Great Customer Service on the Telephone
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About this ebook
A thorough, quick-reading guide that shows anyone who uses the phone how to treat it as a service tool that directly impacts on company profits.
First impressions are often lasting impressions. How customers are treated on the phone can quickly turn them into either an ex-customer or a customer for life.
In this book, you will be able to double your effectiveness when you learn how to:
- handle irate customers
- end those "endless" calls
- take meaningful messages
- handle conference calls and transfer calls
- screen calls and ask focused questions
- use the phone during emergencies
- improve your voice effectiveness
With worksheets, checklists, and fill-in forms, Great Customer Service on the Telephone will inspire fabulous phone service.
Kristin Anderson
KRISTIN ANDERSON is co-author of Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, a frequent writer for business magazines and a consultant with Performance Research Associates.
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Book preview
Great Customer Service on the Telephone - Kristin Anderson
GREAT
CUSTOMER
SERVICE
ON THE
TELEPHONE
The WorkSmart Series
The Basics of Business Writing
Commonsense Time Management
Great Customer Service on the Telephone
How to Speak and Listen Effectively
Productive Performance Appraisals
Successful Team Building
GREAT
CUSTOMER
SERVICE
ON THE
TELEPHONE
Kristin Anderson
amacom
AMERICAN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
THE WORKSMART SERIES
New York • Atlanta • Boston • Chicago • Kansas City • San Francisco • Washington, D.C. Brussels • Toronto • Mexico City
This book is available at a special discount when ordered in bulk quantities. For information, contact Special Sales Department, AMACOM, a division of American Management Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anderson, Kristin.
Great customer service on the telephone / Kristin Anderson.
p. cm.—(The WorkSmart series)
ISBN-10: 08144-7795-X
ISBN-13: 978-08144-7795-3
1. Telephone in business. 2. Customer service. I. Title. II. Series.
HF5541.T4A45 1992
658.8’12—dc20
92-22159
CIP
© 1992 AMACOM, a division of
American Management Association, New York.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
This publication may not be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in whole or in part,
in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of AMACOM,
a division of American Management Association,
1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
Printing number
20 19 18
CONTENTS
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PART I. MANAGING THE MEDIUM
CHAPTER 1
You Can Be a Mind Reader
CHAPTER 2
The Challenge of Telephone Communication
CHAPTER 3
There’s a Ringing in My Ears!
CHAPTER 4
Taking Meaningful Messages
CHAPTER 5
The Art of Transferring Calls
CHAPTER 6
Hold, Please!
CHAPTER 7
Gotta Get That Other Line
CHAPTER 8
Conference Calling
CHAPTER 9
Answering Machines and Voice Mail—And Other Potential Technological Nightmares
CHAPTER 10
Text Telephones: Customers Can See What You’re Saying
CHAPTER 11
A Few Words About Phone Fraud
PART II. MANAGING YOUR CALL
CHAPTER 12
Putting Your Best Voice Forward: Effective Telephone Greetings
CHAPTER 13
When You Have to Screen Calls
CHAPTER 14
Keeping Your Feet on the Floor (and Out of Your Mouth)
CHAPTER 15
Planning Ahead
CHAPTER 16
Asking Questions
CHAPTER 17
Making a Show of Listening
CHAPTER 18
When You Have to Say No
CHAPTER 19
In Case of Emergency!
CHAPTER 20
Telephone Selling
CHAPTER 21
"I’m Soooo Mad!"
CHAPTER 22
Ending the Endless Call
PART III. MANAGING YOURSELF
CHAPTER 23
Your Phone Voice
CHAPTER 24
A Plan for Voice Improvement
CHAPTER 25
Mending Frayed Nerves
CHAPTER 26
Do You Mind? It’s Personal!
APPENDIX A
Placing an International Call
APPENDIX B
North American Area Codes
APPENDIX C
Time Zone Map
APPENDIX D
Verbal Spelling Guide
PREFACE
Does anyone not know how to use the telephone? You probably can’t even remember a time when speaking on the phone wasn’t part of your everyday life. So why should you read this book?
Using the telephone effectively involves much more than simply picking up the handset, dialing seven or eleven numbers, and chatting with your favorite customer about your latest product breakthrough. Using the telephone well will benefit you both personally and professionally.
Whether you are a service professional spending seven hours a day (or more!) on the phone to customers, a manager or support person who uses the phone to talk to coworkers, or someone who makes only a few calls each week, the way you use the telephone will impact on how customers and coworkers feel about the quality of service your company provides. And positive customer feelings translate into increased profits, how your coworkers feel about their work environment, and how you feel about yourself and your job.
Bottom line: The way you use—or abuse—the telephone is critically important to you and your company.
Don’t believe it? Consider the example below:
Receptionist: Ergibbit and Associates. How may I help you?
Joe [hesitant]: Is this Flibbergibbit and Associates?
Receptionist [snide]: Yes. How may I help you?
Joe: I saw your ad. I’d like to order a flibbergibbit.
Receptionist [challenging]: Do you have an account with us?
Joe: No, but—
Receptionist [interrupting]: Connecting you with new account services. (CLICK)
Joe [to himself, while the phone rings]: But I want to order it on my brother’s account. (Still ringing) I don’t need new account services. (Still ringing) And I don’t need this! (CLICK)
Who lost in this transaction?
Joe lost. He didn’t get to place his order, and he wasted his valuable time in the bargain.
Flibbergibbit lost. They lost Joe as a customer for this sale and probably for his repeat business. They may even have lost Joe’s brother. And as Joe tells ten to fifteen people about his experience, at least five more people will decide Flibbergibbit is a company they never want to do business with.
Finally, Flibbergibbit’s employees lost, too. They lost the sense of a job well done and the satisfaction of being able to connect their customer with just the right product or service.
In fact, everyone lost—company and customer alike.
DOUBLE YOUR EFFECTIVENESS ON THE LINE
In each chapter, Great Customer Service on the Telephone offers specific tips and techniques that will literally double your telephone effectiveness. You can read it straight through, cover to cover, or you can use the Table of Contents to zero in on a particular telephone talk challenge, be it taking a message or dealing with customer anger, and start there.
To help focus your effort, this book is divided into three parts: Managing the Medium,
Managing Your Call,
and Managing Yourself.
Short chapters within each part address specific telephone communication issues. At the end of the book are several informational appendix sections, including tips for placing international calls and charts of