Has your business grown over the years, whether organically or through acquisition, to include multiple, geographically-dispersed offices? Are you looking for a phone system that will allow you to unify all of those locations on a single system - giving your customers a single number to reach anyone throughout your organization - without having to run out and buy expensive new equipment for each location?
Perhaps more importantly, are you looking for a solution that will allow you to consolidate operators at each of these locations?
Maybe it's time to consider a managed auto attendant solution such as Parlance Corp.'s
nameConnector. This powerful auto attendant solution helps organizations streamline their communications, improve customer service - and perhaps most importantly - reduce operating costs through the elimination and/or consolidation of operator positions.
Many organizations are still holding fast to the notion that the only way to properly serve callers was to answer every call with a live person. But this traditional approach is no longer appreciated the way it once was - people today are not only getting use to the idea of "self-service," they are actually embracing it, as it allows them to take control of their destiny and get faster service.
Today, many people would rather use a speech-enabled auto attendant solution to connect immediately with the person they are looking to reach, as opposed to dealing with a live receptionist who might have to put them on hold until their call is transferred. Helping to drive adoption of auto attendant systems is the fact that they are more reliable than they've been in the past - particularly in terms of speech recognition. Most of today's systems allow callers to "dial by name" - meaning all they have to do is say the name of the person or department they wish to reach in order to be connected - and the accuracy of today's speech recognition software has improved considerably. In addition callers can also access a company directory and dial by extension using the telephone keypad.
With Parlance's nameConnector auto attendant solution, an organization can unify disparate phone systems at separate locations into a single system, thus allowing them to retain their current telephony investments. This way, customers calling one office don't have to be transferred to a receptionist at another office and then put on hold until the called party is finally reached: All the caller has to do is say the name of the person they wish to reach and they will be connected, regardless of which office the employee is located at, without operator intervention.
The auto attendant allows companies to consolidate receptionist positions because it significantly reduces the call volume the receptionist would normally have to handle. Many calls are routine transfers or requests for basic information (street address for example). But with the nameConnector service, the majority of callers can handle their own "transfers" and can even access basic recorded information -- thus deflecting a majority of calls away from the receptionist. As a result, organizations can not only consolidate receptionist positions, they can also have their receptionists work on other projects or handle other duties during lulls in call volume.
There are other advantages in consolidating multiple receptionist positions as well. For example, it eliminates the potential for confusion that can arise when an organization has separate phone numbers for different offices. Not only do customers sometimes not know in which office the person they're trying to reach works (even the receptionist sometimes may not know for sure) due to a lack of directory updating.
Then there's the obvious advantage: consolidating multiple receptionist positions means tremendous savings to your organization through reduced labor costs. One organization using the nameConnector solution, Hewitt Associates, for example, has managed to
save more than $200,000 annually by eliminating the need to add more receptionist positions as it underwent double-digit growth.
In fact, with nameConnector some companies can even manage to eliminate the receptionist position entirely. With the system handling 85 to 95 percent of all calls, an organization can simply eliminate the receptionist position and assign a few employees to handle those few callers who opt to "zero out" of the system to talk to a live person.
At the same time, an advanced auto attendant system such as nameConnector can make your business sound like a Fortune 500 company, even without a full-time receptionist. With this managed service in place, you can give your customers 24/7 service and a lot more options than just "leave a message and we'll get back to you." The auto attendant plays a greeting which can be easily customized based on the time of day, as well as your company's calendar of events. For example, the system can play a different message at night, compared to during business hours -- or, if it's a holiday, you can alert callers that your office is closed and provide office hours.
What's more, the auto attendant can also help your customers by telling then where to find additional information or support. You can direct them to one of your partners in the event there's an emergency that needs to be addressed quickly - or you can have the auto attendant tell them where to find additional information, such as your Website or Facebook (News - Alert) page. After all, it's the little things you do to help your customers that go a long toward helping you build your business.