Our brains instantly make snap judgments, and form very real perceptions and opinions about everything we encounter.
The first thing every caller notices about your phone system is your number. Either on their caller ID, or as they dial it out. Maybe dialing four twos at the end felt pleasing because two’s my lucky number. Positive associations. Or maybe, as far as I’m concerned, bad things come in twos. Before the call is connected I’m in a defensive, grumpy mode without knowing why.
The only way to affect that reaction is to pick easy to remember numbers. But the only reason you should even bother with that is if you’re 100% sure the second thing callers notice is sure to please.
The second thing every caller to your business notices about your phone system is the audio quality. And their experience will cancel out any positive feelings if it goes the wrong way. If it goes right, it has the potential to make everything better.
The human senses are finely tuned instruments. Hearing plays a crucial role in the perception of our environment. And it’s fast. Subconsciously we’re interpreting sound data before we’re even aware the data’s there.
Our internal automatic analyst has the authority to release hormones and endorphins that will put us in whichever frame of mind our past experience with data like this has deemed appropriate. If the call connects and the audio quality leaves me straining to hear, even if I’m smiling about those twos, my mood will crash. Subconsciously or not, right away memories of all those times struggling through phone conversations are triggered contextually. You can bet I’m not happy about going through it again. Now I’m probably starting to doubt the magic of the twos and angry I’ve wasted so much of my life trusting them.
All that, before you even finish, “Hello.”
Is a high-quality audio connection going to turn around an already sour mode? Probably not. But a bad one might make it worse. Given these two options, I’m going to choose the one that doesn’t make attitudes toward me worse.
It’s hard, frustrating, distracting, and often not worth the effort to go through a conversation straining to hear. Nobody wants to struggle through jitter, latency, or dropped calls. And how many times can you call back to try for a “better line” before it just looks bad?
The reality is, your telephone service provider plays a role in the marketing of your company by the perceptions they help create. Every vendor involved in your system does, from hardware to your ISP.
Besides helping communications flow more easily, selecting providers that ensure top quality audio for your phone connections is an easy way to steer more brand interactions in a positive direction.
The bottom line is, the wrong provider could be harming your reputation and turning customers away. And for those reasons alone, it’s worth bumping quality to the top of your list of criteria when choosing who’ll provide your dial tone.
So before you put your hard earned revenue in the hands of a telecom partner, make sure they’re capable if taking the best care of your organizational image.
