It’s good to talk
His name was Ollie, and it was important to him that we had a voice, not just a face.
I spoke to him on a Wednesday only the other week. He’d called the office with a query about registering his music with us, and it was during the course of our conversation he said that’d he’d been trawling the other copyright registration websites (there are a good few out there), and yet, of those he found, only ours had a contact telephone number.
And it struck me yet again just how important real human interaction still is in the marketplace.
Even now in the Digital Age, by dawn’s early light of Web 2.0, there are so many people using the web who still want the reassurance the service they’re signing up to or products they’re buying aren’t all just run by some super auto-responder and, if the need calls for it, there is a human voice available at the other end of line. And that’s fair enough, isn’t it? They’ll be parting with their cash after all, so it’s understandable some want to know it’ll be money well spent.
But it’s not just that. Some questions and issues require more direct human interaction, unanswerable by the standard FAQs a site may have, and the peace of mind given with the words “Hi, what can I do for you?” heard from a handset rather than read on a screen can be the difference between a sale and a lost opportunity. Even when I’ve been immediately unavailable and had to call clients back, the appreciation for the trouble I’ve taken to do so is often expressed – sincerely so. It’s as if nowadays when a company takes not just the trouble to be available to talk to a client, but call them back, they must actually want to talk to them!
It makes me wonder if the telephone conversation is fast becoming a lost art for businesses.
And this is where we here at duly noted® towers think many of our competitors are failing their clients. Their email or “contact us”-page-only methods for clients just aren’t enough. I’ll clarify that; for introductory or for some enquiry/informational purposes, they can be useful tools for both business and prospect. We ourselves answer many queries via email. But a voice can say a lot more about a company’s outlook and do as much – perhaps more – to win business or deal with a problem than simple email. You simply shouldn’t under-estimate the personal touch.
But it wasn’t always like that here.
I’ll let you in on a little secret; years back when we first started up, our phone number wasn’t listed in our website’s contact page at all. We didn’t think it necessary. I mean – our systems were as automated as we could make them, the info was on our pages, we had our FAQs and the all-powerful contact email didn’t we? Why would anyone want to talk to us? (Yes, we were that stupid.)
But we quickly discovered the clients did want to talk to us – oh yeah! And because it’s worth repeating, I’ll reiterate the reasons why:
-
A telephone number helps identify for clients the company’s location and – in a sense – it’s legitimacy as a trading organisation (along with its registered company and VAT number!)
-
They want the reassurance the service they’re signing up to or products they’re buying aren’t just some super auto-responder, owned by a schmuck lounging on a beach who only takes a look every other day, more interested in seeing the money rolling in rather than actually dealing with any queries
-
Some queries just won’t be covered in the website FAQs (and we’ve dealt with some we’d never have thought of!), plus
-
If there’s a problem (for whatever reason), often as not the client is better reassured by a voice saying “We’re on it” than an email. Aren’t you? I am!
And so we changed our minds (hey – if we weren’t going to listen to our customers, why were we in business?), and for years now our number has been proudly displayed in our contact page, as well as at the bottom of the duly noted umbrella site.
So rest assured, this is one copyright registration company who makes themselves available to chat with you about what’s on your mind. And if you do need to pick up the phone and dial, the person who answers your query will likely be me.
Like I said… the personal touch.
© 2008 Julian Boote All Rights reserved.
www.dulynoted.co.uk
Got copyrighted work? Register it now at duly registeredTM
DISCLAIMER NOTICE
—————————————————————————————-
This article may contain the personal views of its author which are not the views of the duly noted® Ltd. unless specifically stated. Please note that duly noted® is not responsible for the content of external internet sites mentioned in its newsletters, its blogs or its websites.