Busy Lines - Lost Sales
How to fix busy signals and keep customers happy
Busy signals are bad for business, especially during the age of COVID. Guests cannot get through to place orders, to confirm orders, to inform you that they are curbside, or one of many other reasons. How do you fix this when call volume has increased exponentially?
Adding lines would be a logical next step, but it is not the best solution.
What you need is to invest in your phone system - it was about time to move on from a simple Phone Line, maybe a backup, and a Fax Line.
You need Auto Attendant and a Call Queue setup.
What is Auto Attendant? It allows the phone to be answered automatically by an automated system - think “Press 1 for blah blah…”. This allows guests to be greeted immediately and to be sorted into groups; One group for Takeout Orders; another group for guests ready at Curbside; another for reservations, etc. It also allows those groups to be routed to specific phones in the restaurant. If the hostess stand is only helping takeout orders, then all Takeout Orders will be forwarded to her phone. If all curbside ready orders need to be routed to the kitchen phone, you can do that!
What is Call Queue? A call queue allows a lot of guests to call in and not hear a busy signal. Think of it as a lobby where they will be waiting until an employee is ready to take their call.
Once both are setup by your phone service provider, a guest will call in during a busy Friday evening and be immediately greeted. They will Press 2 at the auto attendant and will be forwarded to the hostess stand where she will take your call or be welcome by music while they wait.
If you have Comcast, the service that carries all of these features is Business VoiceEdge. Service takes about two weeks to setup and you need ethernet ports at every location that you want a phone. Price varies depending on other products you add, but it is more than $300 per month. However, think about this: If you miss one order per day at $20-$30, at the end of the month you are missing out on about $600-$900.
There are other services out there that might be cheaper if your phone service provider does not have these business solutions. One such service is www.RingCentral.com.
Nobody wants to hear a busy signal.
Suerte!