Call Accounting Solutions Can Help Retailers Fatten Thin Profit Margins
April 23, 2015
By Tracey E. Schelmetic
TMCnet Contributor
Succeeding in the world of consumer retail is no easy task. While once retailers had only a few competitors to race against, they now have online companies – including giants like Amazon – who are selling similar products, sometimes at cheaper prices, since they have less overhead to maintain. Profit margins in retail businesses are often razor-thin, and keeping a lid on costs and expenses is often the factor that dictates success or failure.
For most companies today, telecommunications costs are spiraling. Not only are basic usage fees going up, but tacked-on “extras” and taxes are presenting challenges, too. Couple this with the fact that many employees misuse telecommunications services for personal reasons, and the average retailer is hurting every time they pay the telecom bill.
But it’s more than misuse companies need to look out for. Abandoned calls, or hang-ups from customers who get tired of waiting for a retailer to answer (or pick up an outbound call made by a dialer) cost companies money is less obvious ways. Customers are impatient today and value their time more than ever. Abandoned calls represent lost opportunities and lost sales. It’s therefore in the best interest of every retailer to track and reduce the number of abandoned calls associated with their organization by uncovering the underlying reasons for them.
Call accounting solutions providers such as ISI Telemanagement Solutions (News - Alert) and its Infortel solution are designed to do just that: they tracks abandoned calls and provide ring-time summaries, ring-time detail, and daily or weekly metrics to show the level of responsiveness on the part of the people employed to answer calls. These solutions also provide dialed number identification which allows companies to capture the phone number on an abandoned call and re-establish communication with the customer. (A quick outbound call after an abandoned inbound call can save a customer relationship and turn a doubter into a fan quickly.)
In addition to helping boost quality, these call accounting solutions can help stem waste, particularly in large retail chains that are often made up of a headquarters and a number of branch locations and that are constantly opening and closing in towns and cities.
“As these branch outlets open and close, there are instances where trunks and circuits no longer in use are still being accounted for in the overall telecom expenses,” wrote ISI on its Web site. “Likewise, when specific processes are not in place to activate and deactivate phone lines, or when organizations consume smaller branches without a properly-documented inventory, the telecom spend could be hemorrhaging money without you even knowing there’s a hole. Landlines are assigned to desks, but not reported or disconnected when the employee moves on. Cell phones are often distributed without written justification for employee use. Carrier bills go unreconciled, and inventory records are haphazard and nonexistent with regards to phones or devices dispensed to employees.”
For a retailer hoping to compete in a crowded landscape, every wasted dollar represents a roadblock to success. By taking better control of the company’s telecommunications resources, organizations can save money that could best be spent on other things.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi