Tips On Providing Customer Service Over The Telephone

by Jon Anderson
http://www.HomeImprovementU.com

Many often ignore the fact that how you answer your telephone is actually critical for business. The telephone remains one of today's vital tools for contacting and being contacted by customers. How you answer it will greatly affect the customer's impression about your business. So it is therefore imperative that your customers should get the right impression to ensure success. Here are a few tips to attain this end.

1. Always answer the phone, whenever you can, on the third ring. Never let the phone ring too long. You are more likely to lose customers that way because your potential customers always have something else to do aside from calling you. They will assume that nobody's around to help them. And they can always seek their needs or do business elsewhere.

2. When you answer the telephone, try to sound as warm and accommodating as you possibly can. Smile, even if your customer can't see you. Your smile will be reflected o your voice. Your voice is from where your customer will draw his or her first impression about your business.

3. When you answer the phone, don't just say "Hello?". Always welcome your customers as courteously as possible, identify the name of your business organization, yourself and ask what you can do for them. Say something like "Good morning. Delaware Home Depot. Rudy speaking. How may I help you?". Never let your callers ask if they have reached this or that number.

4. Always remember not to eat your words, speak slowly, modulate the volume of your voice and enunciate clearly so that your caller will be able to understand you clearly. This will keep them from asking you to repeat what you have just said.

5. As much as you can, try to refrain from using jargons or slang like "Ok, Buddy.", "No problemo" or "You betcha". That would make you sound unprofessional. Instead, use "Very well" or "Certainly". Refrain from using fillers as well except when giving verbal nods to let the caller know that you are listening. If you can do away with "Uh huh", "You know" and "Like", so much the better. Instead use "I see" or "Yes sir/ma'am" as verbal nods.

6. Train yourself to sound positive even if you have been having a very rough day. Instead of saying "I don't know", say "I'll see what I can do for you."

7. When taking messages, be sure to get it down as accurately and as completely as possible. In case there is something you do not understand, it never hurts to politely ask the caller to repeat or spell it for you. This will let them know that you really are there to help. And of course, make sure that the message will get to the intended recipient at the soonest possible time.

8. Always, always, always check with the caller first if it would be alright for the caller to be put on hold before doing so when the situation calls for it. And once you have the caller on hold, check back on them with a progress report every thirty or forty-five seconds. Give them choices if it would be possible to do so, like "The line is unavailable at the moment. Will it be alright if you continue to hold or would you want me to call you back after fifteen minutes?"

9. Whenever possible, answer all your calls within a single business day. Do not pass off a call for the next day or let the answering machine take it if you are around any way. You never know the urgency of the call and it will reinforce a favorable business impression for your company.

10. If it is unavoidable that you have to use answering machines whenever you are unavailable or no one else would be there to take the call, ensure that you have a professional recoded message that welcomes your customers with courtesy, identifies your business organization and gives pertinent instructions or information. Keep the message updated as well. If say for example you would be away for a holiday, leave a message as to when your business would re-open.

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Article submitted Sunday, September 25, 2011 & read 9 times.

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