Last week I wrote a short blog post about the importance of learning how your customers prefer to communicate. We pointed out that if matters not a lot (if at all) how YOU (a business owner) wants to communicate – what really matters is how YOUR CUSTOMERS want to communicate.
For instance, since I am a web entrepreneur and like to work late at night and early in the morning when there are not a lot of distractions, I prefer to communicate with people mostly through email. I like to be able to respond to my communications when I best have time – and often after I have time to consider my desired outcomes.
There seem to be a growing number of people who feel the same way, despite the fact that more and more emails are being ignored and not responded to at all on a daily basis. There are even some people who today are saying that picking up the phone and calling somebody is rude and inconsiderate – much like in the days of past when someone would show up at your doorstep unannounced at dinner time. Not sure I share that feeling, but do know there are some people who will only respond to phone calls – or to being able to call a company and actually speak to someone.
Thus, for many (most?) companies, I think it is still very important for your customers to be able to call (as well as email) in and actually talk to a live person (preferably in the same state and country as the company headquarters). For many companies that means providing a toll free number for customers, clients and partners to call in on. click here for more information on 0845 numbers
Does your company provide your customers and partners a toll free number to call in on? Is it good worldwide or just for certain countries? Is it widely used? How could your toll free phone service be improved on?