The methods for reaching out to customers have not merely increased over the years—they’ve exploded exponentially. From text messages to tweets to social media posts, the channels are becoming more and more diverse and accessible. Yet, a staggering 71% of customer interactions still happen over the phone. Additionally, 60% of customers are likely to call a local business after discovering them on Google.

Business phone calls still dominate how local businesses interact with their customers. The challenge is that while texts and emails allow employees to take a moment before responding, phone calls demand immediate attention. If you leave customers on hold for too long, chances are, they’ll turn to a competitor.

Now, with so many tasks to manage, what can you do to manage your phone system properly while keeping customers happy? In this guide, we’ll answer that question and a few others, such as:

• What are the best practices for handling customer calls quickly and efficiently?
• How do you get the most out of customer calls for new business?
• How can you scale your phone system without tying up your staff’s time?

Whether you’re running a small business or managing a larger team, we will discuss ways to set up a phone system that supports your business growth and enables your organisation to connect the way customers want.

How Business Phone Calls Have Changed Over Time

Advances in tech have changed the way we make calls, but did you know that customers’ expectations have changed as much, if not more? Approximately 60% of people believe that one minute is too long to be on hold, while over 32% believe customer service departments should answer their queries immediately.

Beyond that, consider these points:

• The growth of communication channels like text messaging, phone calls, and messaging apps show no signs of slowing down.
• Customers now have more ways to discover local businesses and reasons to contact them.
• The level of competition is higher than ever—which presents a significant challenge on your hands.

Think about it this way, inbound callers are likely interested prospects, potential competitors, or even tech journalists. Nowadays, customers discover local businesses daily through blog posts, online ads, social media, and text messages. The heart of the issue is that today’s local businesses are constantly struggling to balance their limited resources with an ever-growing workload. This results in an increase in complexity, frequency, and stakes.

These days, it’s less about selling to the customer and more about helping them better than your competitors—and allowing the experience to sell itself.

Pinpointing Obstacles in the Customer Journey

In recent years, eliminating obstacles has become a top priority in smoothing out the customer journey from discovery to sale and follow-up. Research shows that removing obstacles is a $319 billion opportunity. Notably, friction occurs in several common points, and many of them, unsurprisingly, involve phone calls. Common causes of friction among customers include:

• Automated systems that can be challenging for customers to navigate or simply don’t address their needs.
• Long wait times and incorrect call routing wastes customers’ time and leads to frustration.
• Inadequate solutions that don’t effectively resolve the customer’s problem and inconsistent service quality lead to dissatisfaction.
• Overcomplicated procedures for simple requests frustrate customers and make them less likely to return.

As you can see, most of these friction points are related to phone call management, where many customer service issues originate. Many local businesses struggle to handle their calls while maintaining the quality they’re known for as they grow, resulting in subpar service and unmet consumer expectations.

What Do Today’s Customers Expect From Local Business Calls?

Modern customers expect to be heard and understood when they reach out to businesses. They want to connect with you through their preferred channels, whether that be text, phone, email, or instant messaging apps, and expect the same in return.

• They anticipate quick, efficient responses without being on hold for long periods.
• They look for clear, concise information.
• They expect knowledgeable staff who can provide accurate information and immediate assistance.
• They value personalised interactions that make them feel appreciated.

Most importantly, they expect you to be aligned with them and understand their needs while providing a highly personalised solution.

For local businesses, the challenge is to achieve more with less by optimising processes and strategies. Meeting modern customer expectations means not only being available at their convenience but also being equipped with the right answers. To achieve this, businesses need tools like VoIP systems, softphones, video capabilities, and transcription services.

Handling Customer Calls Effectively

Handling customer calls goes beyond just numbers and routing strategies. Fundamentally, it’s about emotional management—ensuring every customer feels heard, understood, and supported without anything slipping through the cracks.

This means employing technology that works for you, enabling you to anticipate requests, provide clear explanations, establish trust, offer support, educate without patronising, and build a rapport—every single time you pick up the phone.

With the right systems in place and effective training on how to use modern tools, your organisation can achieve more without exceeding your budget.

Identifying the Individual and the Issue

You likely have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of customers. Yet, from your customer’s perspective, they are your only customer. During interactions, they expect you to be fully informed about their problem, aware of their recent interactions, and ready to assist.

For instance, if Bruce has contacted you previously about an ongoing issue with a product you’re selling, he expects you to remember the details. When you call back, he anticipates you’re already up to speed. Customers usually don’t want to repeat themselves and prefer to have their concerns addressed promptly.

Phone systems make this easier to manage, especially if they come with a feature that instantly provides highlights of each customer’s history with your business. Context makes your customers feel valued while saving you time and enabling quicker resolution of their concerns. This creates a more personalised customer experience, too and can boost your brand’s reputation.

The most effective phone systems inform you about your customers’ last transactions, the feedback they’ve given, and their recent communications. They also offer the option to view more detailed information. Some systems even provide a photo which can help your employees better remember who they are.

Adopt a Professional Tone

To create a positive impression for your brand, it’s best to set the right tone from the start of the conversation. Here are some key points to help business owners and employees maintain a professional tone:

• Be relaxed and self-assured to instil confidence in the caller.
• Greet the caller by name to personalise the interaction and make the caller feel valued.
• Use the appropriate terms relevant to the discussion to avoid confusion.
• Match the caller’s energy and align your tone with their mood to create empathy and maintain a good pace.
• Show understanding and empathy towards customers’ concerns.
• Encourage personalisation by allowing employees to use their humour and personal touch to make interactions unique.
• Speak at a normal speed and use a positive, clear voice.

Lastly, employees should know how to gauge each situation to determine the best approach to build trust and rapport. By following these guidelines, your business can foster trust and create positive interactions with customers.

Listen Attentively and Build Rapport

In customer calls, just as in life, the most effective individuals focus on listening more than speaking. Listening carefully and taking the time to build a connection can make a huge difference in the success of a call. Here are a few useful tips:

• Always repeat back what you hear. Paraphrasing what the customer has said shows you are actively listening and assures them you understand their concerns correctly.
• Ask clarifying questions for more details. This will help you understand the issue better and show the customer you care about getting it right.
• Don’t rush—take your time to address the customer’s needs. Rushing can make your customer feel undervalued and misunderstood.
• Mirror the caller’s voice, tone, and positioning. Adjusting your communication style will help build rapport.

Customers seek a genuine connection with you and your team. Building real rapport is essential as it fosters mutual respect and trust. Effectively breaking the ice, listening with empathy, and thoughtfully mirroring the customer’s tone all signify a meaningful connection.

Remember, customers are more likely to remember how you made them feel rather than the specific words you used. When it comes to phone calls, it’s more impactful for customers to feel heard than for you to simply convey your point, so be mindful of how you manage your time during interactions.

Ask Relevant Questions

Anyone can ask, “How’s it going?” or “What’s the issue?” The key is recognising that every question counts and goes into the customer experience. When assisting customers, there are usually three main types of questions:

• Opening questions: These questions kick off the conversation and are great for quickly identifying issues and simultaneously demonstrating empathy.

• Probing questions: These questions let you delve deeper into your customer’s responses and help you understand their needs more thoroughly. They’re ideal for problem-solving and setting expectations.

• Closing questions: Typically answered with a yes or no, these questions confirm whether you’ve fully understood the customer and addressed their concerns.

Knowing the differences between these questions and how to use each one helps build a positive experience.

Wrapping Up a Call

While opening a call effectively is crucial, closing it properly is just as important. The key is not to rush the conclusion and finish with a strong note. By the end of the call, you should:

• Confirm the next steps with the customer
• Explain how you will prevent the issue from recurring
• Ensure all questions have been answered
• Thank the customer for their time and continued business
• Offer a well-wish, using the customer’s name

If you determine that the issue cannot be resolved over the phone, you should:

• Offer a sincere apology
• Confirm the next steps with the customer
• Schedule a time for follow-up
• Thank the customer for their time and continued business
• Offer a personalised farewell using the customer’s name

Remember that the most impactful elements of any customer interaction, regardless of the issue or outcome, are transparency, proactivity, and empathy. By showing a genuine desire to help and clearly explaining the steps you will take to do so, you’re more likely to meet your customer’s expectations.

Evaluating Customer Service Call KPIs

Curious to know how well your customer service is doing? Key performance indicators or KPIs are key metrics that businesses use to gauge the success of their support efforts. Businesses usually set goals that measure compliance, customer feedback, conversation quality, employee engagement, and service efficiency.

Key KPIs to consider include call volume (total number of calls, broken down by time of day, days of the week, etc.), call duration, customer service ratings like NPS (Net Promoter Score) and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score), the number of call transfers, and the percentage of calls answered immediately.

Customer satisfaction can also be assessed by listening to call recordings and evaluating the received feedback. Conduct this review with your team for optimal learning and improvement. This provides a good coaching opportunity and ensures that your team consistently delivers excellent customer service.

Overseeing Inbound Sales Calls

For any local business, inbound sales calls are ideal as they do not involve awkward sales pitches or persuading someone to talk to you. Instead, customers are reaching out because they want to engage with you. However, inbound sales calls require a different approach and can be more challenging than outbound ones.

You often have no idea who’s on the other end—a competitor, a potential client, or a new developer. And if it is a potential client, you may not know why they’re calling or what specific needs they have.

If you don’t quickly identify their pain point and show how you can provide a solution, the caller may turn to a competitor. Understanding your caller’s motivation is crucial in handling inbound calls effectively, which is why preparation is key before the call even happens.

Service-Driven Sales: A Customer-Centric Approach

When it comes to inbound calls, local businesses thrive with inbound calls when they shift from a “sales” mindset to a “help” mindset. The focus should be on understanding and assisting prospective customers rather than convincing them. Here’s how to effectively help:

• Understand Customer Needs: Ask how you can help the prospective customer and how you can assist them in achieving their goals.
• Solid Product Knowledge: Take the time to learn about your business, products, and services. Ensure your employees are well-prepared to answer questions and inspire confidence through specialised training.
• Direct Calls Appropriately: Make sure the customer is talking to the person or department that can best assist them. Ask the prospect about their question so they can direct their call correctly.
• Avoid Uncertainty: This approach prevents employees from having to say, “Let me get back to you” or “I’m not sure.” It ensures the customer is connected with someone who can answer their questions convincingly and accurately.

By focusing on understanding and helping, your business can build trust and foster stronger relationships with prospective customers.

Verify Company Details & Background Information

On any inbound sales call, your employees should begin by confirming your company’s details and their position within the organisation. Here’s how it makes a difference in your call process:

• Establish Credibility: Verifying company and background information assures the caller of your business’s trustworthiness, which helps foster a sense of confidence.
• Brand Perception: This step plays a vital role in shaping your brand’s image, impacting how customers perceive your business.
• Set the Tone: This enables your staff to set a positive tone during the call and effectively communicate the brand’s unique personality.
• Reassure the Caller: By making sure the caller is connected to the right number, it avoids any confusion and assures them that they are indeed reaching the correct business, bringing peace of mind to the conversation.

Given the complexity of inbound calls today, everyone on your staff should be confident discussing your company’s history, mission, track record, and product or service details. Their expertise should cover:

• Technical Questions: Ability to address any technical inquiries.
• Product Implementation: Knowledge of how to implement a product.
• Service Reliability: Information on how reliable and effective your services are.

By following these steps, your team can handle inbound calls more effectively, create a positive impression, and build relationships with costumes.

Identify the Caller’s Concern & Intent

Unlike outbound sales calls, the focus of inbound calls shouldn’t be on you, your fantastic products, or the services you offer. Instead, it should centre around your customers’ pain points—what they need and why they’ve approached you specifically. This often means understanding where they are in their buying journey. 

Consider the following:

• Comparing Options: Are they evaluating you against a competitor?
• Seeking Final Details: Are they looking for answers to final technical questions that could persuade them to make a purchase?
• Industry Curiosity: Are they simply curious about the industry?

Remember, you don’t need to highlight new features, benefits, impressive customer lists, or awards. Usually, it’s best to avoid these topics unless they directly address the caller’s concern. Customers typically reach out because they want you to understand their needs. If you can demonstrate that you understand and can effectively solve their problem, you’ve essentially secured the sale.

Several factors contribute to presenting your business as the solution to the prospect’s problem. After listening to their concerns, you should:

• • Access Company Data Quickly: Have a platform that consolidates all relevant data in one place.

• Pro Tip: It helps if you have a platform that collects all this information into one source and is accessible to key team members.

• • Know Your Team’s Expertise: To route calls efficiently, understand each employee’s area of expertise.

• Pro Tip: It also helps if you have a platform that can do this for you automatically and seamlessly.

Shifting the focus on understanding and addressing your customer’s needs can turn inbound calls into successful sales opportunities.

Ask for Contact Information

Unlike outbound calls, inbound calls usually mean you don’t know key details about the caller, such as their preferred communication channels and contact information. This can block future follow-ups and service, so it’s always important to ask for contact information.

Obtaining contact details helps the caller feel more connected to your organisation and more committed if they’ve scheduled an appointment or agreed to a next step. In addition to getting the caller’s name, it’s equally important to ask how they like to be contacted and when. Whenever possible, aim to connect with prospects and customers through their preferred channels at times convenient for them.

Research indicates that 65.6% of customers find texting makes interacting with a local business more convenient, and they are almost twice as likely to prefer it over other communication methods. Additionally, many customers prefer messaging via social media. When asking for contact details, don’t forget to ask how you can connect with them via social media too, and if they have a preferred platform.

By tailoring your communication approach to each customer’s preferences, you can enhance their experience and keep them engaged.

Ask How the Caller Learned About Your Business

It’s important to ask callers how they found your business. Understanding this helps evaluate your marketing strategies and make improvements. For example, if many callers found you through a local Facebook page, you can enhance that page further. 

On the other hand, if callers had difficulty locating you online, it’s clear that improving your online presence and ensuring clear contact information across all digital platforms is essential. This insight helps make informed decisions to elevate your business’s visibility and accessibility across all platforms.

Scaling Your Local Business Phone System to Stay Ahead

As a growing business, your phone system needs to keep pace with your expansion. Doing so prevents your growth from compromising quality and requires a phone system that allows you to scale up effortlessly —and scale down without wastage if necessary.

In today’s convenience-driven economy, adapting your phone strategies is crucial to staying ahead and remaining competitive. You need to implement top-notch systems that not only meet but anticipate and surpass consumers’ increasing expectations. This is where VoIP technology comes into play.

VoIP Technology: What Is It?

VoIP stands for “Voice Over Internet Protocol” and is revolutionising the way businesses and individuals communicate. An innovation in calling technology, VoIP offers a modern alternative to traditional landlines, providing a more flexible and efficient way to stay connected. Here’s how it works and why it’s a game-changer:

• Cost Efficiency: VoIP calls are generally cheaper than traditional phone calls, especially for long-distance and international calls.
• Data Transmission: When you make a call, your voice is converted into digital packets, allowing for higher-quality voice transmission over the internet.
• Functionality: VoIP allows businesses and individuals to make phone calls using the internet instead of traditional landlines. Unlike landlines, VoIP systems also do not depend on copper wiring or fibre optic cables.
• Flexibility: VoIP allows for greater mobility, as users can make and receive calls from anywhere with an internet connection. It can integrate with other applications your business may use to enhance productivity.

This transition from traditional phone systems to VoIP technology means businesses can enjoy more reliable and scalable communication solutions, which are essential for staying competitive in today’s fast-paced market.

What Are the Perks of VoIP Technology?

VoIP is a helpful tool that enables local businesses to deliver exceptional customer experiences and maintain clear internal communication. Companies using this technology report productivity boosts of up to 20%. Here’s how VoIP systems can boost your business:

• Enhanced Features: VoIP systems come with a host of features like automatic call forwarding, three-digit dialling, voice analytics, and voicemail-to-text or email. With the right platform, activating these features is straightforward, providing endless new opportunities for your business.
• Scalability: VoIP can grow with your business, which means you can add new hires and expand operations without worrying about budget constraints for extra phone lines.
• Increased Accessibility: VoIP technology allows you to make calls from anywhere with a decent internet connection, increasing accessibility for your customers in a remote marketplace. This enables employees to work efficiently from any location. Additionally, you may also enjoy other features like the ability to redirect phone calls to another team member, access call transcriptions, and receive voicemails directly via email.
• Improved Security: With the rise in spam calls, phone system security is a top priority. VoIP technology offers advanced encryption and identity management, which can help your business significantly reduce security threats. 

By adopting VoIP, Australian businesses can stay competitive, efficient, and secure while providing top-notch communication solutions.

Embracing VoIP Technology: The First Steps

Since VoIP technology depends entirely on internet connectivity, it’s crucial to set it up correctly to avoid common issues. Local businesses starting with VoIP must have a reliable internet connection to ensure high-quality calls between satisfied customers and productive employees. 

To set up VoIP successfully, local businesses should:

• Ensure a reliable internet connection that’s both fast and stable. Inconsistent connections can cause call dropouts and negatively impact customer service.
• Invest in quality equipment, including sufficient ethernet cables, reliable routers, and high network bandwidth. As a general rule, aim for an upload speed of at least 100 kbps per unit.
• Provide adequate training to employees to set them up for success and get them comfortable using the new technology. You may also want to consider having IT personnel on board to troubleshoot potential issues.
• Plan for emergencies to handle the limited location tracking capabilities of VoIP devices. Ensure you have strategies in place to manage emergency situations effectively.

Utilising VoIP Systems Effectively

To truly benefit from VoIP technology, it’s essential to understand how to use it correctly and ensure your employees are well-trained. Optimising your techniques and processes is key to achieving the best quality in your VoIP calls. Here are five tips to help you get the most out of your VoIP system:

• Invest in a High-Quality Headset: Using a headset during calls is handy, but a cheap headset can lead to poor sound quality. Consider investing in high-quality headsets designed for VoIP, preferably with noise cancellation. USB and corded headsets often provide more stable audio than wireless or Bluetooth.
• Manage Network Traffic: To improve call quality, manage the traffic on your network. Work with your IT team to identify the VoIP traffic stream and allocate a dedicated portion of your bandwidth to VoIP data. This will help maintain clear and uninterrupted calls.

• Ensure a Reliable Internet Connection: An Ethernet connection is ideal for VoIP systems, providing the most stable and reliable service. If you must use WiFi, make sure the connection is stable to avoid call disruptions.
• Minimise Bluetooth Device Usage: Using multiple Bluetooth devices can interfere with your frequency and affect call quality. If you and your employees rely on Bluetooth, consider turning off other devices like headphones, keyboards, and mice to reduce interference.
• Understand Your VoIP Setup: Every VoIP setup is unique, and optimising audio quality might require some trial and error. Adjust settings and configurations as needed to find what works best for your specific environment. Work with your IT team to fully maximise your setup.

For additional tips on VoIP optimisation, consider checking out this article on VoIP optimisation.

Final Thoughts

Today’s business calls are all about grasping what the customer’s true needs and intentions are. It’s about more than just what they say directly—it requires research, empathy, emotional intelligence, and attentive listening over traditional sales tactics. 

Your customers are looking for what you provide and by utilising the right tools, you can perfectly meet their needs. Are you ready to make the switch to affordable, adaptable, and well-managed internet calling?

Podium is proud to support over 100,000 local businesses of varying sizes in effectively managing their communication systems with world-class technology. Discover how you can get started with effective tools tailored for small businesses by watching our demo here.