One of my true passions in life is fly fishing.
Shortly after renting A River Runs Through It and becoming completely enamored with the beauty of Brad Pitt’s shadow casting, I picked up an old fly rod at a garage sale and was forever hooked.
Fast forward a few decades and I recently had the joy of backpacking with my son in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. We camped at a breathtaking lake for a couple of days, catching and releasing trout to our heart’s content. It was a fantastic weekend!
But fly fishing is not without its challenges. With an abundance of rocks and trees, it’s only a matter of time before you snag your fly and snap it off. Furthermore, the act of casting can result in a variety of inextricable snags and tangles — with the only solution being to cut the line and start over.
It’s in those moments where I’m reconstructing my setup, attempting to tie nearly microscopic knots in fading daylight, that I become keenly aware of the fish jumping all around me. Fish that I’m not going to catch because I don’t have a line in the water.
The importance of catching new customers
I’ve been interacting with and serving customers now for nearly two decades, many of those customers being small business owners, entrepreneurs, and solopreneurs.
I can remember one particular conversation with a plumber. As we talked, he stressed the importance of never, ever missing a call or text message from a customer. He said something to the effect of:
“When a customer contacts me, if I don’t respond immediately, they will go to the next number in the phone book (or Google, Yelp, etc) and contact that company.”
Every missed call or text message from a customer very well might represent a missed customer or opportunity and that means missed revenue. That’s a VERY big deal!
Hook more customers with String
If the above describes your sentiments as a business owner, I’ve got the perfect solution for you: String.
With String, you can ALWAYS have a line in the water, available to hook your next big customer or opportunity. Here are just a few ways String makes this possible.
Respond to customers 24/7 with Unavailable Responses
I know that many business owners wear their ability to work long hours, burning the candle at both ends, like a badge of honor. But even they have to break to eat and sleep once in a while.
That’s where the ability to set your status to unavailable and simultaneously trigger an instant text message response to anyone who contacts you during that time comes in really handy.
Go a step further and create a more personalized away message for family, friends, and known contacts. Try a new angle and tailor a separate, more sales-oriented message for leads and prospects who are reaching out to you for the first time.
Buy yourself precious time with Missed Call Responses
Sometimes there’s just no way to get to every call that comes in. Not only that, but catching up on missed calls can be tough to tackle.
You’re on the phone with a customer and another call comes in. Sure, you could send them to voicemail and do your best to call back when the other call is finished. But in that time, you may have already lost their interest. (And not all of us have the capacity to set up call forwarding for other people to take the call.)
Boost their confidence by configuring an instant missed call text message response that will arrive even before they’ve finished leaving their voicemail. And if you are expecting a call from a certain, big prospect, create a personalized missed call response, complete with a first name merge tag so they know just how important their call is to you.
Share essential information with Keyword Responses
How often do customers call just to check and see if your office is open? Save everyone some time with keyword responses.
For example, your customers can simply text “hours” to your number. They’ll instantly receive a text message with your hours of operation along with any other information you want to share.
Lure customers with keyword responses. Whet their appetites with drip campaigns and more. With keyword responses, the possibilities are truly endless!
Ready to take the bait?
How does the prospect of never missing another call or text message from a customer sound to you? If this piques your interest, you can sign up at JoinString.com.
You can learn more about String in our Help Center. If you’re an existing NumberBarn customer, our customer support team will be happy to help you upgrade your service.
May there be much less fishing and much more catching of customers in your future!
