Partner Article

Have a magical day!

We stumbled across an American company this week ( AT+T) who answer ALL of their inbound telephone calls by saying “ Hello my friend!“. Disney close calls by saying to their customers “Have a magical day!” Now what do we make of this? Quirky, mad, genius, too american?

We have heard all sorts of tips on call handling and been through many days and weeks of training sessions- not to mention delivering training sessions- to make sure our team are handling customer calls correctly and delivering service to the highest standards every day.

We now live in a society where we all communicate blindly. We email, we sms ,we bbm, we blog, we tweet, we “live web chat” but we aren’t very keen to speak on the phone to another human being. This is seen as acceptable in a social environment but is it so for businesses?

The telephone is the main point of communication for your customers whether they are new or existing. Creating the right lasting impression every time doesn’t have to be painful.

Have you ever called a business and the person answering the call sounds like they would rather be doing their weekly shop than speaking to you? Or called a business to enquire about their products or services and the person answering the call mumbles through an opening greeting whilst finishing off half a conversation with another member of the office staff? Cringe!

It all comes down to how you want your business and brand to be remembered. You and your staff will play a major role in helping you to deliver this day in, day out.

We have shared a few tips on answering telephone calls that you can easily implement into your business pain free!…………………..

Try to answer all incoming phone calls before the third ring.
When you answer the phone, be warm and enthusiastic. Your voice at the end of the telephone line is sometimes the only impression of your company a caller will get (for outbound calling we call this “smile while you dial”)
When answering the phone, welcome callers and identify yourself and your Business. Say, for instance, “Good morning. Call Agents UK. Rachel speaking. How can I help you?” No one should ever have to ask if they’ve reached such and such a business.
Control your language when answering the phone. Don’t use slang or jargon. Instead of saying, “OK”, or “No problem”, for instance, say “Certainly”, “Of Course”, or “All right”. If you’re a person who uses fillers when you speak, such as “uh huh”, “um”, or phrases such as “like” or “you know”, train yourself carefully not to use these when you speak on the phone. (we guarantee you will use fillers and you wont even realise!)
Train your voice and vocabulary to be positive when phone answering, even on a “down” day. For example, rather than saying, “I don’t know”, say, “Let me find out about that for you.”
Take telephone enquiries accurately. If there’s something you don’t understand or can’t spell, such as a person’s surname, ask the caller to repeat it or spell it for you.
Always ask the caller if it’s all right to put them on hold, and don’t leave people on hold. Provide callers on hold with progress reports every 30 to 45 seconds or offer to call them back.
Ensure that the office environment is suitable, you do not want a noisy background or loud music blaring so that the caller struggles to hear or explain themselves. A calm quiet atmosphere also gives a much more professional feel.
If, like us you answer large call volumes daily then you should keep staff morale up with buzz sessions, games and incentives. Callers will be able to tell if staff members cant be bothered to speak to them and in turn they wont be bothered to deal with you as a business.
Enjoy! speaking to people should be fun, think of it as exploring possibilities. Not every call will be exciting but every caller deserves your time and attention, after all they are calling YOUR business!