No Shocker- It All Begins on the Phone
The more things change, the more they stay the same. It seems like as long as there has been a phone line in the house or, more recently cell phones in the backpack, kids have been on a device longer than parents would like. While technology has evolved, young people’s interest maintaining a progressively more constant connection to the worlds around them is something that has remained unchanged.
Beyond just maligning the omni-connection of each generation’s youth, however, there’s a more important trend to focus on. Specifically, young adults with technology eventually become less-young adults who use technology to conduct business both professionally and personally. Just as retailers have been investing billions in R&D on how to more effectively pitch to the tween and teen markets, selling to millennials in a B2B setting is increasingly important, too. Fortunately for us, the online software and technology experts at Software Advice have once again put together more exhaustive research to cover just that.
Phone Systems That Sell
It’s well-known by now that VoIP phone systems help businesses save on their communications costs but did you know they can help you earn money, too? From the research that Software Advice put together it has become clear that a properly configured VoIP phone system can effectively be a salesperson, as well. By distilling the mountains of actionable data they regularly collect, a few key trends stood out that can be useful in selling to the under-35 business community. We’ve identified the two behaviors that, when coupled with a comprehensive unified communications solution for your business, can be immediately implemented to produce measurable and positive results.
Auto-Attendants
After reviewing all of the pain points for inbound phone interactions, the temptation is to see what has caused the largest headaches for callers when, in fact, there is a more complete solution. All of the issues raised by respondents to the Software Advice survey are merely symptoms of a larger, underlying problem. The problem is that they were dealing with phones systems that were traditional, copper-wired PBX’s and, as such, were subject to the limitations of a network that is both cumbersome for users to navigate and costly for admins to update or customize.
The reality is that in the 24-hour news cycle and constantly “on” world that we are currently living in, even if no one is at the office, the office still needs to be conducting business. Fortunately, with an intelligent Auto Attendant that has customizable greetings, never full voicemail, no busy signals, and intuitive routing features will address literally every one of the concerns listed in this study. More importantly, however, an Auto Attendant will also make sure that yours is not one of the companies that is 32% less favorable in the eyes of the millennials who are frustrated by these headaches.
Vanity Numbers
The word vanity has such bad connotations to it, but when taken in context of branding, it’s really quite positive. Plus, with the ubiquitous rise of “the selfie,” maybe all interpretations of vanity really do apply on this topic, but that’s for another blog. Shameless self-promotion aside, it’s not a stretch to believe that vanity numbers are memorable if nothing else. So memorable, in fact, that according to a 2011 study, they’ve been credited for making companies over 75% more likely to be recalled than those with random numbers. But the benefits of using vanity numbers are indicative of an underlying factor at play specifically with younger professionals.
Today’s newest professionals are more likely than not to expect a heightened level of personalization. Just as online ads are designed to give us what we want based-off of our online behavior, millennial workers are accustomed to a more tailored experience in all of their interactions. Fortunately, this is one of the few topics men and women on both sides of 35-years-old can agree on!
From custom-building athletic shoes online to specific ringtones for each contact, personalized experiences are rapidly becoming less exceptional and more expected. Furthermore, people seem to like that. A lot. In fact, 21% of millennials and 25% of people over the age of 35 all cited unique experiences like personalized greetings and vanity numbers as favorable and positively impacting on their opinion of a brand. This research and plenty before it has reinforced the fact that a distinct the experience, the better effect it had on customers. Fortunately for hosted telecom subscribers, a cloud-based telephone system is only a breath shy of infinitely customizable. Perhaps, then, it can be said the benefits of unified communications are also infinite?
While that claim has yet to be substantiated, it’s also safe to say that it hasn’t been disproven yet, either. Hosted telephone service already offers more unique and customizable communications features than can be truly exhausted. Additionally, with updates and new features constantly being added to the array, it’s safe to say that VoIP service is exactly what business will need to succeed by selling to millennials today and again to the young professionals of tomorrow, too.
