5 Dangers of Phone System Downtime and Interruptions for Your Small Business

For your company to be successful over the long term, you have to maintain productivity in the office, enable seamless communication with your customers, and never waste lead generation and conversion opportunities. Consequently, all of this can be ruined by something as simple and arbitrary as a phone system failure or interruption. Having a comprehensive phone system is crucial for maintaining employee productivity and improving efficiency in the workplace, but also for improving various sales and customer support processes along the way.

Needless to say, you really can’t afford any phone system downtime no matter if you operate offline, online, or in both realms. Today, we are going to illustrate this point by tackling the biggest dangers of experiencing phone system downtimes or interruptions, and what you can do to prevent these scenarios. Here’s what you need to know.

 

Your brand image will take a hit

Maintaining a professional brand image is one of the fundamental pillars of long-term success nowadays, simply because the modern customer has so many companies to choose from in any given industry – your brand is one of the things that will set you apart and help you establish a meaningful connection with your target demographic. While there are many ways to preserve and build your brand image in the online world, there is no denying that your customer service department is at the forefront of your brand-building efforts.

The way your representatives communicate with the outside world and the level of service and support they offer will directly shape the perception of your brand, so if they’re not there to answer the phones, you can bet that your brand’s image is going to take a hit. With that in mind, it’s important that you have backup phone lines ready and to upgrade to a cloud-based solution to avoid downtime.

 

Losing customer trust and loyalty

When a brand’s image takes a hit, it’s likely that your customer churn rate is going to increase as a result. People rely on you being there to answer their calls, respond to their messages, and provide complete and comprehensive support to accommodate their every need, which you won’t be able to do if your phone system is not working, or if you are experiencing unexpected interruptions. Even if your phone system is working but you’re experiencing static or reduced sound quality, you can expect your customers to lose their patience quickly and move on to the next company on their list.

Given the fact that the majority of potential customers research companies before getting in touch, you have a very limited window of opportunity to grab their attention and engage them in meaningful conversation. If your phones aren’t working, you have to let them know and direct them towards other means of communication like messaging or email, otherwise you stand to lose them for good.

 

Poor productivity and employee satisfaction

Your employees are using communication technology throughout the day to retain and improve productivity, streamline workflow and exchange relevant information, and simply make their day as rewarding as possible in and out of the office. So naturally, when the phones are down, you can expect them to get a bit agitated and their productivity to take a dive.

This is why business leaders are nowadays integrating some of the best office phones for small business operations that utilize VoIP technology in order to ensure constant uptime and avoid interruptions. What’s more, given the fact that traditional phone systems don’t have any digital features, managers can also use VoIP to elevate productivity through mobile optimization, video and audio conferencing, call forwarding, speech-to-text functions, and more.

 

Loss of valuable business data

When the phone system goes down, there is a chance that some of your valuable business data will get lost in the process. Needless to say, this is a scenario that you must not allow to happen if you want to preserve your brand’s reputation and trust in the competitive online and offline markets.

To avoid data loss, you first need to have a strong data recovery strategy in place along with a data management policy. You also need to choose phone system providers that employ advanced security solutions and constantly improve their security features to prevent data loss or unwarranted network entry from third parties.

 

Losing out on sales opportunities

One of the biggest dangers here is the loss of lead generation and sales opportunities. Before making a purchase, people will want to get in touch with a brand, pose a few key questions, or get your representatives on the phone to obtain more information, which means that you can’t afford to let the phone ring.

If you do or if a potential customer is unable to reach you, they will instantly form a negative opinion of your brand and will move on to the next best thing. Your key objectives are to generate quality leads and leverage phone communication to boost conversions, so make sure to use cloud-based phone systems and backup hardware to prevent malfunctions and downtime.

 

Wrapping up

As you can see, no amount of phone system downtime is acceptable in the modern business world. Now that you are aware of the dangers, go ahead and upgrade your phone infrastructure to get better data security and digital features while eliminating the risk of interruptions or network failures.

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
This question is for preventing automated spam submissions.