You’ve set up your website, arranged inventory delivery and order shipping, and perhaps the first orders are already coming in. But have you properly organized your telephone customer contact?

Not all customers of an online store want to communicate exclusively via email, online forms, forums, or chat. Customers need to know that real people are working behind your digital storefront.

For many customers, the lack of a direct contact option is even a reason to leave the online store. You lose a customer who was ready to buy!

This can all be easily solved by placing a customer-friendly phone number on your website.

A phone number gives customers the opportunity to seek the type of contact they need: to ask that one important question, to receive a bit of personal attention, and to get a reassuring answer.

And yet, this shouldn’t come at the expense of your own productivity. Especially as a starting or small webshop, balancing customer contact and other activities is important.

All of this can be achieved in no time without investing in new phones, systems, or networks!

We’ll show you how to do it in this article.

The Ideal Telephone Customer Contact for a Webshop

Before we discuss how to set up customer contact for a webshop, it’s important to first consider the requirements for such telephone customer contact.

Below, we list the key requirements for such a service, the most common problems, and how to solve them easily.

Perfect Accessibility

First and foremost, a telephone customer service must be perfectly accessible. This may sound obvious, but as a starting or small webshop, you’re probably not in the office all day. You have meetings with suppliers, you’re processing orders, updating the bookkeeping—there’s always more to do. You want to be reachable wherever you are at that moment. Your calls should be just as easy to answer on the go or from home as in the office.

If your shop is already larger and you have staff, you want to easily forward calls to colleagues, even if they’re working from home.

A phone number from Belfabriek is a perfect solution in all these cases because it’s a virtual phone number. Callers are forwarded via your phone number to a device you’ve set up. This happens in real-time, without the caller noticing.

You can truly work flexibly when you can quickly and easily change the devices where calls are forwarded whenever needed.

Belfabriek customers can do this in real-time, as often as needed, and without extra costs using our phone tool.

Essential Functionality

Just like your webshop, you want to set up your telephone contact professionally. For example, you want your callers to be greeted appropriately with a pre- recorded welcome message, placed in a queue if you’re currently on another call, or automatically forwarded to the digital answering machine so you can respond to these customers later.

All these and many more extra services are performed by the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that also forwards your calls.

You decide which phone features you use. You can also change these settings at any time. This way, you have full control over your phone number and ensure it’s always optimally adapted to your business needs!

Call Statistics

Of course, you keep track of exactly how many people visit your website daily, where they come from, how long they stay on the site, and much more. This allows you to optimize your webshop.

But why not do the same for your telephone service?

Imagine how you could improve it by knowing exactly where callers come from, on which days and times most calls are made, and how many callers hang up before you can answer the phone.

Belfabriek customers have free access to graphical statistics that provide direct insights into this and other important data about calls and callers. They can even choose to receive this data via email. This way, you don’t have to log in repeatedly and always stay informed of the most important data!

Direct Control Over Your Number Anytime, Anywhere

You may need to make changes at the most unexpected moments, and of course, you can’t wait several business days to have a simple change to your number’s settings implemented.

That’s why we’ve invested heavily in an online environment that gives you full insight and control over your phone number. We also provide an app for mobile or tablet, allowing you to manage your number on the go.

Setting Up Your Own Perfect Customer Contact Service

Now that we’ve seen the key expectations for professional telephone customer contact, it’s time to see step by step how to put this into practice. In short: how to choose and request a number and then set up your customer service.

Step 1: Choosing a Number

If you don’t already have a phone number, you’ll first need to choose and request one.

Let’s start by looking at the types of numbers available and which are most suitable for a webshop.

You’re probably familiar with the trusted 0800 numbers, local region-bound phone numbers, and the increasingly popular 085 numbers used by webshops.

What Are the Advantages of These Numbers?

First, 085 numbers are not tied to a specific place or region. They are numbers with a national presence, making it clear that you operate nationwide.

For callers, 085 numbers are attractive because the call never costs more than calling a regular landline number.

At the same time, an 085 number is cheaper for you than an 0800 number because you don’t bear all the call costs.

These 085 numbers are requested and assigned individually. In recent years, the demand for 085 numbers has increased so much that we’ve secured a large block of these numbers. In our 085 number shop, you’ll find a wide selection of available numbers that we can often set up and activate for you on the same business day.

Once we receive your request, we handle the activation of the number. After your number request is approved, we’ll get to work to make the number operational.

Whether you choose an 085 number, local, or 0800 number, when you register the new number with Belfabriek, we handle the request and connection of your number, and you’ll have immediate access to all the important extra features.

Step 2: Setting Up Your Number

Now that you’ve chosen a number and your request is being processed, it’s time to think about setting up your number.

The Welcome Message

The first thing callers hear when they call your number is the welcome message. This is meant to put callers at ease: they are now connected to your organization, and you’re doing everything possible to handle the call quickly and efficiently.

When recording this message, choose an appropriate voice. It could be your own voice or that of one of your colleagues. You can also use our affordable professional voice services!

Closed Message

Create a variation of your welcome message for days and times when you’re closed and therefore unavailable. This message is called a closed message. It’s recorded separately, and only callers outside business hours will hear it.

After playing a closed message, you can forward callers to the digital answering machine. This records a message from the caller and sends it to your email address. This way, you can respond at a time that suits you.

Other Features

Also, consider which other features you want to use. You’ll find a complete list of available features on the number settings page of the dashboard.

Step 3: Preparing for Launch

Once your request is processed and your number is activated, one of our staff members will contact you. From that moment, they’ll work with you to ensure the number is set up exactly as you want it.

At this point, you’ll also receive login details for the dashboard. Here, you can manage all the settings for your phone numbers.

Ready for the Future

Even after launch, your phone number will grow with your webshop.

If your webshop grows and you need to distribute incoming calls across multiple staff or departments, this can be done quickly and easily without costing you a cent extra.

You can also easily add additional locations elsewhere in the country to your existing number!

Start Today

As you can see, the perfect start to excellent customer contact begins today with a phone number from Belfabriek. If you request your 085 number now, you can be perfectly reachable tomorrow!