I tend to spend a lot of time on the phone speaking to customers (business to business) and I find an alarming amount of people who are running a business yet have no idea how to take an incoming call effectively!
It really does amaze me. Bearing in mind, I spend most of my time helping people out with advertising and marketing thier business.
I think basically what i'm getting at is; if you make sure the simple things are sorted then everything else becomes a little bit easier.
It's all very well advertising your business, but if you cant convert those enquiries into sales because you dont know how to answer a call correctly, then your business will struggle.
Countless times I call companies and have the struggle of talking to somebody who clearly hasnt been trained to answer the phone, it's really not that difficult.
I'm sure all of you know what i mean but I thought i'd do a quick list
-Whoever answers the phone is the first contact point
If its a bad experience the client wont come back
-Being polite is absolutely key, even (especially) if you dont know who it is!
-If the caller asks for 'mr x' and he isnt in, ask to take a message or give them a better time to call, dont just say ' he's not here'
-If the caller asks when 'mr x' will be back dont say you dont know, that makes the caller think that the business is badly run.
-Dont tell your secretary to tell everybody that you're not in, it's always easy to recognise a fob off
-And most importantly (and hopefully not being rude here) the intelligence of the person who answers the phone, will reflect on your business. So don't get somebody who doesnt know what they are on about to answer the phone.
I know some of this is glaringly obvious, but you would be suprised how many people cant get to grips with it!
regards
John
Amen, sounds obvious, and the number of small businesses that don't take customer support seriously is frightening. Doesn't matter if its a sale, complaint, feedback or an inquiry, let the end user finish the call with a positive image for your company. If you don't have the resources to have your phones manned all the time, ie busy pounding the streets, then think about a Virtual Assistant/receptionist. There are some great ones out there, at a very reasonable cost which can field your calls and give you a professional presence.
Funny we just had the very same conversation this morning after i overheard the business phone answered with just 'Hello'!  Yes i went off on one
I dont blame you, thats one of my pet peaves!!
Simple but good points which as you say John, many people still get wrong!
I missed off a vital point! - answering machines, if you have to have one; "ello I aint 'ere" will not suffice! breif informative and polite message, and if possible a secondary contact method, perhaps email address or other number
Well described points.....but i guess still something is missing there ------------------------------------------------------------------------ dropshipping directory
i guess telephone etiquette are as important as one have his own while dealing with customers directly.
Dunno how others feel on this .... Personally, if a business call comes in, I like the caller to tell me instantly their name and their company's name. If the caller doesn't, I assume it's yet another cold caller trying to sell me / us something we've no interest in buying. My pet peeve is a company which tries to sell us either very expensive directory space or a share in a video (both targeting public sector organisations). They employ very well-spoken people who take ages to say why they're calling, in spite of polite requests to do so. Linda CareersPartnershipUK |
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