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I’ll bet you’re great at something. Maybe a lot of things.

Even if one of those things is owning or managing a business, though, it’s likely that your strengths and interests aren’t broad enough to cover every customer touchpoint.

For instance, let’s say you run an auto repair facility. You and your team are wizards under the hood - mechanically and technically excellent. And, yes, that excellence is ultimately what your customers pay you for. But it may not be enough to attract and keep new customers.

If the exterior of your building could use a serious power wash, if navigating your parking lot is a nightmare, if the guys at your counter aren’t proactively helpful, if your website is cluttered, if your restrooms aren’t clean, plenty of people won’t even consider coming in or coming back.

It’s the rare person or team that can deliver a consistently great service AND nail all the expected extras. It can be even tougher to think outside yourself and recognize opportunities to delight customers. But going to that next level can mean the difference between merely doing business and providing an experience that customers return for and willingly promote for you.

Maybe you’ll never be the kind of person who thinks to spruce up the landscaping around your shop, or send a hand-written card to your new customers, or continually reinforce your employees’ telephone skills. That’s okay, as long as you partner with people who can evaluate the experience you provide, look for missed opportunities to connect with customers, and then put a plan or process into place that helps you move from being great at one thing to being great at a lot of things.

This recorded webinar is about delivering better caller experiences. Take a listen.

If you want to improve the impression that your company leaves on callers, you may want to consider this: BusinessVoice, our Caller Experience Marketing agency, won the highest honor in the On Hold Marketing industry for the second time in three years at the 2017 MARCE Awards.

The MARCEs are presented each year to acknowledge marketing and creative excellence in On Hold Marketing entries from around the world.

“The Girls at Notre Dame” earned two awards: Best Branding and Best of Show. We crafted the production for our client Notre Dame Academy, a Catholic girls school in our hometown of Toledo, Ohio.

“We're always thinking about how to elevate the caller experience,” said Chief Creative Officer Scott Greggory. “The Notre Dame production is a great example of introducing first-person stories and sincere emotion to paint a vivid picture in callers' minds.”

Andrea Poteet wrote the voiceover copy, Don Binkley was the recording engineer, and Amy Jeffries provided the voiceover. Hanson Inc. provided the students' voiceovers.

The MARCE Awards judges shared many nice comments about the piece, including these:

“Great concept. The testimonial / word-of-mouth feel is strong and believable. And the spectrum of information shared is tremendous.”

“The music bed was current, the VO delivery was very solid, and the [stories] left a great impression. Well done, guys.”

BusinessVoice has earned 14 MARCE Awards. That's more than any other On Hold Marketing provider in the world. The competition began in 2005.

Can you recall the last time you overheard a member of your sales or telemarketing team calling a prospective customer?

Or the last time you dialed into your main number and navigated your Interactive Voice Response system?

Or the last time you mystery called one of your locations to see how well the front-line phone staff cares for callers?

Once you have systems and employees in place it's easy to take for granted that everything is running smoothly. And everything might be running smoothly. But is your team providing the type of caller experience that converts cold calls into customers?

Are your incoming callers treated so wonderfully and efficiently that they tell others about your company and look forward to calling back themselves?

Are your automated systems making it very easy for customers to get what they called for?

If you didn't answer 'yes' very quickly and confidently to all three of those questions, there are a few blog posts you might want to check out.

“Is Your Calling Style Costing You?” recounts a few bad phone calls I've received recently, and how similar approaches to outbound calling can hurt your top line.

“Why Telephone Etiquette Training is Worth the Investment” reinforces the idea that you have an opportunity to build customer loyalty with every phone call.

“IVR: Interactive Voice Response and The Human Touch” is a reminder that, as amazing as digital technology can be, it still requires thoughtful input to make it effective.

For all things related to caller experience, please call our BusinessVoice team at 800/473-9005.