In today’s Basic Bananas TV episode we are talking about those little annoying communication FUNdamentals that can be a little bit frustrating when dealing with a business.

Franziska and Christo cover five things to improve communication and be more professional.[Christo cracks himself up right at the start and starts spitting!]

2.10s 1. Get an email address with your business domain
3.04s 2. Have a landline versus only using your mobile
3.40s 3. Voice to text sucks! Allow customers to leave a proper voice message for you (and reply!)
4.50s 4. Phone answer services are awesome! Go on holidays and have someone pick up the phone for you!
5.48s 5. Make it easy for people to get in touch with you!

What are some things that annoy YOU when interacting with a business? I’m really curious about that one! Let us know below!

 

Christo Hall: Okay, I want to give these guys a call. I‘ll give them a call out… I’ll put them on loud speaker, why not?

Welcome to our business. Please say the department that you would like to speak to.

Christo Hall: Financial services.

I didn‘t get that.

Christo Hall: Financial services.

Okay, putting you through to environmental care.

Christo Hall: FINANCIAL SERVICES!!!

I‘m sorry. I didn‘t…

Christo Hall: FINANCIAL SERVICES!!!

I‘m sorry, I didn‘t…

Christo Hall: FINANCIAL!

I‘m sorry, I didn‘t get…

Christo Hall: FINANCIAL!

I‘m sorry, I didn‘t get that. I‘m sorry, I didn‘t get that.

Franziska Iseli Hall: What are you doing, spitting in my face? Why are you so grumpy? Why are you yelling and spitting at the same time?

Christo Hall: I‘m frustrated by these automated phone services. It‘s all about customer service, isn‘t it? Unfortunately some businesses don‘t get it, and they actually repel their clients. They make their clients very upset and frustrated when they try to call.

Franziska Iseli Hall: Yeah, that‘s true. This is just one example, especially I guess when I call these guys, they never get my accent. But there‘s a couple of things that we‘ve realized very much in the last couple of months, even years; a few fundamentals that small businesses don‘t do really well. I can‘t actually generalize, but some people don‘t cover all these fundamentals. There‘s five things that we have realized over the last few months that are really important to make your image a little bit more professional and to not upset guys like Christo.

Christo Hall: That‘s right. It‘s all about creating the perception for your clients. And there‘s some really basic simple things that people miss.

The first one is having an email. So obviously there‘s phone which we‘re going to go through, but the email account, when you interact with people if your email is a Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail you do not look like a business; so you do not look established. Even consultants who are professional and your clients and prospects might know that it‘s just you, but it does not look like a business; so you have to be aware of that. You can register a domain name, a business name very easily. So it‘s quite simple and very low cost. You can do it by month or if you set up a website, it should be free with your hosting to have your email account.

Franziska Iseli Hall: Yeah, and you see so many addresses and people, maybe someone I want to work with or somebody I want to give money to, and if they give me an email address that says Gmail.com or Yahoo.com, it‘s not very professional. Now, that‘s the first thing.

The second thing is your phone number. So I highly recommend not using your mobile number everywhere, but rather register a landline. There‘s a couple of services that you can use that can give you landlines if you don‘t have one. So rather than just pulling your mobile number everywhere, have a landline. It looks more professional.

Christo Hall: Yes, very smart point. And if you have a mobile and you prefer a mobile, even if you have a number that‘s just a landline that‘s redirected to your mobile. For instance, as you‘ve just mentioned, you don‘t have to even have a landline; you can redirect to a mobile. If you take business calls on your mobile in any way, shape or form or on any phone, have a voicemail. You must have voicemail or an answering service. Because unfortunately if you don‘t, you‘re making it hard for people. So you‘re making the user experience so much harder for people.

There‘s even people when we start working with them in our program and there‘s no voicemail, I‘ll even try to get in touch and when we‘re supporting them, they‘re paying us, but I still can‘t get in touch. We‘ll leave a message. So think about your prospects and the user experience for them. You must have voicemail if you are using your mobile or whatever phone number people are calling into.

Franziska Iseli Hall: It‘s such a basic, little tip, but you would be surprised how many people don‘t have a voice message or they have this stupid voice to text thing that is very difficult to even understand.

Christo Hall: It‘s frustrating.

Franziska Iseli Hall: It‘s very frustrating. That‘s the third tip; the fourth one out of the five is if you are not picking up the phone very frequently because you‘re busy with working with clients or with customers or you‘re on holiday, make sure that you do work with a phone answering service as Christo said. Make sure you engage a company that can pick up the phone for you. It‘s fantastic. It can be very low cost. It‘s really not that expensive if you can get a phone answering service.

What happens is, every single phone call goes to them. They pick it up in your name. So they say, “It‘s Heidi here for Basic Bananas. How can I help?” And then you say, “I want to talk to Christo.” That phone answering service that works from somewhere else will say, “Just a second.” They call this number, they said, “Hey, do you want to talk to Heidi or Franziska?” So then he can say yes or no. And they always pick up the phone for you.

So even if you go on a holiday or you take a day or two off, it doesn‘t matter. Your business keeps running and it‘s one of the best investments that we made before we had people that were working for us. So when it was just us two, couple years ago, starting out the business, we invested in a phone answering service. Very low cost, and it was one of the best investments.

Christo Hall: Yeah, it‘s a really low cost way to have yourself a secretary, like a receptionist. So it is like a virtual receptionist, very smart indeed. And number five is just make it easy for people. Just look over your information; don‘t hide your contact information. A lot of those big sites can get away with it, someone like PayPal or something, it can be hard to get in touch with a real person because they‘ve got the system so automated. And you‘re still going to use it.

You as a small business make it really easy for people to get in touch with you. You definitely don‘t want to hide all your contact details because unfortunately we see that happening again as well.

So I hope these tips will be beneficial for you as you implement them. And I‘m sure they will be if you haven‘t got these things set up already. For the future, please set them up because it will make a world of difference when you use these.

Franziska Iseli Hall: And you know what? There might be other things that I‘d love to know from you, what are the other things that are a little bit annoying to you when you interact with businesses or even with other people? For you they are basics, but maybe not for other people. What are some fundamentals that you think, “You know what? This is really annoying me when they don‘t do it.” So post below and share your ideas, because you have amazing ideas for sure. So what are some things that are annoying you a little bit when you interact with businesses? Let us know below, because everyone can learn and we want to know your little tips and tricks as well.

Christo Hall: That‘s right. Thanks for being cool. See you soon.

Franziska Iseli Hall: See you soon. Bye.


Christo Hall:  Okay, I want to give these guys a call. I‘ll give them a call out… I’ll put them on loud speaker, why not?

Welcome to our business. Please say the department that you would like to speak to.

Christo Hall:  Financial services.

I didn‘t get that.

Christo Hall:  Financial services.

Okay, putting you through to environmental care.

Christo Hall:  FINANCIAL SERVICES!!!

I‘m sorry. I didn‘t…

Christo Hall:  FINANCIAL SERVICES!!!

I‘m sorry, I didn‘t…

Christo Hall:  FINANCIAL!

I‘m sorry, I didn‘t get…

Christo Hall:  FINANCIAL!

I‘m sorry, I didn‘t get that. I‘m sorry, I didn‘t get that.

Franziska Iseli Hall:  What are you doing, spitting in my face? Why are you so grumpy? Why are you yelling and spitting at the same time?

Christo Hall:  I‘m frustrated by these automated phone services. It‘s all about customer service, isn‘t it? Unfortunately some businesses don‘t get it, and they actually repel their clients. They make their clients very upset and frustrated when they try to call.

Franziska Iseli Hall:  Yeah, that‘s true. This is just one example, especially I guess when I call these guys, they never get my accent. But there‘s a couple of things that we‘ve realized very much in the last couple of months, even years; a few fundamentals that small businesses don‘t do really well. I can‘t actually generalize, but some people don‘t cover all these fundamentals. There‘s five things that we have realized over the last few months that are really important to make your image a little bit more professional and to not upset guys like Christo.

Christo Hall:  That‘s right. It‘s all about creating the perception for your clients. And there‘s some really basic simple things that people miss.

The first one is having an email. So obviously there‘s phone which we‘re going to go through, but the email account, when you interact with people if your email is a Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail you do not look like a business; so you do not look established. Even consultants who are professional and your clients and prospects might know that it‘s just you, but it does not look like a business; so you have to be aware of that. You can register a domain name, a business name very easily. So it‘s quite simple and very low cost. You can do it by month or if you set up a website, it should be free with your hosting to have your email account.

Franziska Iseli Hall:  Yeah, and you see so many addresses and people, maybe someone I want to work with or somebody I want to give money to, and if they give me an email address that says Gmail.com or Yahoo.com, it‘s not very professional. Now, that‘s the first thing.

The second thing is your phone number. So I highly recommend not using your mobile number everywhere, but rather register a landline. There‘s a couple of services that you can use that can give you landlines if you don‘t have one. So rather than just pulling your mobile number everywhere, have a landline. It looks more professional.

Christo Hall:  Yes, very smart point. And if you have a mobile and you prefer a mobile, even if you have a number that‘s just a landline that‘s redirected to your mobile. For instance, as you‘ve just mentioned, you don‘t have to even have a landline; you can redirect to a mobile. If you take business calls on your mobile in any way, shape or form or on any phone, have a voicemail. You must have voicemail or an answering service. Because unfortunately if you don‘t, you‘re making it hard for people. So you‘re making the user experience so much harder for people.

There‘s even people when we start working with them in our program and there‘s no voicemail, I‘ll even try to get in touch and when we‘re supporting them, they‘re paying us, but I still can‘t get in touch. We‘ll leave a message. So think about your prospects and the user experience for them. You must have voicemail if you are using your mobile or whatever phone number people are calling into.

Franziska Iseli Hall:  It‘s such a basic, little tip, but you would be surprised how many people don‘t have a voice message or they have this stupid voice to text thing that is very difficult to even understand.

Christo Hall:  It‘s frustrating.

Franziska Iseli Hall:  It‘s very frustrating. That‘s the third tip; the fourth one out of the five is if you are not picking up the phone very frequently because you‘re busy with working with clients or with customers or you‘re on holiday, make sure that you do work with a phone answering service as Christo said. Make sure you engage a company that can pick up the phone for you. It‘s fantastic. It can be very low cost. It‘s really not that expensive if you can get a phone answering service.

What happens is, every single phone call goes to them. They pick it up in your name. So they say, “It‘s Heidi here for Basic Bananas. How can I help?” And then you say, “I want to talk to Christo.” That phone answering service that works from somewhere else will say, “Just a second.” They call this number, they said, “Hey, do you want to talk to Heidi or Franziska?” So then he can say yes or no. And they always pick up the phone for you.

So even if you go on a holiday or you take a day or two off, it doesn‘t matter. Your business keeps running and it‘s one of the best investments that we made before we had people that were working for us. So when it was just us two, couple years ago, starting out the business, we invested in a phone answering service. Very low cost, and it was one of the best investments.

Christo Hall:  Yeah, it‘s a really low cost way to have yourself a secretary, like a receptionist. So it is like a virtual receptionist, very smart indeed. And number five is just make it easy for people. Just look over your information; don‘t hide your contact information. A lot of those big sites can get away with it, someone like PayPal or something, it can be hard to get in touch with a real person because they‘ve got the system so automated. And you‘re still going to use it.

You as a small business make it really easy for people to get in touch with you. You definitely don‘t want to hide all your contact details because unfortunately we see that happening again as well.

So I hope these tips will be beneficial for you as you implement them. And I‘m sure they will be if you haven‘t got these things set up already. For the future, please set them up because it will make a world of difference when you use these.

Franziska Iseli Hall:  And you know what? There might be other things that I‘d love to know from you, what are the other things that are a little bit annoying to you when you interact with businesses or even with other people? For you they are basics, but maybe not for other people. What are some fundamentals that you think, “You know what? This is really annoying me when they don‘t do it.” So post below and share your ideas, because you have amazing ideas for sure. So what are some things that are annoying you a little bit when you interact with businesses? Let us know below, because everyone can learn and we want to know your little tips and tricks as well.

Christo Hall:  That‘s right. Thanks for being cool. See you soon.

Franziska Iseli Hall:  See you soon. Bye.