Why Traditional Telephone Skills Training Doesn’t Help

Every day we hear our future customers say, “Help! My team won’t answer the phone correctly! Can you come out and train our team on how to answer the phone?”

Our response is more sensitive than this, but our response is basically – “Do you mean your team won’t or can’t answer the phone correctly?”

Silence… Our future customer is intrigued.

Our customers expected us to share our vision of the “Perfect Telephone Customer Service Training Program”. They expected us to say, “We will inspire your team through amazing stories and role plays. We will make your team answer that phone perfectly every time!”

We are The Rainmaker Group – Not The Miracle Maker Group

The traditional telephone skills training approach does not work!

Our customers are tired of spending money on phone skills training videos or on happy phone skills trainers who will gladly come in, take your money, make your team laugh, and then leave.

What typically happens after the traditional phone training program has been delivered?

Just about nothing.

Typically – within a week to ten days – team members are back to their normal way of answering the phone. Ouch!

In order to create the desired telephone customer service experience you need the following “recipe”…

• The Right People

• Using the Right Customer Service Touch Points

• Working In a Culture of Accountability

When we share this vision with our customers, the lights come on.

It makes intuitive sense, doesn’t it?

• The Right People – Sorry – not everyone can answer the phone in a manner that inspires customers to want to do business with you. If you don’t have the kind of people that enjoy answering the telephone (touching lives) using the skills and approach that consistently provides the kind of desired customer experience, you won’t have lasting results. In other words – your customer may be inspired to leave and never return.

• The Right Customer Service Touch Points – If you don’t have a standardized approach to how your team members take care of customers via the initial phone greeting, how they share information or request it from the caller, and how they leave the “last impression” with the caller – you are in trouble.

• Culture of Accountability – If you don’t have a Culture of Accountability you won’t have consistent customer experiences. A Culture of Accountability? Can’t we just ask nicely that team members use the phone skills they have learned in the phone etiquette training program? Hey. Pretty please with “sugar on top” doesn’t work with some people. If a team member isn’t answering the phone appropriately, they should be given a choice. That choice is “Believe or Leave”. My friend, John Miller, author of QBQ – Personal Accountability introduced me to this concept “Believe or leave”. You either believe in what we are doing here – do it our way – or you choose to work somewhere else.

Folks… I am sorry... You have likely wasted a LOT of money on customer service phone skills training in the past. The harsh reality is that having your team go through telephone training of any type probably isn’t going to truly solve your telephone customer service problems. Don’t get me wrong. Team members need to know how to answer the phone correctly via a standardized Telephone Customer Service Touch Point Map.

But you need the right people who enjoy taking great care of people via the telephone and you need a Culture of Accountability. If team members won’t answer the telephone in the manner that is desired – they need to find other work.

What can you do differently to maximize your Phone Etiquette Customer Service Experience?

1. Hire the kind of people that will create the desired Telephone Customer Service Experience. Create a job benchmark for the job and hire people who fit that job benchmark to the extent possible.

2. Set the standard. Create a set standard of how the customer will be treated during each telephone customer service engagement.

3. Hold team members accountable for answering the telephone in the desired way.

If you are ready to get serious about helping your team members in creating a powerful telephone customer service experience, give us a call today. We don't advocate "canned", "feel good" training, but rather insist on a phone training program that will deliver the results you desire and your customers deserve.

Give us a call at the number listed below or click the appropriate button to fill out our online request form to get more information about our customized phone training programs.

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