Ensuring customers can reach your business easily has never been more important, yet possibly never more challenging. But there is a solution.
Businesses in Australia are facing a new challenge thrown up by the COVID-19 pandemic: unprecedented disruption outside of a lockdown, with workforces being decimated due to staff being ill or having to isolate due to being close contacts.
Closures, reduced opening hours and cuts to service offerings are becoming more and more common – especially in NSW, Victoria and Queensland – as Omicron cases spread, creating chaos for staff who are able to work and customers alike.
Too short-staffed to answer the phone?
The retail and hospitality sectors have arguably been hit hardest, but regardless of your industry and whether your business has been forced to shut its doors or you’re doing your best to stay open, one fact remains constant: You cannot afford to disregard phone calls or allow your customer service standards to slip.
Operating any business with a skeleton staff, whether it is planned over a holiday period or forced upon you as a result of unforeseen circumstances, means it can be difficult to ensure your business phone number is always answered, customers are not made to wait on hold for lengthy periods or customers are given undivided attention when they finally get through to speak to someone.
Let the phone ring out at your peril
While we’re all in this together and in an ideal world every customer would be completely understanding given the circumstances, the reality is this can be hugely detrimental for any business. Missed phone calls and poor customer experience will only put your business under even more pressure.
Let’s face it, in an ideal world COVID-19 wouldn’t exist either.
So, how do you ensure business calls are still answered?
OfficeHQ’s award-winning Australian virtual receptionists have proudly been helping Australian businesses navigate the pandemic since the very beginning with some of our clients crediting us for their survival.
Now, in the midst of possibly the most uncertain time faced by business communities, we’re continuing to support Australian businesses change how they operate … whether temporarily or permanently.
Whether or not you’re temporarily closed or still open for business, our range of low-cost coronavirus support business solutions include:
- Call answering with message taking, provision of updated business information to callers and transfers of calls (when appropriate) to staff working remotely
- Providing coverage if your in-house receptionist is sick or isolating, call overflow coverage or after-hours call answering support
- Setting up an ‘absentee line’ so employees can easily notify if they’re unable to attend work
- Taking customer orders over the phone
- Booking appointments, handling cancellations and managing waitlists
