SUBSCRIBE TO TMCnet
TMCnet - World's Largest Communications and Technology Community

CHANNEL BY TOPICS


QUICK LINKS




Virtual Receptionist Feature: Happy Holiday Sales

TMCnews


TMCnews Featured Article


December 03, 2009

Virtual Receptionist Feature: Happy Holiday Sales

By TMCnet Special Guest
Kevin Baker, product marketing manager, Protus


Black Friday (News - Alert), the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S. when the holiday buying season, kicked off with a bang.

 
I’ve always been struck by how counter-productive that name sounds. After all, Black Monday marks the day in 1929 when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression started. Wouldn’t Black Friday mark a bad day instead of the busiest shopping day of the year?
 
To answer that question I did what everyone does these days – I looked it up on Wikipedia. While the article isn’t totally certain of the origin, the best explanation I saw is that it refers to retailers getting in the black. In the old days of hand-done accounting, if a business was profitable the entries were in black, while if it was losing money the entries were in red. So since it’s believed that retailers make the bulk of their money during the holidays, Black Friday would be the day the books went from red to black. That makes sense, even if it’s more urban legend than fact.
 
If you’re a small retailer, you already know how important the holidays are to sales. What you may not know is that my1voice can help you capture more sales and build more customer loyalty. Two features in particular can work wonders for you.
 
One is the ability to put a promotional message on your phone system. When customers call, you can have the virtual receptionist tell them to dial 5 to hear about a daily special or an hourly update on the inventory status of a hot holiday item. You can also use it to give store hours so you don’t have to pull personnel off the floor to answer that question. You can even record a daily message from Santa or a positive holiday message stressed-out shoppers can call when they’re ready to chuck it all in and move somewhere they don’t celebrate any holidays.
 
The other feature is the Web call button. Make it easy for someone viewing your website to contact you instantly with a my1voice ‘Call Me’ button. When the reader clicks the button, he or she is asked to enter the phone number where they can be currently reached, and then my1voice calls that number. These days, most people do a lot of their shopping research online. They may not buy there, but they will check it out online. Consider adding a button to your Web site that allows Web visitors to call you from any phone that’s handy with just one click on their part. They can then check if you have a sought-after product in-stock or even reserve a gift until they can pick it up later at the store.
 
To learn more about my1voice virtual phone services, visit www.my1voice.com

Kevin Baker is my1voice product marketing manager for Protus, a provider of the highest quality Software-as-a-Service communication tools for small-to-medium businesses and enterprise organizations, including my1voice, the cost-effective, feature-rich virtual phone service that travels with the user from phone to web, award-winning MyFax, the fastest growing Internet fax service and Campaigner, an e-mail marketing solution with advanced automation features. Kevin can be reached at [email protected].

TMCnet publishes expert commentary on various telecommunications, IT, call center, CRM and other technology-related topics. Are you an expert in one of these fields, and interested in having your perspective published on a site that gets several million unique visitors each month? Get in touch.

Edited by Amy Tierney







Technology Marketing Corporation

2 Trap Falls Road Suite 106, Shelton, CT 06484 USA
Ph: +1-203-852-6800, 800-243-6002

General comments: [email protected].
Comments about this site: [email protected].

STAY CURRENT YOUR WAY

© 2024 Technology Marketing Corporation. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy