Customer Service Skills: Make Every Phone Call Great!

The phone rings. I answer it with trembling hand, because at the time I was an Eastern Regional Customer Service Manager for Matheson Tri-gas. Outside calls usually meant a displeased customer that asked for the manager. I thought "What did one of my customer service representatives do now?" After taking a deep breath, I answer the call to an anger customer. Funny thing was that the customer did not have a real problem... No late delivery, No billing issue, etc. He just did not like the way the customer service representative talk to him in a gruff manner. In fact, he got the information he needed. This article focuses on how to make every call GREAT!

What makes a GREAT call?
These five points will make your calls go smoothly and inspire that WOW feeling in your customers.

Greet the customer with style
The greeting sets the tone for the call. Before picking up the receiver, you should take a deep breath and get focused in the moment. Ready, Set, Go and answer the call. You need to answer the phone with the same greeting every time. The greeting starts with the "Hi", "Hello", "Good morning", or "Good afternoon". Next step is to state your company's name. This might sound simple but you want the customer to know that they reached the right business. Third, you build instant rapport by stating your name. Finally, ask "how may I help you?" This statement leads into our next important topic of the tone of your voice.

Set the tone with your voice
Voice tone is a vital ingredient to the great call. You see, we receive almost 80% of a message through non verbal communication. On the phone, you stripe out all the hand motions, body postures, and facial expressions of a face to face conversation. This leaves you with only the tone of voice for non-verbal communication on the phone. To get the full impact on the phone, I suggest slightly exaggerating your tone of voice and voice inflection. Yes, I know it will feel strange at first, but you don't want to end up like the customer service rep in the story above. Do you?