Business Telephone Etiquette Manners Tips for Service Providers

A warm, helpful, professional and friendly voice on the phone can build customer loyalty, or if missing, drive them to your competitor. Extend the common courtesies to your callers and create a reputation of legendary service to keep your customers coming back!

1. GREET -

A warm, friendly, professional greeting including company name, dept name (if appropriate) and the person's name who answered the call. It is suggested that the greeting end with a helpful statement that assures the caller you are willing to help. Ex: ABC Shutter Company, this is John, how may I assist you?

2. LISTEN -

One of the most important techniques in telephone etiquette is to actively listen to the customer. Listen for both the content as well as the intent. Usually the customer tells you both in her opening statement. By listening actively to the customer's opening comments, you can then RESPOND with a statement that assures the customer you HEARD. Example: Customer: This is Mary Smith and I'd like to speak with someone to arrange for an estimate on hurricane shutters. I just moved into my home here in Florida. Service Provider: Yes, we can arrange for an estimate for you. I will be connecting you with Bob Jones in our Sales Dept. Will you please stay on the line, while I connect your call?

3. EMPATHIZE -

In other words, walk a mile in your customer's shoes. If the customer states: I don't want to wait for Bob Jones, I'm on my lunch hour and very busy, besides, this is my 2nd call and no one answered in the sales dept. Don't you want my business? Pause for a moment to be empathetic and respond: Yes, we do want to service you, Ms Smith and I apologize for the inconvenience. Since you are on a lunch hour, I will find someone to speak with you immediately, or I will be happy to have your call returned this evening to your home. Which works best for you?

4. PROBE-

Although probing isn't a technique that may come naturally to everyone, it is a required skill for anyone servicing customers over the phone. Keep it simple and remember the basic open questions ....Who - What - When - Where - How. I have found the phrase, Tell me more about...... works miracles when trying to discover information.

5. COMMON COURTESIES

Ask permission to place a caller on hold and get the caller's attention when you return. Most of us can remember all too clearly a time when we were placed on eternal hold and wondered if we had been forgotten. A simple rule to remember: call the customer by name when you return to the line and wait for her to respond, then continue. EX. May I put your call on hold while I pull a copy of the invoice? To gain the customer's attention when you return to the line, call the customer by name and wait for her response. EX. Mrs,Smith? (pause for her to respond) ..thank you for waiting, I do have the invoice information for you. TIP: If you know the wait time will be a few minutes, tell the customer before you leave the line. You will save on customer irritation and possible repeat calls. To the bottom line of a business, you could lose revenue and productivity.

6. AVOID COMPANY JARGON & RULES -

All companies have their own set of rules and terminology. These can sometimes be defined as hot buttons for some customers as most of us do not want to hear quotes about what you can and can not do from the company manual. Nor do customers want to hear you refer to a simple order as FORM 1979-M. Keep It Simple!

7. OFFER SOLUTIONS/ALTERNATIVES -

If you know you can't do what the customer is asking,just tell her what you CAN do. There are usually alternatives that a customer will be willing to accept, IF you just take time to offer! Ex. If the customer is unwilling to wait any longer, then offer to have the sales rep return the call at a time that is most convenient for the CUSTOMER. Make the commitment and follow up with the Sales Rep to insure the commitment was met. If not, your company just lost Credibility and possible additional referrals!

8. TONE -

Since you are not face-to-face, the most important measurements of good communication in this case are voice quality and tone. Keep it positive and enthusiastic. Remember, the image the customer has of the person who is answering your company's phone is the image the customer has of YOUR COMPANY. Is it flat, monotone or upbeat and perky? Is it abrupt, indifferent or polite and empathetic? You want to hire NICE people to answer your phone who will be NICE to your customers.

9. APPRECIATION-

Before the caller hangs up, make sure your customer service associate has expressed sincere gratitude for the customer's patronage. EX:, Thank you for choosing ABC, we appreciate your business, Ms. Smith.

10. GO THE DISTANCE -

Run an extra mile for every customer - every time! Take time to extend yourself in some way to make a positive, lasting impression on the customer. Maybe when you pull the invoice, you notice that she has been a loyal customer for 6 years....or perhaps she just moved to a new location. Offer to send address change cards, or send a thank you card in the mail for her loyalty. Be your company's ambassador and watch your company flourish! Providing exceptional telephone service is nothing more than following "the Golden Rule" that we all learned as a child.

Predict Your Future. Don't use a crystal ball to create predictions of your small business. By carefully analyzing the historical
trends of your business enterprise, as shown in your records for the previous five years, you can predict for the year ahead. Your
listing of earnings, your experience with the markets in which you market, and your overall knowledge of the economy should allow
you to forecast a sales figure for the following year.

When you have a Sales forecast figure, make a budget showing your prices as a proportion of the figure. In the next year, you can
compare actual P&L amounts to your budgeted figures. Thus, your budget is an important tool for determining the health of your
enterprise.

Make Timely Decisions. Without action, forecasts and decisions concerning the future aren't worth the paper they're written on. A
decision that doesn't lead to action is a bad one. The rate of business demands timely in addition to informed decision making. If
the owner-manager would be to remain ahead of competition, you must move to control your own destiny.

Effective Decision making in the small business requires several things. The owner-manager should have as much accurate
information as you can. With these details, you should establish the consequences of all feasible courses of actions and the time
requirements. When you've created the judgment, you've set up your company so the decisions you make could be transmitted into
actions.

Control Your Small Business. To work, the owner-manager needs to have the ability to motivate key people to get the results
planned for within the cost and time limits allowed. In working to attain outcomes, the small business owner-manager has an edge
over big business. You can be flexible and fast while many big firms must await committee action before a choice is made. You
don't need to get permission to act. And equally important, bottlenecks to implementing new practices may receive your personal
attention.

One of the Secrets is in determining what items to restrain. Even in a small company, the owner-manager should not try and be all
things to everybody. You should keep close control on people, products, money, and any other tools that you consider important to
maintaining your performance geared toward profit.

Handle Your Folks. Most businesses realize that their biggest expense is labor. Yet due to the close contact with employees, a few
owner-manager of small businesses don't pay enough attention to direct and indirect labor costs. They tend to think of those
prices concerning individuals rather than relate them to gain in terms of dollars and cents.

Listed below Are Some Tips regarding personnel handling:

Gradually Review every position in your business. Have a glimpse at the job. Is work being duplicated? Can it be structured so
that it motivates the worker to become concerned? Can the tasks be given to another employee or employees and a position
eliminated? Can a part-time individual fill the job.

Perform A modest personal mental game. Imagine that you must get rid of one worker, If you needed to let 1 person go, who'd it be?
How can you realign the tasks to make out? You may find a true solution to the imaginary problem is possible to your financial
advantage.

Usage Compensation for a tool rather than viewing it as a essential evil. Reward quality work. Look into the possibility of using
increases and bonuses as incentives for higher productivity. For example, can you schedule bonuses as morale boosters during
seasonal slacks or alternative dull periods?

Remember There are new means of controlling absenteeism through incentive reimbursement plans. For instance, the owner-manager of
a little business eliminated vacations and sick leave. Rather, this owner-manager gave each worker thirty days annual leave to use
as the employee saw fit. At the conclusion of the year, the employees were paid at regular rates for the depart that they didn't
use. To make up for the year-end pay, the employee had to prove that sick leave was shot only for that purpose. Non-sick leave
needed to be applied for in advance. As a result, unscheduled absences and overtime pay have been decreased significantly. In
addition, workers were happier and more productive than they were under the old system.

Control Your Inventory. Don't tie up all your money in stock. Use a perpetual inventory system as a cost control as opposed to a
system just for taxation purposes. Establish use patterns or buy patterns on the materials or items which you have to stock to
keep the minimum number needed to provide your customers or to maintain production. Excessive stock, whether it's finished product
or raw materials, ties up capital which could be used to better advantage, as an instance, to open a new sales territory or to buy
new machinery.

Centralize your Buys and avoid duplications. Be a relative shopper. Confirm orders in writing. Get the purchase price and amount
straight right away.

Check what you Get for condition and quality. Assess bills from suppliers against quotes. You do not want to be the victim of the
mistake.

You Ought to, However, keep one fact in mind when you set up your inventory control system. Don't invest more on the management
system than it will return in savings.

Control Your Products. From charge of stock to control of products is but a step. Ensure your sales people understand the
importance of promoting the products that are the most profitable. Align your service policies along with your markup in mind.
Arrange your goods so that low markup things require the least handling.

Control Your Money. It's good policy to handle cash and checks as though they were perishable commodities. They are. Cash in your
safe earns no return; also it Can be stolen. Bank promptly.

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