5 Call Menu Examples for Your Phone Tree

  This post will start with a few quick rules-of-thumb to help you create a professional and effective call menu. If you don’t have time for my rhetoric, then please feel free to skip down to the good stuff.   When labeling menu options, be concise and get to the point. Like a voicemail greeting, a good menu prompt immediately tells the caller where this option will send them and quickly states what number they should press.   Don’t be afraid to add more specific options, rather than fewer, general options. Most people are willing to wait just a little bit longer for the right prompt, and even if you only have 2 agents, you can break the menu into a bunch of specific departments and route multiple options to the same agent.   Use a calm and even tone. In the same way that callers on hold react better …

Conversion 101: Create Content that Attracts the Right People

    What is content, and what does it mean today? The word is now ubiquitously used to describe just about any media on the internet. There is an ocean of “content” on the web today, and it is growing larger every day, sometimes with little or no thought given to crafting it carefully.   The word itself even sounds empty and non-specific, which is exactly how I would describe most content that you’ll find on the internet these days, and that is just what you want to avoid when designing content for your readers.   Here are some new ways to look at how you produce your own content, that is actually made for your target audience.   Don’t be generic. Be specific, and be original. The first thing is that you don’t even really have to try to stand out when you’re writing and organizing media that is …

5 Reasons Originality is Necessary for Business

Be original, and you’ll have more fun doing your job. Think about the time when your business was just getting off the ground. Difficult as it may have been, it was pretty exciting because you either had a great new idea for a product, or you wanted to productively build on an established product or service. It was exciting to build something of your own, something that you knew could be successful because you could do it better than anyone else. One of the greatest joys of running your own business is the freedom to create anything you want. You’re not working to build someone else’s empire, but instead you are striving to make a statement about who you are, in the way you do business. If you continue to keep that kind of an attitude towards your business, then you’ll always have fun doing it—and what’s the point, if …

5 More Reasons You Should Get Up Really Early

OK, so you already know that it’s good to get up early, we all know it, and it’s no secret. So why don’t we all do it? The truth is that not all of us are wired to be early-risers—in fact, some of us are decidedly more functional or creative at night—but if you are a professional in any field, there’s no question that you should be an early riser. Here’s why: You will be happier and more productive. As stated in an article published by Psychology Today, “Early risers are happier, healthier, and more productive than night owls.” People who get up earlier generally report being in a better mood, due in large part to the social convention of the 9-5 workday that has been established in our society. What apparently happens is that there is a feeling of “finding your place”, in a sense, in addition to the …

How to Make Your Small Business Seem Like a Big Business

Your business has many different areas that need to be optimized to keep everything running smoothly. As one of the most vital elements of any business, your phone system has to be set up to handle anything your customers can throw at it. Not only can you serve your customers better with an efficient phone system, but it will also give your business a “large” feel, if it has some key features. [clickandtweet]Just because your business is small doesn’t mean it has to sound small.[/clickandtweet] One feature that gives your business a “big” vibe is a call menu, or phone tree. Also known as an auto attendant, this allows you to set up a professional menu to which you may send all of your calls. When you answer every business call on your cell phone, without a call menu, what’s going to happen? The caller will hear it ring, then …

It Takes More than a Cell Phone to Run a Business

The ability to run a business from your cell phone affords you a great deal of freedom and flexibility, but at the same time, it can add a lot of frustration. The problem with doing this is that your business calls are not being managed by any system, but it’s just you and your cell phone. Professional phone systems are set up a certain way that caters to serving customers with features like hold queues and call menus, but if you don’t have a system like Talkroute, your cell phone may not be up to the task. Here are some of the problems you may run into: The whole world knows your private number. Once you start taking business calls on your cell and giving out your number to customers, things can get out of hand pretty fast. There are not very many people who are okay with their private …

6 Ways Your Voicemail Can Make or Break Your Business

Ask yourself this: Where would your business be without voice messaging? If you can’t reliably intercept and organize your business’ voice mail, then you can’t really serve your customers. This is one of the reasons that Talkroute exists in the first place. The Birth of a New Kind of Phone System When our cofounder, Paul, was building his first company, he found that when he needed to run his business remotely, using nothing but his cell phone, the tools to do so were difficult to find. Even Google Voice couldn’t quite cut the mustard. So, he created the tools he needed. Among other things, the ability to manage voice messages from customers was crucial. After very little deliberation, Paul decided that many business owners were experiencing the same problem, and Talkroute was born. You need a professional-grade solution for a professional business. Understand that the voice mailbox on your cell …

When the Mobile Network Fails: Dropping Calls Like They’re Hot

There are a many elements that make your virtual phone system work, and one that is frequently taken for granted is your cell phone. Since Talkroute connects calls over the network that your phone already uses, it is a vital aspect of that system. The system usually works so seamlessly that it seems to happen like magic, but the truth is, we all know that sometimes the mobile network drops your call like a bad habit. Instant Gratification There is an invisible framework of connectivity that covers the entire country and plays an integral part in most of our lives—the mobile network, or cellular network. When we place a call from a cell phone, we are instantaneously connected to someone else, sometimes on the other side of the country, or even the world. Let’s take a look at how a call gets dropped, and what is responsible for it. There …

10 Ways to Keep from Burning Out at Work

1. Don’t give yourself unreasonable deadlines. Of course, there are some deadlines that are given to you, which you have no control over, but you can minimize unneeded pressure on yourself if the deadlines you set to complete work are reasonable. People will usually be fine with waiting a little longer for you to complete work, as long as you deliver when you say you’ll deliver; however, they will be far less understanding when you promise fast delivery and blow your deadline. 2. If all of your projects are coming due on the same day, that’s a fast-track to burnout. Again, this is where your schedule becomes vitally important. Every business owner has a schedule, but how many of them really adhere to it? Get on your Google Calendar every day, look at your deadlines, and make sure that they’re staggered. You will thank yourself. 3. Stay on top of …

11 DIY Web Design Mistakes, And How To Avoid Them

  Building a website for your business is easier than ever, but that doesn’t mean that you still can’t make a mess of it. Just as if you were a professional web designer creating a site for a client, you have to pay the same amount of attention to detail and quality, if you want a finished product that looks excellent, and performs how it should. There are all kinds of blunders you can make while building your site, but these are a few that you can easily avoid.   When designing your own website, you should NEVER…     1. Attempt to code, when you don’t know how to code. Attempting to write and manipulate code when you’re inexperienced is a bad idea, as any code professional will tell you. It’s really easy to successfully write a couple of short codes and gain a false sense of confidence, which …