The Secret to a Highly Effective Local Business Phone Strategy

You’ve probably noticed that the number of ways you can contact customers hasn’t just “risen” over the years—it’s exploded. From texts to tweets to social posts—the list goes on and on. Yet, 71% of customer communication still happens over the phone. And 60% of customers will call a local business after finding them on Google. 
Business phone calls still dominate how local businesses communicate with their customers, new and old. The trouble is, whereas text and email give employees time to pause and respond—phone calls require immediate answers. If you leave customers on hold for too long, you’ll easily lose them to a competitor. 
With so many hats to wear and responsibilities to juggle, what can you do to manage your phone system properly and keep customers happy without losing your sanity? In this guide, we’ll answer that question and more. Read on to learn: 
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li4">Best practices for handling customer calls quickly and efficiently</li>
<li class="li4">Tips and tricks to get the most out of customer calls for new business</li>
<li class="li5">How to scale your phone system without tying up your staff&#8217;s time</li>
</ul>
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-24939 size-large" src="https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AdobeStock_315860739-1024x682.jpeg" alt="" width="640" height="426" srcset="https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AdobeStock_315860739-1024x682.jpeg 1024w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AdobeStock_315860739-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AdobeStock_315860739-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AdobeStock_315860739-1536x1023.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AdobeStock_315860739-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AdobeStock_315860739-600x400.jpeg 600w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AdobeStock_315860739-360x240.jpeg 360w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AdobeStock_315860739-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AdobeStock_315860739-350x233.jpeg 350w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AdobeStock_315860739-100x67.jpeg 100w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AdobeStock_315860739-515x343.jpeg 515w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AdobeStock_315860739-272x182.jpeg 272w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />
<h1 class="p1">How Business Phone Calls Have Evolved</h1>
While the technology we use to make calls has changed, you could argue that customers’ expectations have changed as much–or more. Approximately <a href="https://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/10/prweb9964730.htm">60%</a> of people believe that one minute is too long to be on hold. More than <a href="https://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/10/prweb9964730.htm">32%</a> believe customer service departments should be answering immediately.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24921" src="https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_02-1024x532.png" alt="business phone strategy" width="640" height="333" srcset="https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_02-1024x532.png 1024w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_02-300x156.png 300w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_02-768x399.png 768w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_02-1536x798.png 1536w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_02-2048x1065.png 2048w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_02-600x312.png 600w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_02-360x187.png 360w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_02-160x83.png 160w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_02-350x182.png 350w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_02-100x52.png 100w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_02-660x343.png 660w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />
Add to this the facts that:
<ol class="ol1">
<li class="li4">The expansion of business <a href="https://www.podium.com/guides/guide-to-multichannel-communication/">communication channels</a> isn’t stopping anytime soon, </li>
<li class="li4">The way customers <a href="https://www.podium.com/article/local-seo/">find local businesses</a> and their reasons for calling has multiplied,</li>
<li class="li4">And there is more competition than ever before, </li>
</ol>
…and you have a real problem on your hands. 
Inbound callers could be interested prospects, a competitor trying to get the scoop, or even a tech journalist. Customers discover local businesses through social media, online ads, blog posts, and text messages daily. 
The crux of the matter is that today’s local businesses are fighting a constant uphill battle, continually trying to match limited resources to compounding volume. This leads to an increase in: 
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li4">Complexity</li>
<li class="li4">Frequency </li>
<li class="li4">Stakes </li>
</ul>
These days, it’s really not about selling to the customer as much as helping the customer better than your competition does–and allowing the experience to sell itself. 
<h2 class="p1">Identifying Friction in the Customer Journey</h2>
In recent years, eliminating friction has become a top priority in smoothing out your customer’s journey from discovery to sale and follow-up. In fact, research indicates that removing friction is a <a href="https://intelli-shop.com/talk-shop/how-to-reduce-friction-in-your-customer-experience">$213 billion</a> opportunity. Noticeably, there are a few points at which friction commonly occurs across the board, and many have to do with calling. 
Friction typically arises when local businesses make customers wait in a queue, route calls to ineffective automated systems, fail to route calls correctly, don’t take the time to understand their particular pain point, and don’t offer an effective solution. 
As you can probably tell, most of these friction points have to do with phone call management—an area where many customer service issues arise. Many local businesses are unable to manage their calls and maintain the quality they’re known for as they scale, leading to lackluster service and failure to meet consumer expectations. 
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-24922" src="https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_03-1024x660.png" alt="business phone strategy" width="640" height="413" srcset="https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_03-1024x660.png 1024w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_03-300x193.png 300w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_03-768x495.png 768w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_03-1536x990.png 1536w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_03-2048x1319.png 2048w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_03-600x387.png 600w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_03-360x232.png 360w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_03-160x103.png 160w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_03-350x225.png 350w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_03-100x64.png 100w, https://cms.podium.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_03-532x343.png 532w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />
<h2 class="p1">What Modern Customers Expect From Local Business Calls</h2>
So, what do your customers expect? Today’s customer expects to be listened to and understood when they call you. They expect to be able to contact and be contacted by you using their preferred channels.
Most importantly, they expect you to be in-step with them—to be on the exact same page, to know exactly what’s going on, and to offer them a perfect, highly personalized solution.
As always, the key for local businesses is doing more with less through careful optimization and strategy. Exceeding a modern customer’s expectations these days includes not only being available on their time, but being armed with the right answers. To do that, businesses need tools, like <a href="https://www.podium.com/guides/ultimate-guide-to-voip/">VoIP systems</a>, softphones, video, and transcription capacities. 
<h2 class="p1">Managing Customer Calls</h2>
Managing customer calls is not just a numbers game, or a matter of routing strategy. At its core, it is a matter of emotional management–making sure each of your customers feels heard, understood, and helped without letting things slip. 
This includes using technology that works for you and helps you successfully anticipate requests, deliver explanations effectively, establish trust, offer support, educate without patronizing, and build a friendship–each and every time you pick up the phone.

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