Telephone Tune-up Simple Skills to Help You Improve the Customer Experience

Every contact we have with a customer influences whether or not they'll come back. We have to be great every time or we'll lose them. -Kevin Stirtz

Customer Service Gone Bad

Was Vincent Ferrari justified?

Self Audit What is the best thing about your telephone service? What is the worst thing?

It’s not what you say. It’s how you say it.

How to Create Rapport Over the Telephone  Smile as you speak  Put lots of energy and enthusiasm into the first 4-6 seconds of the call  Use the caller’s name more often than you would in person  Speak more slowly than you would in person  Be personable, warm, natural and friendly

Phone Finesse Call Handling From Beginning to End

How to Open a Business Call in 4 Friendly Steps  Greet the caller  Company name  Your name  Offer to help “Thank you for calling Rooney Insurance. My name is Terasita. How can I help you today?”

Acknowledge Concern  “I realize this must be frustrating.”  “I can understand how frustrating it might be to gather your team together for a video training and the video not play.”  “I cannot imagine how upsetting it must be to…”  “We want to get to the bottom of this just as much as you do.”

Acknowledge Compliments  “Thanks for being a loyal Myra Golden Media customer.”  “Thank you. We always like to hear how much our customers enjoy our products.”

Maintain Control (and put customers at ease) with Assertive Statements “We appreciate customers who let us know when things aren’t right.” “The first thing we need to do is…” “I’m glad you called today.” “I can certainly get that information for you.’

Bridge to Questioning  “In order to determine what happened I will need to ask you a few questions.”  “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions so we can figure out what has happened?”

How to Ask Questions  Use please and thank you.  Be friendly and conversational…don’t have an interrogation style.  “May I have your zip code, please?”  “Thanks. One final question…”

Recap and Explain Next Steps  “I will mail you a $50 gift card. You should receive this gift card within 7-10 days.”  “I will research this and call you back at ”

Ask, “Is there anything else?” “Ms. Williams, may I help you with anything else?” “Is there anything else I can help you with today, Mr. Davis?” “Ms. Bryant, do you have any additional questions?”

How to End a Call 1.Repeat any action steps 2.Ask customer if you can do anything else 3.Thank the customer for calling 4.Let the customer hang up first

Putting Callers on Hold 1.Get permission 2.Explain why 3.Give a time frame 4.Thank the customer

Sample On-Hold Dialogue “Tim, may I put you on hold for approximately two minutes while I obtain more information? (wait for response) Okay, I will be back with you in a minute or two…(45-seconds pass) Thank you for holding. What I have learned is that…”

How to WOW a caller who can’t hear you. “I’m sorry, I’m not able to hear you. Your call is important to us. Please call us back at Thank you for calling Myra Golden Media.”

Be aware of and control mouth noises.

How to Escalate a Call 1.Explain why you must escalate 2.Introduce customer to escalated party and explain the situation 3.Thank the customer and wish them success

How to Communicate with a Person Who Has a Foreign Dialect  Don’t pretend to understand  Don’t rush the customer  Don’t shout

Summary

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