Or at least I used to. Back in the day when phone systems started to become more like computers everyone jumped on the auto attendant bandwagon. They made them more complicated than quantum physics.
Callers would get lost in the menus and complain “I just want to talk to a real person”.
Maybe you remember those days…or still run into a modern poorly designed auto attendant once in a while. The meme has been burned into our culture and everyone is afraid of the auto attendant monster. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Let’s look at it from a monetary point of view.
If you are a busy business and have many people calling all the time then you likely have a full time receptionist that answers calls most of their day. They often answer the call and then almost immediately transfer to another staff. Having the caller directed to the person they need right away is great customer service. Receptionists often have other duties but, say 30 calls a hour, will not give them much time for other work. What if you could free up some of that expensive labour cost for other duties?
Maybe reception only needs to handle, say 10 calls an hour, because many people calling know who they want to talk who or can easily glean that information from a well designed automated attendant.
So as a business owner, would you like to find a way to lower costs by using an auto attendant and also provide great customer service? How do we solve this conundrum?
Auto attendants can be designed well and give the caller quick and easy access to a person without tying up a staff answering every single call. Easy access to the receptionist (or other designated staff) is imperative in these designs. These are the kind we help you design; usually no more than a couple of key presses to get the caller to the person they want and if the caller doesn’t know, then easy access to the receptionist/designated staff. Or we design a cascading call flows like: 1 phone rings for 10 seconds and then a group of phones ring for another 10 seconds and then the caller is directed to an auto attendant since all staff were busy. The options are almost endless.
Automated attendants are still not for everyone but NOT looking at all the modern well designed options because of past frustration, is poor business.
Think it over and call us at Teleco Landline if you want to be enlightened!
