Power Telephone Technique 1

Let’s look at the power of the telephone, for the majority of people we work with, the phone is an integral part of what they do.

Love it OR loathe it we all have to use the phone, maybe dealing with clients or with colleagues, and this area, because it is so omnipresent is often overlooked.

Many times we don’t really consider our use of the phone and there is a great deal we can do to improve our telephone technique and get more out of every call.

Does that make sense?

How do you view the phone as part of your role is it an friend or a foe?

Now think about what your views are of using the phone?

Often we find a lot of people are ill at ease when using the phone.

In a business environment, issues of preparation, confidence and technique all come into play and by the end of today’s session hopefully you will have learnt some great techniques to extract the maximum value from every call.

Okay obviously there are two elements to phone usage incoming and outgoing, a little later we will discuss making outgoing calls but lets just look at incoming

Think about what you currently say when you answer the phone?

Where did that come from?

Do you find that to be effective?

Do you always answer the phone the same way or does it depend on your mood?

I want you to think of an occasion recently when you’ve called an organisation and not been impressed with the way your call was handled?

How did it make you feel?

I am sure you would both agree that first impressions count…..we never get a second chance to make a first impression, so in order to always give the right impression we would recommend that you always answer the phone within 5 rings and ideally within 3 – Do you always do that at present?

I know it is incredibly obvious to say BUT when the phones ringing you never know who is there?

It could be a colleague, a client or a potential client therefore answering in a casual unprofessional manner can obviously give a very bad impression.

So how do you answer the phone?

We recommend the following:-

A simple, Good Morning or Afternoon Bill Bloggs speaking, may I help you?

Is often the best solution

If you would prefer not to give your name then

Good Morning or Afternoon Project Management or Design or whatever department you are in, followed by can I help you?

Is the 2nd best solution

Does that make sense?

Please check out the rest of this series