Simplifying Your Front Desk: Auto Attendants
What is an Auto Attendant?
Auto attendants (or automated attendants) act as a virtual receptionist for your business. Using pre-recorded greetings and menu options, the auto attendant answers incoming calls and routes callers without the need for a full-time receptionist. With an auto attendant, businesses can direct callers to the user or department they want, provide information on business hours and location, allow callers to leave a message, and a range of other options. You can also build multiple tiers within an auto attendant, allowing even more narrowed options by department or the ability to record menus in several different languages. All in all, a well-structured auto attendant can save time for both your customers and your employees.
How Does an Auto Attendant
Benefit Your Business?
Today’s consumer places a lot of value in the customer service experience. In fact, a study from Microsoft shows that 47% of consumers have made the choice to switch to a different brand due to bad customer service within the last year.
Below we highlight just a few of the many ways an auto attendant can help boost your business’s customer service practices:
• Eliminate missed calls. It’s an issue businesses face all too often. Your receptionist is speaking with a customer and can’t answer the next call that comes in, leaving callers stuck on hold or hanging up in frustration. With an auto attendant, you can route multiple calls simultaneously without worrying about having an employee available to answer.
• Answer calls after hours. Although some companies prefer to have a live person answer the phone, it’s not always practical outside of regular business hours. Using designated time frames, which we’ll discuss in a later blog in the series, in conjunction with an auto attendant, businesses can route calls 24/7 without ever missing a beat. Provide callers the ability to leave messages for specific users, reach an emergency contact, etc. after hours without the need for employee interaction.
• Save money. Many companies have opted for auto attendants in place of traditional live receptionists. In additional to payroll savings associated with hiring a receptionist, businesses utilizing an auto attendant also see increased productivity and efficiency due to calls being routed directly to the correct user or department.
• Provide a consistent, professional experience. Whether it be due to employee turnover, PTO, or a number of other reasons, businesses can’t always count on having the same person answer the phone. Research by Forrester shows that 69% of US online adults shop more with retailers that offer consistent customer service both online and offline. Auto attendants provide an air of professionalism and create a consistent caller experience.
New Auto Attendant Features Now Available from True IP Solutions!
TIPS has unveiled two major feature upgrades for auto attendants – text-to-speech greetings and speech keywords for menu options. So what does that mean for our customers?
Text-to-Speech Greetings: Tired of having to prepare a script, find someone to record the audio, and inevitably re-record due to mistakes each time you need to update your auto attendant? Our new text-to-speech greetings feature makes creating and updating auto attendants quick and painless. Simply type in your new greeting and click save. It’s that easy! With over 10 automated voices to choose from, you can customize your auto attendant to meet your style and present a more professional introduction for customers calling into your business.
Speech Keywords: Although auto attendants offer callers the ability to route themselves more efficiently, it can be a hassle to listen to greetings and locate the correct button on your phone simultaneously – especially when you’re on the go. With today’s consumers more mobile than ever, it’s important that your phone system adapts to meet their needs. Our new speech keywords feature allows you to designate specific words or phrases that callers can say to select menu options. No more listening to greetings, pulling up your keypad, locating the button, and dialing to select. Callers simply listen to the greeting and speak to make a hands-free selection, making it safer for customers and more dynamic for your business.
For more information on auto attendants and numerous other features of the True IP Solutions Hosted VoIP Platform, contact our sales team:
sales@trueipsolutions.com
855-878-TIPS (8477)