What Makes Customers Hang Up Five Common Mistakes
When the customers hang up during your conversation, it’s easy to figure out why they did that; they likely spend the last five seconds telling you what problem they had with the conversion. However, if a customer hangs up before you can speak to them, that is a different problem.
In these cases, often you can’t tell where you went wrong, understandably so. Some statistics say that around 80% of customers will likely hang up on the phone system when they feel like their call isn’t going directly to a voicemail. This means that you’re already behind if you don’t have an organic and robust phone system in your organization.
Knowing where you’re going wrong will help you navigate through various solutions or tell you if you can prevent the problem from occurring in the first place. When you establish your phone system, you avoid these common mistakes that often make the customers want to hang up.
What Makes Customers Hang Up: Five Common Mistakes
When you know about these mistakes, you will avoid them and have excellent customer service, which is quite a feat.
1) Giving Them Too Many Options: Paradox of Choice
It may seem counterintuitive, but it has the opposite effect. Often callers assume that the customer wants to be in the driver’s seat; they don’t.
When they are given too many options and choices, they tend to feel conflicted and torn in different directions. This effect is called the Paradox of Choice; this was initially popularized by Barry Schwartz, who was a renowned author.
There was a study where the shoppers were given a surprising number of garments; there were around 24 choices combined with samples.
The experiment’s result was that more choices attracted more attention, but fewer choices meant that customers were more likely to select an item and make the purchase.
How does this connect to your phone system issue? It’s similar: you risk them hanging up on you when they are presented with multiple options.
This isn’t to say that you should give them three options; you should minimize the selection. After all, you need to present your business well; however, don’t tire them by the constant call forwarding.
2) Making an Elaborate and Complicated Script
When customers call on the phone, they want to encounter a real person, not a machine. It’s important to give them the sense that they are being heard and understood.
However, when you have an elaborate and complicated script, you won’t be able to deliver that tone. Sounding like a real company can be challenging, but it’s possible.
The most common issue some companies face is that they often create scripts to sound authentic and “real.” Afterward, they often get carried away and make fancy and complex scripts.
The research found, some customers get a negative experience when they feel like they are talking to an automated machine. When customers perceive calls as unscripted, then they are more likely to stay and listen; the chances are improved by 78%.
When building a voicemail system, you need to make sure you have automated messages to guide the customers. This is the best way to avoid that complex script effect while remaining professional and authentic.
Remember to deliver the essential information to your customer but then let them move on their accord.
3) Developing a Lengthy and Constant Process of Call Forwarding
When a customer has been on a lengthy call, they will feel relief when they are switched to another line. It’s great, it keeps the customer engaged.
However, when they experience their call being passed frequently, they will start feeling frustrated because they will think their effort was futile.
The same effect happens when you design a system with a complicated overly phone system to answer customer phone calls.
While it’s crucial for the customer to receive the correct answers and appropriate responses from available experts in your facility, that doesn’t mean that you should forward them back and forth to multiple callers.
And when the customers are constantly switching back and forth, they won’t assume that you have good intentions to give the proper answers; they will only feel frustrated that they can’t get through.
4) Informal Voicemail and Unprofessional Greeting
Customers or clients with your personal contact number may feel a bit disoriented when they hear the difference between your casual and professional tone.
Regardless if you work from home, your phone system (and your voicemail) needs to have the same tone and it needs to have the same professional presence. Here are two main pointers for you to implement in your phone system.
- Limit noise: The background noise of multiple family members doesn’t leave a good impression. But general office noise also negatively impacts the overall quality of your voicemail and its greeting.
- Keep smiling: People often underestimate the power a smile can have on your tone. If you want to sound professional, cheerful, and positive, then you should smile while speaking on the phone.
5) Vagueness: Little Information
When you learn about the “paradox of choice” and wish to avoid the “complex script” part, you will likely feel tempted to provide little information and record a brief greeting that won’t deliver the proper message.
While there is nothing wrong with simplistic messages, your customers need to have an engaging experience to stay throughout the call. To engage your customers more, you should add a bit of character to your interactions, even in your automated responses.
As long as those additions are perceived as professional, you’re good to go. Yes, this is a minor difference that affects customer engagement too; if you aren’t seen as competent, the customer won’t likely take you seriously.
Bottom Line
When a customer hangs up during the conversation, it’s easy to figure out why they did that; in fact, they probably told you multiple times why they hung up. However, when they hang up before you get the chance to speak; it can be challenging to decipher the issue.
With this helpful guide, you can identify the issues while improving the quality of your phone system. You can attract and retain customers in no time.
