Effective Telephone Communication

Effective telephone communication skills are something that not every customer service agent brings with them when they come on board with your organization. The problem with telephone communication skills is that everyone has a different standard of what constitutes effective telephone communication.

In a customer service orientated business, these telephone skills are essential to your customer’s perception of your organization and their loyalty to it. A failure to emphasize the importance of effective phone communication among your telephone customer service representatives can bring into question your organization’s professionalism and credibility, possibly sending customers to your competition.

You are probably asking yourself “What constitutes effective telephone communication and how do I know if my team is using it?”

Effective telephone communication is not difficult to master, it requires only the proper guidance, training, and of course, practice.

Some examples of telephone etiquette excellence:

• Being prepared to take a phone call to ensure it starts out on the right track.

• Using a consistent greeting every time you answer the phone. We suggest a four part telephone greeting such as: “Thank you for calling ABC Company, this is Tom, how may I help you?” Mastering this greeting and ensuring that your team members use it every time they answer a call will set a standard of service that your customers will come to expect and look forward to.

• Placing your customers on hold in a way that ensures them that they have not been disconnect or forgotten about. Remember to always ask for a caller’s permission to place them on hold and wait for their response before doing so.

• Transferring you caller in a way such that the person the call is being transferred to is prepared for the phone call and ready to help.

• Using a tone of voice that lets the caller know that you are happy and willing to help solve their problem.

Is effective telephone communication really that simple? Well, there is of course more to effectively communicating with your customers via the telephone that what is listed above, but with the proper training materials and coaching your telephone customer service representatives will be communicating and taking phone calls like the true professionals you hired them to be.

At The Phone Coach we would be delighted to help transform your call center or telephone customer service department into one which will have your customers raving and coming back time and time again to do more business with your organization.

Our 10 Steps to Telephone Excellence training video is a great place to start establishing effective telephone communication in your organization. Follow up the video with an on-site learning program or customized coaching and you will be sure to leave your customers saying WOW!

Click the button below to purchase the video online, or feel free to give us a call or click the button below to fill out online information request form to get more information about any of our customized learning programs.

Phone Coach Home