The first contact you or another employee in your company has with a client or customer may well be over the telephone. Whoever answers the phone represents the entire organization and its philosophy about customer service to the person on the other end of the line. Make sure that you and everyone else who has access to your clients by phone knows and practices these rules of courtesy.
1. Answer promptly. Every call should be answered between the first and third ring. In most instances the caller hears a preliminary ring that you don’t, so ring #3 may actually be ring #4. Grab that phone and that customer before someone else does.
2. Identify yourself immediately. This applies to incoming and outgoing calls. One of the chief complaints about phone usage is that people fail to say who they are.
3. Be prepared. No business caller expects to have to wait while you find something to write with or on. If you aren’t prepared to take information, perhaps you aren’t prepared to do business.
4. Take accurate messages. After you have written the information down, read it back for verification. No one objects to accuracy.
5. Transfer properly. This may mean understanding your telephone equipment. If you don’t know how to use it, find out. Don’t transfer the call until you have confirmed that you are sending the call to the right person and that the person is available.
6. Explain any delays. Seconds seem like minutes to people waiting on the phone. Keep in mind that your callers will wait more patiently for information than they will for another person.
7. Manage the hold key with courtesy. In most telephone surveys, people rank being put on hold as their biggest frustration. Ask your callers’ permission before placing them on hold, wait until you get it and check back every thirty to sixty seconds.
8. Answer your own phone whenever you can. People who never answer their phone aren’t always seen as important—they are generally viewed as inaccessible.
9. Give the caller your complete attention. No matter what you were doing when the phone rang, stop and focus on the caller. It is easy to tell when someone is not paying attention.
10. Minimize mouth noises. Eating, drinking, smoking, and chewing sounds are magnified over the phone. Just because they can’t see the food in your mouth, doesn’t mean callers can’t hear it. Save your lunch for later.
At the end of the day, ask yourself what kind of impression you gave your callers. Was it your best and your company’s best? Did you treat every call as valuable? If not, remind yourself that there is no such thing as an unimportant phone call and that you are the voice of the business.
Lydia Ramsey, author of MANNERS THAT SELL, keynote speaker and seminar leader, is a leading authority on business etiquette and protocol. To sign up for more FREE business etiquette tips, click here.
