It might be on your priority list to keep up with the latest technological trends.
While that’s fine, you shouldn’t forget to remember the human side of your business.
You don’t want to get so engaged with technology that you and your employees completely remove yourself from physically interacting with customers.
Here’s why.
Clutch, a customer relationship management software provider, conducted a survey asking customers how they feel using phone menus.
By phone menus, we mean the system that answers the phone and says, “Thank you for calling. Please note our menu options have changed.”
And then the menu options start, and they go on and on and on.
Can you tell how we feel about phone menus? (Our least favorite is when you press “0” hoping to get to a person and the system tells you, “Sorry, but that is not a valid extension.” And then it starts back at the beginning of the options.)
Often, businesses use phone menus to simplify things for customers, especially in larger companies with multiple departments.
In this case, phone menus would make it easier for customers to get routed to the right part of the company.
While it may seem like a good idea; it’s not what a lot of customers want.
According to Clutch’s survey, “Most people rank listening to irrelevant options (69%) and an inability to fully describe an issue (67%) in their top three frustrations with phone menus.”
That’s not all.
Clutch also found that 88% of customers would rather talk to a customer service representative instead of going through the menu options.
If your business relies on phone menus, you may want to evaluate your system to see if it’s truly meeting your customers’ needs.
Don’t forget to stress to your employees how important human interaction is when they’re dealing with customers.
Keep in mind that choosing to redirect your customers to a phone menu might not always be in their best interest or yours.
If you think your phone menu needs work, consider finding out what best suits your customers’ needs and go from there.