How Unified Messaging Can Help Service Companies Book More Customers

Growing your service business can be a real challenge, especially when most of your time is needed to service your current workload.

Technology can play an important role. It can provide the power and efficiency to help you expand your customer base and increase profits. Using business management software, for example, can be key in streamlining your service business, optimizing every step in the service delivery process. Missing just a single customer call, though, can mean the loss of a booking and missing out on the beginning of a new customer relationship.

Unified messaging – which helps ensure you don’t miss a phone call, voicemail, email or text message— can help you make and maintain the customer contacts needed to fill those bookings.  Unified messaging can help ensure that your customers can always reach you, no matter where you are or what time it is.

What is Unified Messaging?

Unified messaging takes every channel a customer can use to contact you and brings them together in one easy-to-use dashboard. The interface can be accessed anywhere and at any time through a mobile app on a connected device.

This enhances your ability to instantly receive messages and match information about the customer across all the channels they use to contact you. You can then respond swiftly to provide rapid resolution. 

This will mean a high-quality customer experience (CX), from initial customer contact, through request booking, and servicing.

Unifying Your Four Primary Contact Channels 

The four main channels customers use are calls, texts, email, and voicemail. All of these can be funneled into your unified messaging dashboard.

1. Business Calls

Your mobile device can double as a business phone line when you integrate a unified messaging solution. All your business calls can be forwarded to your phone. You can stay in touch whether you’re working remotely or traveling. You’ll never have to miss an important customer call or find out too late that an appointment needed to be rescheduled. 

2. Texts

You can receive, review, and respond to texts in record time when they feed into the same interface. With all of your business contacts in your dashboard, you can easily manage individual conversations. You can jump between voicemail, text, and email without losing the thread of the topic at hand.

3. Email

Sometimes a conversation switches from text or voice to email, or vice versa. Unified messaging keeps customer communications organized in one place, letting you see all channels and messages at a glance. 

4. Voicemail

Voicemail is starting to diminish as fewer and fewer callers are likely to leave messages. However, those who do usually have a pressing reason. Funneling your voicemails into an easy-to-access interface lets you skip any steps associated with managing your business account separately. 

Benefits of Using Unified Messaging to Achieve Business Goals

One of your top goals as a service-based business should be providing satisfying customer experiences. Unified communication offers a way to seamlessly take customers from the first contact, through to booking, to following up after the service, without ever dropping the ball.

Meet Customers Where They Are

With unified messaging, you make it easy for customers to reach out using their preferred channel. Maintaining a single customer profile through multiple forms of contact simplifies the process and keeps all customer information easily accessible. A customer who doesn’t have to give their information or explain their problem repeatedly will have a better experience.

Increased Flexibility and Mobility

With unified messaging, you can be more mobile than ever. You won’t need to worry about missing a message, call, or online booking when you are on the road, in the field, or working remotely. You can handle everything in real-time, resulting in happier customers and fewer headaches.

Streamline Schedules and Routing

Last-minute changes to service appointments don’t have to derail your company’s day. You can smoothly divert field employees, check in with customers down the priority list to see who can be bumped up, and re-slot canceled or missed appointments on the fly.

A robust business management software such as Vonigo can streamline your operations, giving you the tools you need to keep customers satisfied. A unified messaging solution, like that provided by Grasshopper, can tie everything together, keeping the information flow steady in both directions.

Used together, the combination of unified messaging with a solid business management software system can help your service business deliver a next-level customer experience that stands out.

Want to learn about how service business management software can help to simplify your operations and help you grow? Book a free, private demo of Vonigo.