Think about all the time we spend these days sending threads upon threads of emails, taking calls, and attending Zoom-meetings. Days spent working from home tend to seem longer than those you spent in the office, don’t they? It’s become normal to find yourself led astray by the myriad tempting offers we find online while casually browsing and before you know it, you might have made a purchase, yet again, prompted by Facebook or Instagram ads leading you to an online store front. After just a sliver of guilt for a leisure spend during work hours, you feel the excitement of getting your new thing, be it an article of clothing or new set of pens.

No worries, it happens to all of us.

Online retail visits and sales projections

In fact, online sales have been breaking records as the number of online retail consumers, globally, in the first six months of the global COVID-19 pandemic rose from 16.7 billion visits per day to 22 billion visits per day, between January and June 2020, respectively. Additionally, it is estimated that there are over 2 billion online retail customers – that’s a quarter of the world’s estimated population!

The difference between physical goods stores and dropshippers

So it’s been a week since you’ve made your purchase. You’ve already e-mailed the seller asking for a status update and they have kindly instructed you to be patient, we’re working on it. “How long can it possibly take?”, you think, “the address says they’re just down the road”, right?

One of the biggest changes we’re seeing in modern e-commerce is the rise of companies who use dropshipping as opposed to selling their own physical goods. Whereas the latter requires the store owner to buy and hold stock of the products they are selling, the former makes it possible for the store owner to have an e-commerce store front where orders are sent directly to wholesale suppliers who send the goods directly to the customer. This means that stores who use a dropshipping model are able to offer goods at much lower prices than traditional brick-and-mortar-turned-e-commerce stores and more often than you think, your “local deal” actually comes from a few continents away.

Who are these retailers? Well, generally, the wholesale suppliers who actually send the product to the customer are based in China (usually from large scale e-commerce platforms like aliexpress or taobao). But often the face of the companies that consumers think they are buying from seem to be local sellers; leaving consumers stumped as to why their packages take so long (4, 5, even 6 weeks) to arrive.

These seemingly local stores then tend to rely on chatbots to deal with their customer service, but in some countries, such as Germany and The Netherlands, it is required by law to have a phone number connected to your website.

The customer service dilemma

Dropshipping retailers are by definition entrepreneurs, sometimes attracted to the main benefit of not needing a large investment or space to start a dropshipping company. However, what dropshipping companies don’t realise they are missing is the essential contact between the customer and the company, whether that be for sales or support.

In order to help the increase of customer satisfaction and sales, it remains a key factor for dropshipping retailers to maintain a local presence that is accessible via phone. Luckily, a physical phone or landline system doesn’t have to be the solution here.

Business phone numbers for dropshippers

Dropshipping retailers can now choose from a wide range of customer service phone numbers:

1. 00800 numbers which expand a company’s global presence and allows customers to call companies for free from 45 countries
2. 0800 numbers which home in a company’s global presence to a national level and are available to call for free in 100+ countries
3. Local phone numbers which hone in a company’s national presence to a local level and allow consumers to call companies with local area codes, at local rates

Modern telcos like TeleForwarding offer VoIP numbers which allow companies to route their business numbers through any destination number – mobile or landline – of their choice. Our additional features offer even more flexibility to give you the best use of your business phone number:

• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a pre-recorded voice menu, allowing your callers to make a selection using the keypad (“Press 1 for symptom disclosure”).
• Voice2Mail offers the choice to direct calls directly to voice mail, where the voice file is converted to text and sent to your company email address. This is great for calls that come in after hours so you can get to customers first thing the next business day.
• With Sequential Ringing you can forward your incoming calls in a certain order to different destination numbers. Is employee 1 not available? Then the call will be forwarded to employee 2, or to a standardized announcement text.

For dropshippers and e-commerce entrepeneurs, there is much to be gained and we at TeleForwarding would be glad to help you.

Interested in setting up a number today? Contact us with your business information and we’ll make it happen ASAP.

Amidst the struggles of the current corona virus pandemic, your trusted telecoms specialists at TeleForwarding wanted to send out a simple reminder: in uncertain times your comms policy is important. In this article, we highlight employee comms and inventory coms.

Internal Comms: Employees

Larger companies can set up a free hotline for their employees to anonymously disclose their proximity to and/or symptoms of the novel coronavirus. This helps to keep HR and compliance teams up to date with the health of their staff. Hotline numbers can also give the option for employees to listen to a prerecorded message (via an IVR menu). Messages can have the most up to date information about health and safety policies, for instance. Or to disclose potential employee exposure to Covid-19. Global operating multinationals can have the same sort of international hotline. Extra options could include cancellation details about upcoming trainings or conferences.

External Comms: Inventory

Brands and manufacturers can also set up a hotline number for their distributors for information about expected restocking. With mass panic comes unnecessary “panic shopping”, leaving stores unprepared and out of stock. Products like non-perishable food items, medication, cleaning products, even toilet paper are the most common to sell out quickly. Having a hotline for inventory allows distributors to give the correct information to the stores they stock. Consequently, these stores can relay the information to customers looking for certain products.

Your One-Stop-Shop Solution is… Right Here!

At TeleForwarding, we have the resources to implement free domestic or international hotline numbers and toll free phone numbers, and local phone numbers.

Our trusted specialists are happy to talk through costs and best features for the number(s) you want to implement in the wake of this Covid-19 outbreak.

There are a number of additional features available:

• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a pre-recorded voice menu, allowing your callers to make a selection using the keypad (“Press 1 for symptom disclosure”).
• Do you receive a large volume of simultaneous incoming calls ? The Call Queue feature allows efficient call routing, especially during busy periods. You can even add targeted messages and hold music for high volume call times.
• With Sequential Ringing you can forward your incoming calls in a certain order to different destination numbers. Is employee 1 not available? Then the call will be forwarded to employee 2, or to a standardized announcement text.

Interested in setting up a number today? Contact us with your business information and we’ll make it happen ASAP.

Check out our other articles about how hotline phone numbers, toll free numbers, and/or virtual landline numbers can help your business through a global health crisis: Hotline Numbers for Public Health Information.

Chances are that you drive a car and that your car is manufactured by a globally renowned automotive brand. One of the most important relationships is between car owner (or leaser) and the representatives of their automotive brand. Good customer service is essential when making the decision to purchase (or lease) a car. 

As a global automotive brand, there are many ways you can provide an excellent customer experience by providing varied solutions for your customers to contact you by phone.

A single brand image; 

A Universal International Freephone Number (UIFN number) is typically designed for companies with global operations using one phone number that can be contacted from many countries. This is obviously a useful tool when selling cars. A UIFN phone number can route incoming calls to whichever department you want. For example incoming German calls can be automatically directed to a German speaking customer service representative. A UIFN toll free number can also be useful for global marketing campaigns. For the duration of new marketing campaigns, you can set up an expanded recording to the campaign’s initiative, giving the option to be connected with the caller’s closest local dealer for follow-up. Having a single phone number attached to your brand reinforces brand consistency while catering to your global client base.

Call tracking

UIFN phone numbers benefit globally operating companies to measure geographical response and take necessary analytical measurements. Information about the success of a global brand campaign in various countries can be tracked easily and in real-time when calls are answered by the UIFN number. If necessary, immediate action can be made based on this information: an essential element in improving the success rate of campaigns and maintaining a positive brand experience for returning customers, too. 

Sales and Services

UIFN toll free numbers help to consolidate your sales and services efforts. Incoming calls to the UIFN number for test drives and specific car information can help determine the demand of each dealership for support so the manufacturers can be briefed on how to distribute products accordingly. Incoming service and support calls can also be an indicator of how your dealers are performing. Monitoring the type of calls coming in can help with customers’ experience by, for instance, investing why one dealership receives a greater number than average of service calls. When monitoring in a crisis, such as a product recall, the automotive brand can provide extra support to those dealerships that have the most incoming product recall complaints and exchanges.

Customer Service Performance

Certain statistics, specifically how long until an incoming call is answered and duration of a call, can give insight on the performance of your greater customer service team. Since customer service can be correlated to sales targets, call tracking is important and gives valuable insight for how your customer service techniques are working in practice. These statistics can help when evaluating the value of your customer service efforts, improve client relationships, and contribute to brand loyalty by means of returning customers.

This is just the tipping point of the importance of telephony in your day-to-day business operation in the automotive industry. Contact us today to learn how UIFN numbers and call tracking can benefit your automotive company.

Regulations around food safety are falling behind the exponential growth of the food production industry, leading to more and more calls about ingredients and food recalls. Food recalls due to allergens or even bacterias are becoming more prevalent than in the past. With that said, companies are reporting more and more food recalls to prevent issues, rather than actual illness or, in the worst case, death. So, it is no surprise that food safety is an important issue. Although different countries have different governing bodies, there is a general standard of reporting a food safety issue. Within 24 hours of getting the information, producers are expected to send at least the following details to their governing body for food safety: reason for food recall, product information, and distribution information.

Case Study

A well-known canned vegetable producer and distributor had an unfortunate packaging mishap in 2018. They were in need of an international toll free number within 24 hours of learning that one of their products might have broken glass inside the packaging. They came to TeleForwarding and we were able to provide a turnaround time quicker than the 24 hours they requested.  

Immediate Response is Key

With situations like the Case Study above, it is important to offer an accessible line for consumers to call to find out the exact information they are looking for. And, when calamity is involved, your regular customer service number won’t do the job. Not only can an international toll free number allow your consumers a direct line to the information they need, they can do it without any extra man power on your end. Here’s how:

Voice Recordings

By definition, the media uses fear tactics to keep the public’s attention. This is no difference in the event of a food recall. Giving the consumer access to a line specific to food recalls can ease the panic and de-escalate the situation. To minimize your consumers’ worries, you can offer a hotline playing a clear pre-recorded voice message. By offering a message to callers about what to do in case of the calamity often communicated in the media, your consumers will not be panicked because they will get the proper information quickly and easily. 

Leave a Message

In addition to voice recordings, you can give the consumer the chance to leave a message stating their specific concerns. With Voice2Mail services, you can have these messages transcribed and sent directly to you. This is a great way to collect data about what your consumers are concerned about in relation to your food recall.

These are just a couple of ways a toll free number benefits the food industry when faced with a food recall. Contact us today to learn more.

There are hundreds of ways that you can make use of toll free numbers to benefit your company’s customer service practices. Within the next weeks, we will show you some ways how companies can apply toll free numbers in different industries.

There are many situations in the health and pharmaceutical industries which call for users to report their information and experiences. You can use a toll free number to report user experience in a number of different ways.

Reporting in clinical trials

In large scale clinical trials, you often have thousands of participants. Instead of having them log their personal information and side effects to submit after the duration of the trial, you could implement a round the clock toll free number. A toll free number benefits trial participants because they can call in their personal statistics and information as they happen. These toll free numbers can be fully automated with a fixed script in the caller’s language, with spoken or keyed in instructions. It can even be individualized per caller. Since these lines are available to many callers simultaneously, it is a good way to keep researchers constantly updated about the data and the patients’ experiences.

Reporting personal statistics

Try implementing a service line specifically for recording personal statistics that patients can measure at home like weight, blood pressure, blood sugars, etc. This saves the patient the effort of having to use online portals or applications. Portals and apps require technological access and certain cognitive abilities that not all members of your clinical trial will necessarily have. A toll free number benefits older people who are not technologically savvy. It gives them the chance to call in and use the touch tone instructions to enter their personal information.

Reporting side effects

It is no secret that medications have side effects. Many people report their side effects to their health care providers but not to the pharmaceutical companies. Imagine the wealth of data that you can collect by offering a universal international toll free number for people to call and report their side effects. Additionally, customers’ as well as the societies trust will be increased.

These are just a few of the ways a toll free number benefits the health and pharmaceutical industries. Contact us today to learn more or to receive individual solutions for your needs.

What is a toll free number?

Toll free numbers were first used in the USA in 1967 by large companies for special events with high volumes of incoming calls, to protect usual day-to-day incoming business calls. 

In England, toll free numbers developed around the same time while other European countries such as Germany invented them only in the 1980s. Toll free numbers are also called freecall or freephone numbers and are mostly accessible via the prefix 1-800 (for example United States or Canada), 0800 (e.g. Germany or the Netherlands) or 800 (e.g. United Kingdom or Italy), although other digit combinations exist in other countries, too. Thus, 0800 numbers cost nothing for the caller. 

So, simply speaking, a toll free number or 0800 number is generally used as an added value service number where callers can call for free within the country and all costs are paid by the organization who is offering the service line. But: While freephone numbers are always free from a landline, costs from a mobile may vary per country. Generally, these lines are used as support lines to help with substantive questions and/or complaints. That’s why, when calling their toll free numbers, a lot of organizations’ automatic call answeringsystems ask you to select a reason for calling before directing you to the right department. 

What is an emergency hotline number?

Historically, hotlines refer to direct communication lines. Pop culture has given us the idea that a red telephone exists for direct calls between important parties or countries in a time of war. Very literally you would be able to pick up the phone and be directly connected to the end user. Nowadays, a hotline number in telecoms refers to a phone number used for large scale incoming calls, often in times of urgency, without fear of a service disruption.

These days, hotlines are emergency hotline numbers commonly set up as exceptional and special events phone lines to connect people in need for specific information sources. In the case of large scale crises, like hurricanes or product recalls, they are set up as toll free numbers to ensure that the proper information is accessible to anyone who needs it.

Are you interested in more information or are you curious about how to set up your own toll free number or emergency hotline number? Contact us for more information.

Global coverage

Last year we already added hundreds of local phone numbers to our portfolio. As you can see below we are nearly able to offer global coverage, as we serve most of the world with our phone numbers!

We have added both domestic toll-free numbers and virtual landline numbers. Toll Free phone numbers are also called 0800 numbers or ITFN, and these are great for establishing an international presence in different countries with free national phone numbers. Local phone numbers are also called geographic numbers, and a virtual number for each city allows you to build a strong local presence with local area codes that people recognize and trust. These are the latest additions to our portfolio:

• Algeria | Geo
• Macedonia | ITFN
• Bosnia & Herzegovina | ITFN
• Tunisia | Geo
• Morocco | ITFN & Geo
• Bangladesh | ITFN

Have a look at the complete list of our global availability and find out in which countries and with what kind of phone numbers we can help you out! Feel free to contact us for more information, or just request a quote and see for yourself why you should consider switching to us.

Give your customers the feeling that you are present, no matter in which country they are vacationing. These numbers are quick and easy to set up, with low costs, but the satisfaction of your customers will definitely increase. Besides, it’s not just their satisfaction you’re feeding, but their loyalty as well.

Call a travel agency for free?

Are you already offering the availability of an online portal to your customers? If so, why not offer them a free 0800 service phone number as well? That way your customers can be reached without people having to pay for a call, but also make a phone call with you or any member of your staff.

Establish a local presence in holiday destinations

You want to give your customers the feeling that their travel agent is a local one, even in their holiday country? With a geographical number including call forwarding to any country, your customers can reach you at local rates and the call will be routed to your location. Your customers will feel better cared for and their confidence in your company will increase.

With 0800 service numbers or geographic numbers your customers are guaranteed to come in first place. This in turn creates trust, satisfaction and loyalty. Your customers will thank you and will certainly book their next trip with you again.

Find out more about our service numbers, give us a call on +800 00123456 or contact us through our website.

This proves there is still a lot to gain for most organisations. After all, a happy customer does not require a third party to take care of his frustrations. But we in fact should ask ourselves what has changed in the past few years? We discussed this study from 2012 (in Dutch), which was held again in 2014. So let’s have a look at some core conclusions:

1. More consumers think businesses are paying less attention to providing good customer service; from 32% to 38%.
2. Three out of four (74%) consumers say they have spent more with a company because of a history of
   positive customer service experiences, which is similar to 2012 (75%).
3. Consumers tell more people about their bad customer service experiences (21 people on average) than their good experiences (8 people).
4. Fewer people use social media to seek a response from a company to help them with a service issue – 40% vs. 50% in 2012.
5. On average, consumers are willing to wait a maximum of 13 minutes on hold when they contact a customer service center by telephone (unchanged).

The 1st point is worrying, and it implies there indeed is still a lot to gain when it comes to customer service. The 2nd emphasizes the need for good customer service. The 3rd point is no surprise, it’s easier to talk about negative experiences.  The 4th, however, is a bit more surprising; with social media on the rise (penetration rates increased from 50% to 60% of the internet users between 2012 and 2014, varying per region) you would expect that more consumers use these channels they know well and use actively. Lastly, the 5th point proves that ‘traditional’ customer service is here to stay.

Therefore we still see a future where digital communication and traditional telephony go hand in hand, in order to provide the best possible service and experience for customers. In this article we go into this more detailed.

Here at TeleForwarding, we believe that good customer service boils down to a melting pot of strengths that companies often exhibit well.  Some of these strengths include: consistency, reliability, trustworthiness, accessibility, communication and empathy. What do you think?

Customer service is important to your business because it is often the only direct contact a customer has with your company. With some customers spending hundreds and even thousands of euros or pounds a year on your products or services, they expect your company’s customer service department to be there for them when they need help resolving certain issues.

These are all things we kind of already knew, but here is some cold hard evidence that what our bosses (and bosses’ bosses) have been drilling into us all these years is indeed still true: American Express conducts a yearly Global Customer Service Barometer to keep track of the ever-important state of customer service in the United States. Their most recent report has a number of great insights that could be useful in your quest to give the best customer service you can give.

In their 2014 report of a survey conducted by Ebiquity, findings show that nearly three in four consumers spend more with a company that provides them with a great costumer service experience. With an incredible 68% of consumers saying they would be willing to spend up to 14% more with a company who offers top-notch customer service.

While the world of online communication has been booming, talking on the phone remains in the top preferred sources of customer service. This is especially true when customers are asking more complex questions. Moreover, the results showed that a large majority of consumers believe that companies’ ability to ‘provide a satisfactory answer to their question’ and being able to ‘connect them with someone who is knowledgeable’ are the two most important factors in the definition of excellent customer service.

You may be asking what all of these things mean to you. Well, this is where you step in with your excellent customer service as that differentiating factor that consumers are looking for – perhaps you could add a freephone number, restructure your IVR menu or plan your resources in a slightly different way? Usually it’s just a small thing that differentiates the good from the great.

Here at TeleForwarding, we believe that great customer service boils down to a melting pot of a large number of strengths, including transparency, reliability, trustworthiness, accessibility, communication and empathy – combined with a mix of top-notch communication channels, such as telephony, email and online chat services.

What do you think? Join the conversation in our comment section.

photo credit: voyager_legend_uc_man_office_talking