Never Miss an Opportunity With Grasshopper’s Instant Response Feature
We live in the age of instant gratification. If your business can’t provide that, you’re already behind. That’s what HubSpot found when they performed a survey on consumers: not only did consumers want fast service if they were interested in buying from you, but if they’ve already bought from you, their expectations become even greater:
- 82% of consumers rate an “immediate” response as most important when they come to you with a question
- 90% of consumers rate an immediate response as very important when they have a question related to customer service
What happens when that many consumers expect a certain type of behavior? If you don’t give it to them, they move on to the next business/competitor.
Why You Need Instant Response—Right Now
A traditional business phone system usually means that you answer phone calls “when you can.” There are a few problems with this:
- You miss business opportunities when you don’t answer. If 82% of people making even sales inquiries expect a fast response, then the fact that you’re busy doesn’t matter to them. A customer will move on to someone with a faster response.
- Providing Instant Response is too time-consuming. Maybe you do make an effort to take every new customer’s phone call. The problem is that in a growing business, this can eat into your productive time. And you still might not be able to keep up with inbound business to provide the fast response you want.
- You have trouble identifying genuine leads. If you rely on voicemail to capture leads, guess what? Not everyone has the patience to leave you a voicemail. How do you discern which phone calls are legitimate business opportunities if you don’t know how to reach them?
- Responding cuts into productive time. Even if you do find the time to instantly respond to every new caller, you’ll still need to block out time in your calendar to perform the actual work that you are in the business of doing.
- Making yourself too available for new calls can eat into your productive time. Studies frequently find that your efforts in phone management can have the biggest impact on your ability to focus.
Said a Grasshopper customer: “When we are not in the office, or cannot pick up the phone, we can follow up later.”
These distraction problems can weigh heavily on small businesses struggling to keep up and already feel maxed out of resources, is it even possible to answer every prospective call without a massive investment of time and money?
Automating Your Instant Response System to Capture More Leads
The same HubSpot survey found that nearly 2/3rds of buyers feel they should get a response within 10 minutes—no matter what their inquiry might be.
What if you’re away from the desk? Out at lunch? What if your primary responder is away on vacation?
The solution can be found in automation.
Most businesses meet this challenge with a live chat feature. The problem? “Live” chat often means customers interacting with bots before they reach an actual human being. Many can end up frustrated by the time they’re talking to you.
And there’s still the question of what happens when a customer calls you directly and you’re not available.
You might not always have the time to speak with customers instantaneously, but you can build a customer response system that caters to your custom and fits neatly into your business.
Grasshopper’s new Instant Response feature can trigger an automatic text message reply —either default or defined by the user—to any first time caller.
This same feature will trigger whether you’re in a meeting, or simply don’t feel like picking up. And while your customer is receiving your automated response, they’re not browsing the competitor’s website. They may even put off further buying research until they’ve heard from you.
How Grasshopper’s Instant Response Feature Works
Said one Grasshopper customer: “I think the greatest value is helping to initiate client dialogue. If clients call but don't leave a voicemail, it's important that they feel some way of my intention to communicate with them."
When you’re working or unavailable, you can activate Instant Response to handle any missed calls from a first time caller by using Grasshopper. When this happens, Grasshopper can trigger an automated SMS reply of your choosing to let the customer know that you’ve heard from them. They didn’t dial the wrong number; you’re just temporarily unavailable.
Instant response creates a a standard text message response to new missed calls. This will save you time following up with multiple missed callers—and the text can go out automatically.
In some cases, these follow-up messages might even answer the customer’s question. You can inform customers about business hours, your address, or even give them a link to follow up with.
Tips for Making Instant Response Work for You
If you need to disconnect from the phone without ignoring your customers, Grasshopper’s Instant Response system will fill that void. But it helps to know how to set it up—and what strategies will maximize your productive time without losing out on new business:
- Customize your reply. There is a default reply available, but you’ll communicate more effectively if you can include custom details about your business. You’d be surprised how often a customer’s first question is whether or not they even called the right number.
- Let your customer know that you’ll follow up. Since some people might call you during their own buying research process, they might be tempted to call up competitors while they wait for your call. Letting them know that you’ll follow up (within the content of your message) is a great way to keep them focused on the reason they called you.
- Upgrade to enabling SMS. Using the SMS feature helps you trigger an instant text response—which is often a customer’s preferred method of communication. A quick text message will let a customer know that their call was received and that they made it to the right place. You might even be able to steer them to your website and convert them there to save extra time.
You don’t always have to be chained to your desk to make sure every prospective client feels valued. Simply invest in a system that can automate your customer response and let the system do the work.
