Usa business

Measuring The Impact Of Your Phone On Your Business

An AT&T study found that over 70 percent of business calls are placed on-hold. Nearly two-thirds of callers who are placed on "silent" hang up and walk away from your business. Nearly one-third of first-time callers who hang up never contact your business again! A North American Telecom study found that the overwhelming majority of callers put on silent hang up in less than forty seconds. Every time a caller hangs up, you're losing potential sales to competitors. A caller placed on hold will wait an average of 55 seconds. Research also tells us that the average time per year spent on hold is 60 hours... and the average executive spends about three days on-hold per year. This time can be put to better use - for your caller and your business,

52% Of Your Callers Get Annoyed When Placed On-Hold

Every business places callers on-hold and your callers are on-hold for longer than you think, and they hate it! Because you cannot 'see' a caller is no reason to ignore them. In fact, more than 52 percent of people get annoyed when placed on hold (USA Today,). What is not understood, is that most businesses mismanage their advertising budget. They spend on average 94 percent of their advertising budget to encourage a prospect to ring and and a minuscule 6 percent of budget to manage the calls that are made (AT&T study).

Consider something else, the average Australian business gets about 125 callers per day and the average cost in lost potential business from mishandling a call is $34 (Sale and Marketing Management Magazine). Do your own sums! You're receiving 125 calls per day, 70 percent are put on-hold and 70 percent of these callers are on-hold for over 45-60 seconds. Research tells us that about 30 percent of them hang up and never call back because you don't have on-hold messaging. Each caller that hangs up represents approximately $34 in potential lost revenue. Annualized, this represents the significant sum of $153,000 in revenue based on a five day work week ($190,944 if you're open six days per week, and a whopping $216,648 if you're open seven days per week, less public holidays per year).

If you're reading this, you probably want to improve the profitability of your business. Start by ensuring prospects who call your business don't hang up and never contact you again.