Many organisations claim that around 80% of callers hang up if they
reach an answer manchine or get a busy tone.  Is there any reliable
research for this claim?

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 12 Apr 2005 08:43 PDT

It should come as no surprise that people hand up if they get a busy
tone -- what else can they do?

As for answering machines, it would help to know if you are referring to:

1.  Business calls -- Calls to businesses or from businesses
2.  Personal calls -- Calls to friends and family
3.  All of the above


Please provide whatever additional information you can.  Thanks.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by waltermi-ga on 12 Apr 2005 10:50 PDT

I want to sell a telephone answering service to small organisations
shuch as beauty salons.  Often these organisations do not employ a
telephonist and their clients calling in reach answer machines.  Many
companies who offer such answering services say that 80% of people who
reach an answer machine (in a business context) do not leave a
message.  This seems like a powerful argument for an answering service
and I wondered if the statement was based on some sort of reseach or
was just an "accepted fact".

I think the key to your question is in the wording: "reach an answer
machine or get a busy tone".  It sounds like they want to imply that
80% of people hang up on an answering machine and 80% of people hang
up on a busy tone.

But in reality, 100% of people hang up on busy tones (why would you
talk to it?).  Which means that some percentage less than 80% hang up
on an answering machine.
For example, if people reach an answering machine exactly as often as
they reach a busy signal then your quote means that 60% of people hang
up on answering machines.

So the quick easy answer to the question in your topic is that ...
even if the quote is correct that "80% of callers hang up if they
reach an answer manchine or get a busy tone", then fewer than 80% of
callers hang up on answering machines.  However I have no citation to
give you a more exact answer.

Thanks, the language was sloppy.  You are correct.  The correct
statement is ...and 80% of people do not call back if they get a busy
signal.

In the UK, if you have a service called 'Ringback' enabled, then if
you hit a busy tone you'll be asked to press 5 to connect as soon as
the line is free.

Since it boosts the telecom provider's billing, I suspect that
'Ringback' is generally enabled.

Technically, using 'Ringback' is not hanging up.
- it is a proactive attempt to continue the 'communication'

Personally I suspect that a large proportion of people do hang up when
they hit an answerphone - unless they really /know/ the person at the
other end.

Your answering service looks, initially, like a good idea.
However I'm not sure how much use it would be in the medium term, as
people calling a beauty salon are normally trying to book an
appointment.

My advice would be to offer a message taking service, rather than
getting into booking appointments.

It could just work, but only if your salon owners are fairly organizeable.
- like they do ring back

A friend of mine worked for "Hello", the oldest answering service. 
She worked in customer service, so she had the honor of answering the
phone with "Hello, Hello".  That still cracks me up...

But anways, here is the webpage for the industry leader:
http://www.helloinc.com/index.html

They don't have any stats like the 1 you're looking for, but they have
some nifty products/services.

And here's a quote you might want to use:
"Statistics show that one's presence is the primary factor in
determining if someone wants to get to know them better, or if they
just want to write them off and seek out their competition."
http://athenabc.com/yimpress.htm

That site uses it in a much different context, but it fits.

And here is that statistic (but in a website that no longer works:
"?Did you know that 40 % of callers never leave a message on an
answering machine?? Statistics also show a 47% - 60% increase in
business when callers are ..."  (I with I could read the rest of that
sentence, but I assume it says something like "are greeted by a real
person")
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22answering+machine+statistics%22

**notice this statistic says "never", as in not just for any 1 given
call but for every call.

That's all the fun info I have.  Good luck to you!