First impressions matter. Even if the above statement is not true, you’re more likely to trust me because your first impression was a good one.
Whether fair or not, first impressions play a huge role in how our work is received. That’s why it is important that every business comes across well. You only have one shot to make that first impression.
VoIP can help make that first impression a good one for customers and potential clients. There are at least five ways that it can with a first impression, three direct ways and two indirect.
Directly, VoIP helps a business give a good first impression by serving up a virtual secretary when customers make a call: The auto-attendant. An auto-attendant helps callers reach the right extension when they call a business. This makes a business seem like a larger corporation, which in turn emphasizes best practices. It also helps the customer get what they want, which is direction to the right person.
The second direct way that VoIP helps a business with that all-important first impression is by making a company feel big. Big companies are perceived as being competent, so it helps when a new caller has this impression right off the bat. VoIP delivers this sense of corporate professionalism through the range of features it offers even small businesses. These can include caller ID, call forwarding, call blocking, virtual numbers and voicemail-to-email, among others. Many of these features might not be obvious to the caller, but the benefits they bring to the business will show up in the way that employees answer calls and are able to effectively deal with customers as a result of these calling features.
A third way that VoIP helps directly is through availability. VoIP unchains employees from the office, as VoIP calls can be routed to other phones or ring through an app on a smartphone. Calls never have to go missed again with VoIP, and this definitely gives off a good impression. Everybody likes a responsive company.
There are substantial indirect benefits as well.
The biggest indirect way that VoIP can help drive a good first impression is through cost savings. Instead of spending a lot of money on phone service and hardware, these dollars can go toward more and better marketing and customer service. VoIP offers cheap or free domestic calling, and low-cost international calling. Some studies have even shown that VoIP can save a business up to 50 percent on its current telephony spend.
A second big indirect way that VoIP can help a business make a good first impression is through the added competency it brings to the employees of a business. VoIP can be run through the cloud, so in many cases there is no hardware to set up or maintain, fewer glitches, and less hassle. Less time making the phone work means more time that an employee can be good at his or her job. And a better employee means a better first impression.
So while we can’t all be award-winning journalists, we all can make a better first impression by leveraging the power of VoIP.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson