Editor’s Note: Here at Dispatches, we are always looking for ways to help our readers do things. For some of our readers, that means helping navigate the working world, for others, it means assisting in the ever challenging question, “what’s for dinner?” For still others, it means figuring out how to balance family life with everything else. In an effort to aid in all of these endeavors, we have collaborated on this article written specifically for our readers.
If you have a business of any kind, it is imperative that you do whatever you can to make sure you can be easily reached by current and potential customers. This doesn’t mean you have to be available 24/7 but it does mean you need to keep an eye out for potential issues.
Fortunately, it is relatively easy to make sure that you are easily reachable, as long as you pay attention to few certain things. Ultimately, it is about knowing how people are most likely to try and contact you and simply ensuring that you have made arrangements for that to be not only possible but easy. Let’s look at a few of these examples in a little more detail.
Email
For most customers these days, email will be one of the first ways they think to contact you. It goes without saying that you need to have an email address, but you should also be doing whatever you can to make that email address easily accessible. One of the best ways to do that s to simply display it on your website, ideally on every page and on your social media profiles. It’s also worth ensuring that there is someone manning the email as much of the day as possible so that your customers can get a swift response to their query. As long as your email is open and actively being handled, your customers will be able to contact you the majority of the time.
Fax
You might not think that fax is all that common anymore, but a lot of customers do still like to use a fax machine, and for certain things, it can be especially handy, such as when they need to present you with a copy of a document as fast as possible and they don’t have access to a scanner. However, if you have not yet installed a fax machine in your office, you might find that a much better way to send and receive faxes is to use a faxing online service, as this will inevitably lead to more people being able to communicate with you – but you won’t have to worry about having the proper equipment in the office.
Phone
For a lot of people, communicating by phone is still the easiest and most direct, and you will absolutely need to make sure you have staffed phone lines during office hours. It is also hugely important that you train your staff to answer the phone in a professional and engaging way, and that you are able to ensure that calls are answered within a strict timeline. If you can achieve this, your customers will be appreciative, especially if they do not have to sit in a queue very long.