routing can be customised around time of day, day of week, location or distributed to share calls evenly between your team.
This way, you can choose to answer your calls using the office landline or take them with you and your mobile. It also makes maintaining a phone line more affordable, easier to track, and faster to scale.
Local numbers makes it easier to form customer relationships in your local area. Choose a landline number from the region you are located (or want to appear to be located) and receive calls at local rates.
1300 numbers can give your business that extra-credible look and call costs are shared between you and the caller. 1800 numbers are more inviting to callers as call costs are covered by the receiving business and free for callers.
Get effective insights on your calls with call tracking and analytics
Virtual inbound numbers don’t stop at just getting you calls. A number with a call tracking and analytics suite puts you in the driver’s seat of all your incoming phone leads.
It lets you do things that aren’t typically available with a standard inbound number. You can link it with your CRM platform of choice to see which ads drive more calls, log and reach out to all your missed calls, track new and returning callers with detailed reports, and so much more.
Integrations and add-ons
Seeing where and when calls are coming from can help you monitor marketing campaigns and even help manage your team to be available at busier call times.
Enhance your caller experience with powerful features
Virtual inbound numbers can be enhanced and customised with some helpful add-ons. Quality control your inbound number calls with call recording. Listen back to all your inbound calls in an easy-to-use online portal at your convenience.
Greet your callers with a professionally recorded greeting at the start of each call to add a touch of class. Or use an “on-hold message” to let callers know of any ongoing promotions.
Add a live answering service for your overflow or after hour calls as a cost-effective way to ensure your phone never goes unanswered. While these features are generally optional extras, many come included with Alltel’s premium 1300 and 1800 number plans. There is no limit to the way virtual inbound numbers can be personalised to suit your business. To learn more about our plans and how a virtual inbound number can work for you, visit alltel.com.au or call us at 1300 255 835 today.
