Phone calls are one of the most urgent communication channels a customer can use. When they reach out for help, they’re actively taking time out of their day to speak to you in real time, with the expectation of a reply as soon as possible.
When you’re a small-business owner, it’s not always easy to reply to these calls right away. That’s why voicemail transcriptions are so helpful. Text transcripts of your voicemail save valuable time by giving you the option to read the message instead of listen to it.
While you can go through the complicated process of setting up Visual Voicemail on your iPhone, or adding it through your carrier on Android, you’ll always have to seek out this transcript manually. Our SmartLine app provides these transcriptions to you automatically, placing them with the rest of your customer’s texts, voicemails and missed calls.
Using these voicemail transcriptions makes it easier to maintain a healthy work/life balance and lets you prioritize your outreach more efficiently. Following below are four ways voicemail transcription enables your business to provide the best possible experience for your customers.
1. Saves small-business owners valuable time
With a voicemail transcript, you don’t have to spend time listening to customer voicemails over and over to get all the information. Just access the text transcription through the SmartLine app and read through it like you would any other email or SMS text message. Automating the process of providing these transcripts helps you get closer to the customer.
Using automatic voicemail transcriptions also helps you streamline your personal workflows. Easy access to the customer’s name and phone number, as well as their specific inquiry, makes it easy to understand and respond, too. If you’re not able to call back on the phone right away, you can reach out to the customer via text or email (whichever works best for you at the time) and let them know you’ve received their call. This manages their expectations for follow-up and builds trust.
2. Helps prioritize outreach based on customer need
Managing customer outreach is difficult, especially if you’re the only one doing it. Voicemail transcripts communicate customer inquiries faster than the recordings, allowing you to better determine which issues require the most urgent callbacks. Instead of listening to the same voicemail over and over again to suss out the customer’s information and specific problem, you can simply reference the transcript.
Voicemail transcripts are an organizational tool as well. Instead of spending time looking for the right voicemail message in your inbox, trying to remember the date and time you received a particular call, you can scroll through your transcripts for any customer and parse the importance of their questions directly.
Remember: Customers will always think that their inquiry is the most important, so you need to address that when you reach out to let them know you’ll reply back in time.
3. Keeps a clear record of past conversations
Text is much easier to reference than a recording. When you’re tracking past customer conversations, it’s much easier to copy and paste information than to spend the time listening to recordings yourself and jotting it down. Just copy these transcripts into the customer notes, and you have access to valuable context at a moment’s notice. Or search past transcripts quickly without having to listen to any of the messages in real time.
Plus, text transcripts don’t pick up customers’ accents, phone service issues, or sirens going off in the background of a call. You’ll see only the most important information.
4. Easily shared with a team or customer relationship management platform
When you receive a voicemail that is particularly interesting, relays positive feedback about your product, or calls out a bad experience, a transcription can be a valuable learning tool as well. You can easily copy the text transcript and share it directly, or upload it to your customer relationship management (CRM) platform for access from your team.
These voicemail transcripts also help you keep a record of customer satisfaction over time. Anyone who accesses your CRM, or receives a copy of the transcript, will know exactly what’s going on with your customers without having to spend their time listening to the actual recording. This makes providing a continuous customer experience simple and straightforward as your small business grows.
Using voicemail transcriptions with GoDaddy SmartLine
With SmartLine, you receive automatic text transcripts for any voicemail on your business phone number. You don’t have to do anything except open the app and read through the voicemail directly. While there, scroll back through past interactions to understand exactly what the customer is looking for.
Getting SmartLine set up for your business only takes a matter of minutes and can be available for under $10 a month. First, choose a number that you want to use for your business phone line on the website. You have the option of both local and toll-free numbers. Then, just download the SmartLine app and start making calls and receiving your voicemail transcripts right away.
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