The internet has made the way we do business more complicated and fast paced. Local businesses that have stood the test of time have been forced to adapt to the new business landscape. Even 20 years ago, customers could find you in the phone book or by word of mouth and the only way to interact with a business was via phone.
Now, there are dozens of communication channels and ways for customers to find your company. If you own, or are thinking of starting a local business we want to help you simplify getting new clients. One of the simplest ways to get easy customers is by using business automations to make sure you always get the “low-hanging-fruit”.
Why automate?
The simple answer is to save you time and make your life easier. Local business owners are forced to wear a lot of different hats. Anything that can take tasks off your plate gives you more time to actually run your business. While setting up automations can take time, once they are set up, they perform tasks in the background that you normally have to do.
Business automations can help with marketing, getting new customers, communicating with existing customers, or even managing your employees. By identifying regular actions that your business handles, you can set up workflows to automatically execute rather than wasting your time.
Easy automation to not miss customers
Our marketing strategy at Small Business To Go focuses on getting the “low-hanging-fruit” customers first. The easiest customers to get are the ones that are already coming to you and looking for your business. Regardless of your company, weather you’re just starting and trying to get new business, or if you’re so swamped you can’t take on new customers, it is so important to make sure people reaching out to you don’t fall through the cracks.
According to a recent study, 65% of people prefer to contact businesses via phone call and only 22% prefer social media. On the other side of the equation, 68% of businesses have said they prefer to text their customers. How do you balance that? Through missed call text back automation.
Missed call text back
Missed call text back automatically sends an sms text when you miss a call. Even if you have a receptionist, chances are your business is missing more calls than you think. In fact, a study suggests that on average businesses of every size miss around 22% of their incoming calls and the majority of these missed calls are never heard from again. Think about how many calls you get after hours or on the weekends!
Missed call text back automation is the simplest way to capture these customers and allow you to communicate with them on your own time. By simply setting up this automation your business can interact with more people in a more efficient way.
How do you set it up?
There are different ways to set up this automation depending on your phone provider. If your current business phone provider doesn’t offer this service, you can easily port your phone number to a service that does. Most business VOIP (voice over internet protocol) softwares have a way for you to set this up. Simply search your setting for “missed call auto text” or missed “call text back”.
If you can’t find a way to do it or you want some help, check out our business simplification software. Not only can we set up this automation for you in less than a day, our software also includes an all-in-one inbox to consolidate all of your calls, texts, emails, and social media messages into one conversation so that you make sure you don’t miss any easy customers.
Advanced Tip: Beyond just setting up a missed call auto text, we can further customize the message. If you miss a call during the business day, you’ll want to send a message that let’s the customer know you’ll be able to help them soon. If you miss a call after hours you might want a different text that tells the customer that it is after hours and when they can expect a response. We can also include the contact’s name if it is an existing customer that calls. The more customized the message to the situation, the better!
Missed call text back templates
Once you have the automation figured out, here are 5 of our favorite tried and true messages to engage with your missed calls:
Hey this is [company name]. I just saw we missed a call from you, how can I help?
This is a classic text and the default message that we use with our clients. It is engaging and works for most businesses that can help customers via text. It is also a good way to see what the person is calling about so you can judge how quickly you need to respond!
Thanks for calling [company name], sorry we missed you. We’ll call you back as soon as possible but in the meantime, how can we help?
This is a similar message but a little more professional. You want to make sure that your text is a reflection of your business as it will likely be the first impression they have of your company!
Sorry I missed your call! Here is a link to my calendar where you can book a time: [link] If it is urgent I can text.
Here is a good one for freelancers. If you don’t take direct calls this can be an easy way to get people to book a time with you or engage with you via text. We don’t recommend using this example if you take inbound calls!
Hello there, thanks for reaching out to [Business Name]. Unfortunately, we are currently closed, but we will reach out as soon as we can. Our hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 8 am to 9 pm
This is an example of an after hours text that you can send to customers. It sets a clear expectation of what will happen and when they will hear from someone. This is a good idea for a business that doesn’t miss many calls during the workday or can be used if you have the ability to filter the text you send by call time.
Your call is important to us. We are tied up right now but someone will reach out by the end of the day!
This is another good idea for a business that doesn’t take many calls. If you don’t have a lot inbound calls and you’re tied up with other stuff during the day, this can be effective for just letting people know you’ll get back to them when you can.
Make the most of your business
Automating your business can be overwhelming but the benefits are huge. Reduce your headaches, stress, and wasted time. Make sure that you are capturing all of your easy “low-hanging-fruit” customers by automatically texting them when you miss a call.
We help local businesses with common pain points. If we can’t provide value to your business during a 15 minutes call we’ll give you a $100 Amazon gift card for your time. Schedule a 15 minute call here:
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