How Can Business VoIP Contribute to a Great First Impression?

How quickly do people form their impression of you and your business? According to Princeton University research, these impressions are formed almost instantly, in a tenth of a second. If you and your employees aren’t making the best first impression on the phone, the prospect may never turn into an actual customer.

Companies implement a specific phone system for a variety of reasons. For the company leveraging business VoIP, they may be after the lower cost of communications, the streamlined approach to doing business, the automated features that can make the office more efficient or even the mobile capabilities. If that system isn’t implemented and managed properly, the good first impression may never be created.

A recent Nextiva blog offers insight into how your business can focus on making the right first impression. The company’s first tip is to never leave the first impression to chance. It’s important to identify what you want the customer to feel and experience the first time they interact with your company. Each and every employee should then be taught the guidelines for that first experience so the impression made is a positive one.

The second tip is to practice. It’s one thing to define what you need to have out of the experience; it’s quite another to put it into practice each and every day. Employees need to practice making the right impression. Coach them to ensure they can authentically mirror the impression you hope to create. Once they’ve got it down, make it a priority to practice this on a regular basis.

Test employees on their ability to interact properly with prospects, but don’t make customer interactions the place to test performance. If they fail the test, they fail the customer who may not return to you for future business. Use different methods to determine which approach will yield the best results. This can also help you determine where one employee may be better suited for a position over another.

Finally, don’t be afraid to refine the process based on feedback and results. The process should be ever-evolving. Pay attention to what your competitors and others in the market are doing, remembering that your customers and prospects will form their first impression of you based on comparisons with others like you in the marketplace.

The efficiency and quality interactions enabled through a business VoIP solution help to create and optimal environment in which prospects and customers can develop the best first impression of your organization and the service you provide. Keep this in mind when selecting your phone system, designing its operation and putting specific features into use. If they don’t contribute to the impression you hope to create, the outcome might be slightly different than what you expect.