June's writing has appeared in several international print publications. You can visit her site for biz articles, a free gift, books at low Canadian prices, online sales of proposal and business plan templates and much more. Are you losing potential customers because of poor telephone communications? The lowly telephone is an indispensable item of business equipment. Still, if improperly used, this necessary item can cause client dissatisfaction or loss of customers. Keep these tips in mind to use your telephone to the best advantage: |
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| 3. Ask a caller's permission before putting them on hold. Studies indicate that callers become annoyed after being on hold for 17 seconds. Reduce annoyance by asking permission, explaining why they are being put on hold and by giving an estimated time that will elapse before you return. 4. Answer the phone with your business name and your own name. For example, "Hello. Jones Catering. This is Sandra Jones." If answering a call that has been transferred to you, answer with your name. Mistakes in transferring calls occur often enough that callers have little faith that the person saying "Hello" is really you. 5. Ensure that no more than four rings elapse before the call is directed to voice mail. If the phone is to be answered in person, try to answer in two rings. Avoid leaving a phone ringing indefinitely without answering. If switchboard operators leave their post for even a short time, ensure that incoming calls are switched to voice mail. 6. Customers arriving in person have priority over telephone customers. When talking to a customer in person, allow voice mail to pick up the phone call, or ask someone else to answer. When a customer arrives while you are talking on the phone, ask to place the caller on hold, then address the walk-in customer. 7. If you are using an 800 number, find out precisely what areas or countries can reach you by using that number. Post that information on your web site or wherever the number is advertised. Ensure that your representatives don't respond to email messages with an invitation to call an 800 number that the customer cannot use. |
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8. Give a thought to time zones before phoning a customer or potential customer. If you're on the East Coast of North America, that 9:00 AM phone call you place to a customer on the West Coast will wake them up at 5:00 AM. Or, if it's a B2B call, your 11:00 AM telephone appointment won't work unless you both understand the time zones involved. If you don't recognize the area code that you are calling, your local phone book will usually offer that information. Still don't
And of course you know that your customers |
