Auto attendants are an excellent way to save money on hiring receptionists while providing callers with a smoother experience. By following some of these auto attendant best practices, your business can make the most of this valuable tool.
For example, failing to mention your holiday hours can frustrate callers. Playing a promotional message early in the greeting can also annoy your callers.
Keep the Message Short and to the Point
Whether it’s a phone line, live chat, or email, your business should always provide the same consistent message to customers. It’s a critical part of your brand’s voice and the key to building customer loyalty.
Auto attendants are a powerful tool that enables businesses to connect callers with the right person without fielding each phone call. Using a menu of options, such as “For Sales, press 1,” or “To reach our service team, press 2”, callers can choose the option that best matches their needs.
However, a poorly designed auto-attendant can confuse callers or obstruct them from contacting the right person. To prevent this, companies should include failsafe options to let callers know where they stand.
It means putting the most popular options at the beginning of the menu and avoiding fluff like announcing the happy news, which is usually irrelevant to why the customer called in the first place.
Additionally, it is crucial to keep the auto attendant updated with any changes to your business’s information and hours. It is especially true during the holidays or when a new branch opens.
Don’t Waste Your Callers’ Time
Auto attendant phone systems allow businesses to use audio prompts to create a greeting for incoming calls. Whether your menu options are text-to-speech or a recorded audio file, the message should be concise and straightforward to help guide callers. Most business communication experts recommend keeping your automated phone system greeting under 75 words to ensure it’s efficient for first-time and repeat callers.
The same rule applies to the phone menu options, which should be limited to a few choices to reduce the time callers must listen to the message before connecting with a live person. Adding too many menu options or jargon can confuse and frustrate callers, especially if they’re trying to find information quickly to address a customer issue.
Adding a nested menu option can help you keep the main call menu short and easy to navigate while providing callers with more detailed choices as needed. For example, if your customer service department is hectic, you might include a nested menu option that says “For Sales or Support, press 1” after the main greeting.
Thriving businesses understand that brand consistency is vital to maintaining a positive customer experience. It is true of all touch-points, including your auto attendant phone tree and the message that plays when a caller is on hold.
Make it Easy for Callers to Leave a Message
The first impression that most customers make of your business is usually based on the quality of their customer service experience. Whether your business is a large enterprise with an in-house team of call center operators or a medium-sized company, it’s vital to deliver the best possible customer experience, starting with your auto attendant.
An auto attendant is an automated menu that enables businesses to direct calls to the right team members without spending valuable employee hours answering phone lines. It can be customized to route calls to specific departments, play a directory of team members’ extensions, or provide a live receptionist. However, if your business uses a poorly designed auto attendant, you could risk wasting your customers’ time and your employees’ energy.
When it comes to creating an effective auto-attendant, simplicity is critical. Limiting the number of options on your menu will reduce callers’ frustration and increase your customer satisfaction. It’s also a good idea to include basic information in your menu, such as the company website URL and office hours.
It’s also a good idea to let your callers know they can press zero at any time to skip the auto attendant’s menu options and talk directly to a live representative. It will prevent them from getting stuck in a confusing and illogical phone sequence, which can be frustrating and time-consuming for both parties.
Give Callers a Chance to Connect With a Live Representative
Auto attendants are great for efficiently routing calls, but callers often want to speak with a live representative. Providing the option to press “0” and connect with a live agent is an essential failsafe to prevent your callers from getting frustrated and hanging up.
When recording your auto-attendant menu options, only include the most important and common queries on the first page. It will allow your callers to find what they’re looking for and save time by avoiding listening through extended, repetitive menu options unrelated to their query.
Recording your audio clearly and quickly ensures callers understand what you are saying. Free sound editors can remove long pauses, shorten recordings, and improve overall quality.
Finally, keep your auto attendant menus consistent and up to date. Frequently changing your auto attendant can confuse callers and cause them to get routed to the wrong department or even the wrong person! Ensure it is current with the departments and services most clients call about. You can do this by analyzing your call center data and finding patterns in which departments receive the most calls. With this, you can produce the most efficient auto-attendant script.
