In keeping with one of the main themes of this blog - that good customer service is all about making it easier for your customers to deal with you - let's look now at the concept of a customer hotline. Unfortunately, in many cases the customer hotline should be renamed the customer 'slow line'. We are all aware of the frustration of calling a customer hotline, only to be told by a mechanical voice that our call is important before then being kept waiting for up to an hour before we get to speak with a real person. As customers we are becoming less tolerant of this form of very bad customer service. It's insulting, especially when the company that you are calling is making billions of dollars and you have to keep handing over your money.
The concept of a customer hotline is simply to provide answers to questions, to enable people to buy a product, and to act as a point of reference and reassurance which customers can use if they need to. If your telephones are always busy, there is the possibility that you are losing a lot of sales simply because people can't get through or they are tired of being put on hold. Some businesses may have a sales hotline and a service hotline. Differentiating the two will enable better priority management, although in the true sense of customer service both lines should be equally important. (Here's a tip: if ever you find yourself waiting in a mechanized queue, just press the option that involves sales and you will be put through a person much faster.)
For many businesses, having a customer hotline looks professional and gives the customer a sense of reassurance that, after they have handed over their money, they will still be looked after. From a customer service point of view, the risk is reduced and the customer feels more secure when making a purchase.
Several businesses could combine forces to provide a joint customer service hotline to answer inquiries about each business. The main point here is that your customers will have one telephone number that they can ring to get information or to make a purchase.
If you decide to set-up a customer hotline, make sure that you tell your customers about it and explain how it works.