How to run the test
Use a different phone
Call your business number from a phone that isn’t forwarded, like a family member’s cell, so you hear what customers hear.
Act like a customer
Don’t read from a script. Talk the way your real callers do, including the ones who ramble or are in a hurry.
Note what sounds off
Write down any answer that’s wrong, vague, or not how you’d say it.
Fix it and call again
Update the answer, then call again. Changes apply to the next call. Most owners are done in two or three rounds.
Once the test calls sound right, turn on forwarding with your carrier and make one last call to your business number.
The test call checklist
- Ask your hours, and ask whether you’re open on a specific day.
- Ask a price you’re happy to share, and one you aren’t, to hear how it handles both.
- Ask for something you don’t do. It should say so politely instead of guessing.
- Ask whether you serve a town just outside your area.
- Book an appointment, then check your calendar (Real Talk and Big Talk).
- Describe an urgent problem and check that the transfer reaches you.
- Describe an urgent problem, then don’t answer the transfer. Check that the message text arrives.
- Call after hours and check that it handles the call the way you set.
- Call and speak Spanish from the start.
- Interrupt it in the middle of a sentence, and change your mind halfway through a request.
- Give your phone number quickly, or correct a digit, and check the summary gets it right.
- Ask whether you’re talking to a person.
- Leave a message and check the Talk Note by text and email.
- Hang up right after it answers and check that the missed-call text arrives on your test phone (Real Talk and Big Talk).
Questions
How many test calls should I make?
Enough to get through the checklist. Most owners are done in two or three rounds.
I’m not a Spanish speaker. How do I test Spanish?
Ask a Spanish-speaking friend, customer, or employee to make one call and tell you how it went.
What if an answer is still wrong after I change it?
Check that the fix is saved, then call again. If it still isn’t right, contact us and we’ll look at it with you.
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