How Call Handling reduced complaints to zero
For most new businesses, the biggest worry when starting out is not getting enough calls. But when a trampoline park opened its doors in Ipswich, becoming at that point Suffolk’s first and only, the reception was flooded by calls and struggled to cope with the enormous demand.
Therefore it was hardly surprising when by far the most complaints the new business received were related to phone calls – “I kept ringing but couldn’t get through.” “I’m phoning you up, but all I’m getting is an engaged tone.” “Do you employ anybody to answer your phones?” – These were just a few of the messages received by annoyed potential customers.
How did call answering specialists PA Answer help?
“Not only did we reduce the number of call-related complaints to zero. We were also able to drastically reduce the number of calls our team needed to deal with on a day-to-day basis.”
The park called in PA Answer, and Ely-based business support service specialising in telephone answering, and set up one-month trial. During that month, PA Answer’s team of professional and friendly virtual receptionists answered every call missed by the park’s in-house team. During this period, the trampoline park missed over 800 calls, equating to an average of more than 25 missed calls every day!
But during the trial period, it was noticed that a high number of callers were asking the same questions, and many enquiries could be resolved without the need to speak to a member of the in-house reception team.
Introducing Intelligent Line
This realisation led to a choice between installing more phone lines and employing extra staff to answer them, or set up an Intelligent Line, or automated menu system, to help customers find answers as quickly as possible.
The decision was simple, and PA Answer set up an automated phone menu. Now callers would be presented with a recorded message and a numbered menu of options, which would direct them to the answer to their question or the information they required. And, if their query could not be solved, they would be diverted to the reception team, or PA Answer’s virtual receptionists whenever overflow was necessary. The positive results of the new call handling system were almost instant.
Before Call Handling
800 calls missed in just 1 month– more than 25 every day! (Causing a stream of complaints)
After Call Handling
0 missed calls
0 complaints
Frants Steynberg, co-owner of the park, describing the effect PA Answer has had on the business, says, “Before we brought in PA Answer we were overwhelmed by calls and became inundated with complaints about this issue.
“By implementing a virtual receptionist, complete with an automated phone menu, PA Answer were able to direct a large proportion of callers towards the information they required, be it opening times, booking information or sending people to our website. By doing this, not only did we reduce the number of call-related complaints to zero. We were also able to drastically reduce the number of calls our team needed to deal with on a day-to-day basis to a manageable level. Plus, PA Answer’s virtual receptionists are on hand to deal with any overflow calls when necessary.”