The Background:
The telephone, as a method of communication, is flawed in that both the caller and the person being called must be simultaneously present at both ends of the line (and willing to speak with each other!).
It will probably come as no surprise to you that some three quarters of all business telephone calls are not completed on the first attempt. The result is an incredible amount of wasted time and money not to mention the frustration it causes.
If two people can't make contact (for whatever reason), you have all the makings of the familiar 'game' of 'telephone tennis'. The aim of which is to see how many 'ring me back' messages two people can leave for each other before finally getting to speak.
In addition, half of the calls are for one-way transfers of information. And two-thirds of all phone calls are less important than the work they interrupt.
Most companies average between £30 and £100 per employee per month in call charges. By using voice mail, a company can reduce call attempts by as much as 40%.
How It Works:
Voicemail normally operates as the message recording section of a call handling system, where the Auto Attendant is the answering/transfer section. Some companies operate the two independently, but this is becoming rarer as most packages sold today include both operations as standard.
When a letter is delivered for a member of staff it is normally placed in that person's personal mail-box or pigeon hole. They would then periodically check this location to collect any new items. Voicemail works in a similar way using a computer to sort and deliver voice messages. Each person has his/her own designated 'Mail-Box' on the Voicemail system which stores voice messages electronically. If the person is not available when a call comes in, the Voicemail offers the caller the option of leaving a message for him/her (a bit like a personal answer phone). As PINs are used for security these messages can be accessed
ONLY by the person for whom they were left.
Let us assume that a call comes in for an extension, however, it is engaged (this can be either an external or internal call). The voicemail will play the extensions own personal greeting, and take a message, for example, 'hello, this is Bob... I'm unable to take your call at the moment, but please leave a detailed message and I'll call you back as soon as I return to my desk'.
The message is placed in Bob's own personal Mail-Box. As more messages arrive, each one is placed in its owner's Mail-Box. Later Bob can call the voice mail system, and listen to his messages. The voice mail system can also page or telephone the owner to remind them there are messages waiting. With most present day telephone systems, a handset button is programmed to light-up when a message is left. Some systems will give out a broken dial tone via the handset earpiece to indicate this.
The Benefits:
The benefits of using voicemail are numerous and in some cases fairly obvious. Listed below are twelve main points for consideration:
• Voicemail improves communications. Its lets people communicate in non-real time.
• When you leave messages on a voicemail system, your calls are invariably shorter. You get right to the point. Live communications encourages 'chit chat' - wasting time and money.
• Clients and business associates can contact you at any time to leave a message. It may sound somewhat trivial at first, however, co-coordinating calls between time zones is always frustrating.
• Instead of constantly answering calls and taking messages employees are free to do other tasks.
• It has been estimated that this technology can cut callbacks by as much as 50%, thereby saving money.
• Voicemail is more accurate and private than message slips.
• Nobody likes to be put on hold. Voicemail, by allowing the caller to be routed directly to a person's message box, streamlines the set up of calls.
• It lessens peak-load traffic.
• There's always a couple of hours a day that are far busier than any others. By siphoning off many of the calls, auto attendant/voice mail eases the burden - both your receptionists and, more importantly, your callers'.
• Auto attendant/voicemail works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This, of course, can be crucial. No matter how efficient and dedicated your staff are, they will eventually want to take a break and even go home every now and then! Your auto- attendant/voice mail system, however, is loyal, routing callers to appropriate mailboxes, taking messages, playing particular opening and mailbox greetings depending on the time of day and day of the year, and even paging message-notification calls to your remote employees at programmed locations.
• Voicemail creates innovative communication channels that will revolutionize your internal communications. The broadcasting feature comes initially to mind. With it, a single person in your company can send a message to everyone or a particular group of people in your organization. Voicemail, thus, allow a group of people working on an important project to stay in constant contact - morning, noon and night. Messages can be collected 24 hours a day, 365 days a year from any touch-tone telephone anywhere in the world!
Justification Summary:
A survey performed by the telecom giant AT&T, showed that during the normal working day, the likelihood of a caller being connected to the person required on the first attempt was only 18%.
In general terms this means that there is a 82% probability that the caller will not be connected on the first occasion, resulting in requests to call back, etc. The main reasons for non connection being that the recipient of the call is in a meeting, already on the phone or simply out of the office.
Because the caller fails to get a suitable connection the first time there usually follows a game of telephone tag. Voicemail stops this expensive game.
The introduction of voicemail into a company saves money in a number of areas. Firstly, it saves your staff from spending time calling backwards and forwards and, secondly, it saves the actual cost of these returned calls. Studies by voicemail users show that the average mailbox owner needs to make two less calls per day.
Cost Saving example on 200 users:
Although this example is shown for 200 users, the equation can be either increased or decreased.
Two calls saved per day @ 10p = 20p per user x 200 users daily saving of £40.00
240 working days per annum results in an annual saving of £9,600.00.
In addition to these hard savings, there are unquantifiable savings resulting from improved use of time, with the ability of an individual to work uninterrupted.
A second receptionist or overflow operator, working the same hours as an auto attendant would not be possible!
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