Most business owners mistakenly believe their accessibility is fine. A study by Telefoonboek.nl of 150,000 companies and 3,700 consumers paints a very different picture. What did it find? No less than 60% of companies rarely answer the phone during office hours.

The study reveals even more striking figures. For example, 30% of consumers call to place an order, make an appointment, or book a reservation. Over 35% of callers want information about a service or product, and 7% request a price quote. In other words, a large percentage of callers to businesses are ready to spend money.

How Much Revenue Are You Missing?

Every missed call is a missed opportunity. A simple calculation shows the financial damage poor accessibility can cause.

Suppose 15% of your calls result in a sale. If 40% of your calls go unanswered – not an unusually high percentage – you miss out on 4% of your total sales. What does that mean in monetary terms? Let’s assume you receive 2,000 calls per month, of which 1,200 are answered with a conversion rate of 15%. If the average value of your sales is €200, you generate €36,000 through phone sales. However, there are 800 unanswered calls with the potential for 120 sales, or €24,000 in additional revenue.

Of course, the exact numbers will vary for each business, but this example highlights the issue: the worse your accessibility, the more revenue you miss out on – often more than you’d expect. It’s high time to examine and improve your accessibility.

How Accessible Are You?

To improve your phone accessibility, you first need to assess its current state. The first step is to monitor your statistics. Belfabriek number holders have a clear overview of this. Log in to Mijn Belfabriek and click on Statistics. The screen that opens is the Period Analysis, where you can see key information about incoming traffic at a glance.

To see how many calls were dropped before you or your staff could answer, look under the section Top Destination by Total Calls for the numbers listed under IVR. These represent calls that ended on our platform. Generally, these are calls from callers who hung up without making a choice in a menu, didn’t wait in the queue, or ended the call for another reason before you or your staff could answer. The number of dropped calls is shown as a total and as a percentage of the total incoming calls for the selected period.

These types of prematurely ended calls can never be completely eliminated. However, you can do a lot to keep the percentage as low as possible. In practice, this percentage averages between 5% and 10%.

Prevent Callers from Hanging Up Prematurely

To reduce your percentage of “hang-ups,” calculate how many seconds callers spend on average before disconnecting. To do this, divide (see IVR) the total time callers spent on the platform by the number of callers. For example, if you see 566 dropped calls with a total duration of 5 hours and 20 minutes, the average dropped call lasts 34 seconds. This is crucial information for taking action. Depending on your number’s settings, you may need to shorten the menu or welcome message, or distribute calls so that callers speak to a staff member within 34 seconds. The exact solution will vary from number to number, but armed with these figures, you’ll know where to start making improvements and can measure the impact of your actions.

How to Disappoint Fewer Callers

You may wonder how to respond to callers more quickly. And what if you can’t immediately assist them? Belfabriek offers various extra features to reduce the number of prematurely ended calls. Below, we outline your options. You can activate and configure these individually, but their combined effect is greatest.

Queue

If you see many IVR calls, it’s wise to activate this feature. This places callers in a queue. With good service, callers are willing to wait up to 10 minutes. You can set the maximum wait time for your callers. If your lines are still busy at the end of that wait, the caller deserves a callback.

Also, let us know how many lines you have available. By informing us of the number of devices you have to handle incoming calls, we can optimize your accessibility.

Digital Answering Machine

If someone waits too long, give them the option to leave a message with their phone number. This way, you can call them back at a quieter time. With the digital answering machine, you receive the audio recordings immediately at the desired email address.

Closed and Welcome Messages

Another cause of a high IVR percentage is calls made outside business hours, which you obviously don’t answer. By clearly stating your opening hours in a Welcome Message, you reduce the likelihood of this. If someone calls after hours, you can record a Closed Message, possibly linking to your digital answering machine.

We’re Here to Help

Need help setting up these features or have questions about improving your accessibility? Our specialists are available every business day to answer your questions and configure your number as effectively as possible. You can reach us at 0800–BELFABRIEK (0800–235 3227).