Find out how upgrading your phone system to SIP trunking can transform the client experience and help boost employee productivity in your business.
Image matters
You can’t put a price on brand image and reputation. How your brand is perceived is influenced by the product or service you offer, but it’s also affected by client experience. Poor or inefficient customer service can have an adverse effect on image and reputation and could end up costing your business in future lost revenues.
Despite the rise of email, web chat, social media, and customer service portals, many clients still prefer to talk to an organisation over the phone. That means ensuring you have a telecoms system that is flexible, efficient and reliable enough to deliver a consistent customer service, in order to protect your brand.
Is my telecoms system hurting my brand image?
The telecoms system is often the first point of contact for your clients, and can leave them with a lasting impression of your brand. Yet many organisations deploy systems that can actually hinder the client experience, rather than improve it.
Does your existing telecoms system:
- Allow clients to contact multiple sites with just one number to call?
- Allow the easy administration of call-routing and IVR messaging?
- Enable your employees to manage calls effectively from their handset or desktop?
- Work with high-speed Ethernet services that can enhance QoS?
- Offer a high level of resilience and fast, efficient disaster recovery?
All too often, clients are left hanging on the line or diverted to the wrong department due to poor call management systems. These systems also stifle employee productivity through their complexity or lack of flexibility.
Business continuity also matters when it comes to brand image. If a disaster causes your telecoms system to go down, the resulting downtime can result in high levels of caller frustration and resulting reputational damage. That is why it’s important to ensure that your telecom system has the sufficient provisions to ensure business continuity in the event of a disaster.
How SIP trunking can help protect your brand
Many organisations are now choosing to migrate their telecoms systems to from traditional ISDN to SIP trunking. Research company, Infonetics, forecast that the global SIP trunking services market would grow by 35% in 2014 and this growth is set to continue over the coming years.
SIP trunking connects your PBX to the PSTN via an IP connection to a SIP provider’s network. Moving to SIP trunking offers many benefits to help enhance the client experience, including:
- Flexible numbering – the same number can be used across multiple sites, making it easier for clients to contact you
- Enhanced quality – combine your voice and data services in a single pipe with high-speed Ethernet
- Integration with Microsoft Lync – giving your employees access to a range of communication tools that can boost productivity and help promote collaboration
- Fast, effective disaster recovery – SIP trunks can be configured with automatic fail-over to re-route calls to alternative destination in the event of a disaster, leaving customer service unaffected
- Access to call performance statistics to understand where improvements to service experience can be made
Don’t let your telecoms let your brand down
Your telecoms system is more than just a communications system – it’s the gateway to your clients. If it is providing a poor client experience, your brand could suffer.
Moving to SIP trunking can help you deliver a high level of customer service, consistently and effectively. In the process, enhancing your brand and protecting your hard-earned reputation.
Takeaways:
- Do you know what proportion of contact with your clients is over the phone?
- Does your existing telecoms system offer the flexibility and resilience you need?
- Investigate how moving to SIP trunking can help improve your customer service and enhance your brand.
Find out if it’s time you left your traditional phone system behind by downloading: The Professional Services Guide to the Benefits of a Modern Phone System
This first appeared on the Gamma blog.
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: How SIP is Enhancing the Client Experience
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