Telephone Manners
Telephone manners are not a given anymore. They are critical to good customer interaction. Ask anyone how they feel about phoning a call center and most people reply “I dread it” Long call waiting times, press 1 for this and press 2 for that, cause blood pressure to rise, especially when “this” and “that” weren’t the reason for your call.
So set the standards you require, make best practice a clear part of your customer service development programme. What can make the difference? Good call handling skills and embedded customer service best practice will of course make the difference. But ask a customer and they’ll tell you “simple manners go a long way” In fact, calls are often “won or lost” in the first 30 seconds.
Click here
for some useful articles on call handling. The first impressions article is particularly useful. When a new product is launched, invoices / bills have just been sent out, and call traffic is high, then customer service personnel can become frazzled. Agents may talk about the customer being rude, but it is the call agent’s job to lead the way. If the call agent sets the standard, the majority of people respond. “please” “thank you” using the appropriate form of the customers name, are all a given where telephone manners are concerned. But it is in call transfers that good customer service practices and manners become essential. Handing over a call well and with courtesy is good for the customer, colleagues and inter-departmental relationships. So what needs to happen? Letting the customer / caller know that while they are being put on hold the call agent will explain the details of their call / query. And the person taking over the call needs to summarise well their understanding of the reason for the call. A joined up customer experience. So how do you look at telephone manners in your customer service training? Use real calls, play back real calls with real customers to the agents who made them. Call coaching done well, can make a huge difference. Why? Because the agent hears how they sound to customers, and can identify for themselves what they do differently Make mystery shopping calls and ask your people to evaluate them. Often people notice when people are rude, and you can use this to help break down the behaviors which made a call agent sound helpful or rude, manners, tone, listening, explaining etc.
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