Monthly Archives: February 2018

call recording solutions

4 Ways Call Recording can Benefit your Business

Call recording is a cost-effective solution to several essential business requirements and may have more benefits than you realise.

No matter what reason your business is considering call recording, you will find that having the ability to play back your business calls will assist you in more ways than you expect.

In this blog we will look at four key areas where call recording can help your business, from staff training to dispute resolution.

Excellent staff training tool

For many businesses the real attraction of call recording is its effectiveness as a staff training tool.  When customer service employees listen back to their own calls or colleague’s calls they can learn from mistakes, learn to communicate more clearly and identify any missed selling opportunities.  Listening to real life customer queries or complaints is an invaluable way of preparing customer service staff for a variety of real-life situations that they may encounter in their role and prepare them to deal confidently with difficult calls.

Keeping a history of each employee’s calls can also help to track performance and see how individual employees have improved and progressed over time, something that can give employees great job satisfaction.

Improve the service your business offers

As well as helping your business to offer highly effective training for customer service staff, call recording can also give you the insight into your customer’s needs that you require to improve your products or services.  By listening back to real customer comments and queries your business can learn more about what your customers really think about your products and services and how they can be improved to better meet customer needs.

Evidence during disputes

Call recordings are an excellent way to revisit any calls being disputed by a customer to find out what happened on the call and help to resolve the issue with the customer.

In the event of legal disputes, call recordings can also be used as invaluable evidence to protect your business from a costly fine, saving you both time and money.

Play back calls for further information

It can be difficult to take effective notes over the phone if there is a lot of information to take down.  If your business often takes a lot of information from customers, particularly complex information, it can be very useful to have the ability to play back calls to gather information rather than rushing to write it all down as the customer speaks.  This also allows you to give the customer your full attention during the call and prevents you having to call them back to ask them to repeat details you may have missed.

At Smart Numbers, our highly affordable call recording service is free to set up and network based, meaning there is no need to purchase or install expensive telephone equipment to get started.

To find out more about the telephony services offered by Smart Numbers, give us a free call anytime 24/7 on 03450 178 179.

business success

5 Ways to Make your Small Business Appear more Established

Investing in services that make your business look bigger and more established than it really is can help you to win more customers and grow your business.  Even businesses with a modest budget can afford products or services to disguise the fact they’re just starting out to help them whilst they’re building a client base and improving their reputation and credibility in their industry.

Buy a registered office address or PO Box – Running your business from your home address is a great way to keep costs down until you’re ready to invest in your own premises, but a home address can be off-putting to customers.  For a small cost, you can buy a business address or PO Box in a prestigious location or local to your customer base to give a more professional appearance.

Buy a virtual landline number – Whilst you may find using your personal mobile number a convenient and low-cost way of running your business, studies show that customers are less likely to trust businesses that advertise a landline number as their main point of contact. So, get a virtual landline number that diverts calls to your mobile phone.

At Smart Numbers, we sell a variety of telephone numbers for any geographic area, town or city in the UK including London numbers that can be diverted to your mobile number for a more professional look.  Businesses with London numbers are often perceived as being more reputable, successful and established than those with a lesser known dial code or mobile number as their main contact.

Invest in your website – It may be tempting to save some cash and DIY your own website, but an amateur website is a sure-fire giveaway that your business hasn’t been around for very long or is small and unestablished.  Websites that haven’t been created by a professional are often not very user-friendly and can be difficult to navigate.  Investing in a professional website will not only make a great first impression but should also be designed with conversion in mind to help turn your visitors into customers or enquiries.

Get a snappy domain name and email account – Your business website and email address should be the same as your business name without displaying any third-party email or website host names. Short and snappy URLs and email addresses are better for your business as they’re memorable and look more professional and trustworthy.

Get a virtual assistant – When you’re first starting out, trying to juggle every aspect of your business on your own can leave you snowed under tedious administrative duties when your time could be better spent growing your business.  Hiring a virtual assistant to answer calls and emails will not only free up your time but will also give the impression that you’re not the only person in your business.

To find out more about the range of mobile landline numbers that we offer including our sought after 0207 and 0208 London numbers, give us a call on our freephone number 03450 178 179.