Phone answering skills are critical for businesses. The CALL CENTER is still most business’s primary point of contact with customers. The way the calls are answered at the call center forms the customer’s first impression of your business. These phone answering tips for call center will ensure that callers know they’re dealing with a winning business.
1. Answer all incoming phone calls before the 3rd ring.
2. 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 the caller will get.
3. When answering call center calls, enunciate clearly, keep your voice volume moderate and speak slowly and clearly when answering the phone so your caller can understand you easily.
4. When answering the phone from the call center, welcome callers courteously and identify yourself and your organization. Say for instance, “Good morning, IHEMS OVASEES LIMITED, Linda speaking: How may I help you? No one should ever have to ask if they’ve reached such and such a business.
5. Train your voice and vocabulary to be positive when answering phone, even on a “down” day. For example, rather than saying, “I don’t know, say let me find out about that for you.”
6. Control your language when answering call center calls. Don’t use slang or jargon. Train yourself carefully not to use fillers such as “uh huh”, “um” or “you know” when you speak.
7. Take telephone messages completely and accurately. If there is something you don’t understand or can’t spell, such as the person’s surname, ask the caller to repeat it for you. Then make sure the message get to the intended recipient.
8. Don’t use a speaker phone in a call center unless absolutely necessary. Speaker phones give the caller the impression that you’re not fully concentrating on his call and make him think that his call isn’t private.
9. Train everyone else who answers the phone at the call center to answer the same way, including other family members if you’re running a home-based business. Check on how your business’s call center phone is being answered by calling in and seeing if the phone is being answered in a professional manner. If they don’t pass the test, go over this telephone answering tips list with them.
Telephone Selling Tips
The telephone is still one of the top ways to sell. You can
pick up a phone, reach just about anyone in the world, and
get a very sincere conversation going.
This ability to use the phone to go anywhere and achieve a
special rapport with customers makes the telephone an
indispensable selling tool.
Jot down what points you want to cover in your
conversation before you call. This will help you stay on
track.
Asks questions. Remember, it's the person who asks the
questions who controls the direction of the conversation.
Listen to what is going on around the person on the other
end. Managers are often very busy and may have
something important come up during your call.
Offer to call back in 30 minutes or an hour. This helps
you get back to the customer fast before he has a chance to
put you off indefinitely.
When customers call you, spend a few seconds in friendly
banter. Then answer questions and zero in on a product or
service that can help them.
Call handling techniques and good practice
Each call is different and so different options, responses, factors all need to be considered. Our brief call handling techniques quide gives you an outline of good practice and handling procedures to ensure your contact is succesful.
Good Practice
* If possible, answer promptly - a prompt reply helps get the call of to a good start
* Smile when you pick up the phone - the caller can hear it in you voice
* Be aware of the pace of your speech - speak at a reading pace, use punctuation and speak clearly
* Use courteous words and phrases: “may I ask you to write and confirm?” sounds much better than “you’ll have to put that in writing”
* Be positive! Say what you can do, not what you can’t’
* Avoid using jargon
* Accept responsibility for dealing with the call and carry it through
* Use closed questions (questions which can be answered simply ‘yes’ or ‘no’) to slow a caller down or check your understanding of information given
* Avoid irritants (e.g. calling people ‘love’)
Opening the Call
‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression’
* Pause before you pick up the receiver, to give yourself time to adopt a positive attitude
Use the right phrase:
o “Good Morning / Good Afternoon
o Company xyz, location
o XXXX speaking (where appropriate, see Standards below)
The Conversation
Take control of directing the call by:
* Identifying the caller’s needs using questioning skills - open questions to speed up the flow and closed questions to slow it down - don’t leave the caller to do all the work.
* Actively listening - giving ‘verbal nods’ (e.g. ‘I see’) and repeating information back to the caller to test your understanding and gain their agreement
* Avoid making assumptions
* Take responsibility for the call and any action - say ‘I can’ and ‘I will’ and do it!
* If you have to go and get some information, do not leave your caller in the dark. Let him/her know why you are going away from the phone and for how long.
* Don’t leave an “open” telephone lying on a desk where the conversations of yourself or your colleagues may be overhead.
* Do your best to ignore colleagues who try to attract your attention or to interrupt you while you are in conversation with a caller. If you are unable to ignore them, excuse yourself to the caller and put them on hold while you deal very quickly with the interruption….and try not to interrupt your colleagues during their calls.
Closing the Call
‘The last thing you hear is the first thing you remember’
* Summarise the action to be taken
* Gain the customer’s agreement with a closed question
* Give your name and telephone details to the caller (where appropriate)
* End of call signal and final offer of help e.g. ‘so is that everything Mrs Bailey?’
* Then the ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’
* And finally let the caller replace the hand set first - just in case they remember something at the last minute.
Transferring calls and putting the caller on hold
* Explain why you need to do this
* Ask permission from the caller
* Give accurate time scales
* Let the caller know what to expect
* On returning to the call thank the caller for waiting
* If there is any chance that the call will be ‘lost’ make sure you have the caller’s name and telephone number
* Only transfer a call when you are certain you know the right person to deal with it. Do not subject your caller to the “merry-go-round” of repeated transfers. Tell them you will find out who deals with it and let the caller know.
* If you cannot answer an enquiry quickly, give the caller the option of your calling back. Tell him/her when you will call back and then stick to that promise. If you have not got all the information you need by then, phone anyway to say what progress you have made and when you will call again with a full answer.
Taking messages - full message every time
* Always note the caller’s name and number, the date and time of the call, the important points of the conversation, what action is required and when you have promised to take that action.
* If you have to take a message for an absent colleague, repeat the message back to make sure you have got it right; make a note of the message including checking the caller’s name (spelling where necessary), date and time of the call. Determine when your colleague is likely to return to his/her desk before leaving the message.
* Whenever possible, leave a voicemail or email message for your colleague, as this will form part of an ‘audit trail’, showing that a message was taken and passed on.
Challenging Calls
When dealing with difficult and distressing calls:
* Allow the caller to vent their emotions - don’t interrupt
* Actively listen
* Make sure you know what the problem really is - don’t assume
* Show empathy - let the caller know that you recognise their feelings
* Stay calm and don’t take it personally
* Have a sense of urgency as you speak to the caller
* Take responsibility for the call, and effecting a solution (where you can).
Terminating an abusive call
If the above strategies fail, then staff are not required to expose themselves to abusive callers. If you are dealing with a caller who becomes abusive whilst on the telephone you may do the following:
Inform the caller that you are going to terminate the call now as they are being abusive, that you will record that you have done this and report it to your line manager.
You must ensure you record this action and report it to your line manager.
If there is a particular problem with a specific caller please speak to your line manager who will decide whether an individual procedure needs to be drawn up.
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