Phone Calls Are Still #1 for Small Business Customer Service

According to our estimates, American small businesses receive 400 million calls from customers every day. I know what you’re thinking. In the age of ‘there’s an app for that,’ how can SMBs still be receiving phone calls at such a high rate?

There are two reasons. First, customers feel a personal connection to their local pizzerias, oil change shops and HVAC repairmen. They call these businesses when they’re in a crunch, when they’re on-the-go, and when they’re hungry. Consumers also trust that small businesses will provide what they need faster than a big company could and better than they could on their own. In fact, according to Gallup, two-thirds of Americans hold either a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in small business.

Second, consumers cherish community, but they also demand ease and convenience. Due to tight resources, many small businesses haven’t invested in online presences at the same rate as larger companies. For example, less than two-thirds of small businesses have a website. When consumers can’t get the information they need online, they go straight to the source. And oftentimes, that source is a clerk in a store, a receptionist at the beauty salon or a hostess at a restaurant. The result is a monsoon of phone calls into America’s small businesses each day.

Juggling the Phone Line

For small businesses, there isn’t always an option to have a person designated to answering the phone lines. Local restaurants for instance, have the highest rate of phone calls a day, and quite often the phone rings while the hostess is busy seating customers, or a waiter is carrying trays of food. In fact, nearly half of small business calls go unanswered because the owners and employees are just too busy.

For all companies, but for small businesses especially, every customer is important. A missed call can lead to a missed opportunity to serve a potential customer which can result in a loss of revenue or a negative online review. It’s imperative for businesses to answer a customer’s call despite today’s overwhelming rise in call volume.

Don't Let Busy Phone Lines Get You Down

For years, only large corporations had access to scalable customer service phone technology to manage their call volume. That’s all changing. CallJoy was developed to give SMBs the same powerful cloud-based phone technology to help you create a delightful digital phone experience for new and loyal customers alike - and for an affordable monthly fee.

Ready to decrease customer hold times and ensure your callers get the information and services they need fast? Get early access to CallJoy by clicking here.