PhonePresence Branch and Retail Store Locator
Connect Callers to the appropriate Branch Office or Store Location
Many Sites - One Number?
Companies with many sites face a strategic dilemma when promoting sales phone numbers.
A number for each branch is not practical for a nationwide advertising campaign and is an expensive administrative overhead in keeping directories and systems up to date. A centralized call centre can appear to be an efficient solution, but call centres are famous for anonymity and there is the danger that staff at the branches can lose the perception of owning inbound sales enquiries, at the worst leading to apathy or negativity towards the call centre.
A PhonePresence Branch Locator service is typically a single number that directs callers to the appropriate branch using a variety of the most advanced telephony technologies. Greater customer acquisition can be achieved with a uniformly high quality of service, yet promotion costs are reduced. In fact, even with a non-geographic number that is low cost to the consumer, the Branch Locator service can be self-liquidating, or even revenue generating.
Customer Call Direction
PhonePresence Branch Locator has a number of resources which you can use to get the caller to the right branch. The ones you use depend on policy, budget and personal preference:
Speech Recognition
Automatic Speech Recognition means PhonePresence can act as a team of virtual operators, each routing calls according to the caller's instructions. However, it may not be suitable for all applications and should generally be used in parallel with other location methods.
Tone Menus
For a simple application with a handful of branches, Tone Menus alone may be the most reliable, speedy and economical method of getting a caller to the correct site. Even when speech recognition is employed, we recommend that callers are given the option of using their keypad. Some callers do not like talking to a system, and in some instances it may not be convenient.
Landline STD Location
Where the calling number is passed from a caller, it usually makes sense to offer them the nearest branch, maybe with the option of choosing a different one. Catchment areas are identified during the design phase and mappings made from STD codes.
Mobile Location Technology
For clients wishing to attract nearby mobile clients, mobile location technology can be applied in certain cases, subject to cost and privacy restrictions. From most applications, speech recognition or tone menus are a better solution for mobile callers.
Central Management - Local Ownership
A PhonePresence Branch Locator service gives every caller to your organization the same, high quality initial response. If you wish, a studio quality recording by a trained voice artist can greet them. When the reach the branch, they will be answered by someone with local knowledge and an interest in serving their enquiry.
At all times in the process, the system provides full management information as to the call process. Real time data can show how branches are performing in terms of answering times or call queue lengths. Busy periods and bottlenecks can be identified. Calls can be centrally recorded for training or 'Mystery Shopper' purposes. So your organization gets the benefit of a measured and quality response, yet without disenfranchising branch managers.
Reduce Staff Time on Repetitive Enquiries
Often, a large number of callers are asking the same question - the most typical is "what are your opening hours?" PhonePresence can offer up to date information to regular callers, releasing staff time for sales related issues. Information may be static, or linked to data sources, so it is always up to date. By employing a single number, the path to enhance the service to Self-Service phone ordering or general information lines is an easy one.
Number Options, Costs and Revenue Opportunities
Typically, Non-Geographic Numbers offered as part of the PhonePresence Branch Locator package fall into one of the following three categories:
| 080 Freephone | The caller pays nothing from a landline and your organization pays for the call |
| 0844 Lo-Call | The caller pays typically 5p a minute at all times |
| 0871 National Rate | The caller pay typically 10p a minute at all times |
When choosing a number, you should consider that callers from mobiles (typically over a third of UK callers) do not generally get the benefit of freephone, since the mobile operators continue to charge. The higher the tariff, the more chance that the service will be able to cover the running costs or generate revenue for your company.
With a memorable number, you have more chance that your customer will remember it and come back to you next time. You can brand your organization through your number and publish it with confidence throughout your promotion.
A separate PhonePresence number for each branch can also be integrated with the main number, allowing suppliers or regular callers a short cut, but keeping them within the main infrastructure and revenue generation plan.
All the Benefits of an Outsourced Phone System
The Branch Locator is built on the PhonePresence hosted phone system platform. This means all the functionality of PhonePresence Corporate Edition can be made available to the staff taking a call. So an inbound caller can be transferred to another branch, without redialing for example.
Each branch can be treated as a group of Call Centre agents, who login to a group to make themselves available to take calls. Callers waiting for an answer can be queued and given reassurance or promotional messages. If a caller has to wait too long, their call can be forwarded to a different branch, central call centre or to the inbuilt PhonePresence Voicemail system.
Then voicemail messages can be forwarded to the relevant branch as email attachments. Outside hours, or at various times during the day or week, PhonePresence can completely change the way in which calls are routed, switching them to alternative locations, information messages or voicemail.
PhonePresence is VoIP ready and the Branch Locator service can be fully integrated with a roll out of VoIP to sites. This gives your organization further benefits in terms of on-site equipment costs, zero branch to branch call costs, lower outbound call costs and the potential for increased revenue.
One Number to Promote
A Memorable Number to brand your organization and for customer retention
Get customers to branch quickly using the best technology
Central management of phone response quality
Retain local ownership of inbound phone traffic
Reduce staff time handling repetitive enquiries
Manage branch performance and analyze call traffic
No cost of ownership
Low running costs with potential for revenue generation
Built in disaster recovery
No add-on devices required for Voicemail, IVR, Call Recording, Management
Migration path for VoIP convergence
24/7 operation maintained by X-on engineers
Backed by a company with years of experience and thousands of clients
If you need more information or clarification then please contact us or call our sales team on 0333 332 0000.
