When a customer calls your business, they’re already showing intent.
They might be ready to buy, looking for a quote, chasing an order or simply trying to get an answer to a question. But if that call goes unanswered, you may never get the opportunity to find out.
For small and medium-sized businesses, every customer interaction matters. You may not have a large sales team or a dedicated receptionist available to answer every call, which makes having the right telephony setup even more important.
The good news? You don’t necessarily need more people answering the phones. You may simply need to make sure your phone system is working harder for your business.
Why Missed Calls Matter More Than You Think
It’s easy to see a missed call as a minor inconvenience. Someone will probably call back, right?
Maybe. But there’s no guarantee.
If someone has taken the time to call your business, they may be contacting you because they need something now. If they can’t get through, they could try a competitor instead.
A missed call could mean:
- A new customer choosing another supplier
- An existing customer becoming frustrated
- A sales enquiry going cold
- A customer spending valuable time trying to get hold of you
- Your team spending time returning calls that could have been handled immediately
And it isn’t just about sales. Good call handling is part of good customer service.
If customers regularly hear voicemail, encounter busy lines or simply can’t get through to the right person, it can quickly influence how they view your business.
The Common Reasons Businesses Miss Calls
Most businesses aren’t deliberately ignoring their customers. Missed calls often happen because the way people work has changed, while their telephony setup hasn’t.
For example:
- Your team is working from home or between offices
- Employees are out visiting customers
- Calls are only ringing on one person’s handset
- There’s no cover when someone is unavailable
- Customers don’t know which number to call
- Calls aren’t automatically passed to the right person
- Your team is dealing with another customer when a new call comes in
- Your existing system doesn’t provide enough flexibility
For an SME, having someone permanently sitting next to the phone simply isn’t realistic.
Your phone system needs to work around your people – not the other way around.
The Hidden Cost of Poor Call Handling
The obvious cost of missed calls is lost business. But there are other costs that are harder to see.
Think about the time your team spends checking missed calls, returning messages and trying to work out who should deal with an enquiry.
Then consider the customer experience.
If someone has to call several times before reaching the right person, they’re doing the work your business should be doing.
Poor call handling can also put pressure on your employees. When calls aren’t routed effectively, one person can end up dealing with far more calls than another, while important enquiries may sit unanswered.
A better telephony setup can help take some of that pressure away.
How Modern Phone Systems Reduce Missed Opportunities
Modern business telephony isn’t simply about replacing desk phones.
It can give your business much more control over how calls are handled, helping you make sure customers can reach the right person – wherever they’re working.
Depending on your requirements, this could include:
- Calls ringing across multiple employees
- Automatic call routing
- Call forwarding
- Hunt groups
- Auto-attendants
- Voicemail and voicemail-to-email
- Mobile integration
- Teams calling
- Call recording
- Call analytics and reporting
The important thing is not to add features for the sake of it.
It’s about understanding where your current setup is letting you down and using the right tools to fix those gaps.
Intelligent Call Routing and Call Forwarding Explained
One of the simplest ways to reduce missed calls is to make sure calls don’t rely on one person being available.
Call routing allows incoming calls to be directed to the appropriate person, team or department. For example, a sales enquiry could go directly to your sales team rather than ringing reception first.
Call forwarding allows calls to be redirected when someone isn’t available. That could mean forwarding a business number to a mobile when an employee is away from the office, or diverting calls to another member of the team.
You can also create different rules depending on the time of day or circumstances.
The result is a more joined-up customer experience, without requiring someone to sit by a desk waiting for the phone to ring.
Supporting Customers Wherever Your Team Is Working
The traditional idea of a business phone system being tied to an office is increasingly outdated.
Your team might be in the office today, working from home tomorrow and visiting a customer the day after.
That shouldn’t mean customers have to know where your employees are.
Modern telephony can help your team stay connected across different locations and devices, allowing calls to be handled wherever it’s appropriate.
For businesses using Microsoft Teams, Teams Calling can also bring business calls into the same environment employees already use for collaboration and communication.
The aim is simple: make it easier for customers to reach your business, regardless of where your team happens to be working.
Using Call Analytics to Identify Gaps
You can’t fix a problem you don’t know you have.
Call analytics can give you a much clearer picture of what’s happening to your business calls.
For example, you might discover that:
- Calls are being missed at particular times of day
- One department is receiving an unusually high number of calls
- Customers are waiting too long to be answered
- Certain numbers are receiving a high volume of calls
- Calls are being abandoned before someone answers
This information can help you make practical changes.
Perhaps you need more cover at lunchtime. Maybe calls need to be routed differently. Or perhaps your current system simply isn’t keeping up with the way your business operates.
Instead of guessing, you can make decisions based on what’s actually happening.
Simple Changes That Can Improve Call Handling
You don’t always need to overhaul your entire telephony setup to improve the customer experience.
Start with the basics:
Review your missed calls.
How many are you getting? When are they happening? Who is responsible for following them up?
Check where your calls are going.
Are customers reaching the right person first time, or being passed around?
Look at your opening hours.
What happens when someone calls outside normal working hours?
Make better use of call forwarding.
If employees regularly work away from their desks, make sure important calls don’t stop there.
Consider how your mobile workforce is supported.
If employees need to take business calls while they’re out and about, your mobile and telephony services should work together.
Use analytics where available.
Understanding your call volumes and patterns can highlight problems you may not have noticed.
Small changes can make a surprisingly big difference.
Signs It’s Time to Review Your Telephony Setup
If you’re experiencing any of the following, it could be time to take a closer look:
- You’re regularly seeing missed calls
- Customers complain that they can’t get through
- Staff rely heavily on personal mobiles to stay connected
- Calls are frequently transferred between departments
- Employees struggle to answer calls when working remotely
- Your phone system hasn’t been reviewed for several years
- You don’t know how many calls your business is missing
- Your team has grown but your telephony hasn’t
- You’ve added locations or changed how your employees work
- Your current system feels like it’s working around your business rather than supporting it
You may not need a completely new system. But it’s worth understanding what’s possible and whether your current setup is still fit for purpose.
Turning More Calls Into Customers
Your phone system might not be the first thing you think about when looking for ways to increase revenue.
But every call represents an opportunity to speak to a potential or existing customer.
The objective isn’t simply to answer every call at any cost. It’s about creating a telephony setup that gives your customers the best possible chance of reaching the right person, while giving your team the flexibility to work effectively.
At DRC, we work with small and medium-sized businesses to understand how they’re currently using their communications and where the gaps are.
That could mean improving call routing, introducing call forwarding, integrating business calling with Microsoft Teams, supporting a mobile workforce or using call analytics to understand what’s really happening to your calls.
And because we also provide mobile, connectivity and IoT services, we can look at your communications more broadly – rather than treating your phone system in isolation.
If you’re regularly seeing missed calls, don’t just accept them as part of running a busy business. A quick review could uncover opportunities to improve customer service, reduce pressure on your team and turn more enquiries into customers.
