In customer service, every telephone call is an opportunity to win or to lose a customer. If you take time to implement some of the essential customer service telephone techniques and best practices, it will go a long ways to ensure that your customers have a very positive experience with your company.
Our goal in customer service is to set a positive expectation with each and every call. In the very beginning of your call, it’s important to set the right tone for the rest of the call with the customer. Within the first 10 seconds of a phone call, that impression you make with the customer will set the stage for whether the customer is going to interact with you in a positive or adversarial way.
Here are a couple of thoughts…
Smile
When you are smiling and talking on the phone it is incredibly difficult to have a dead and/or negative tone to your voice that your customer can pick up on. With a smile on your face, you project a positive energy. Smiling really does work.
Get the customer’s name and use it
Everyone appreciates to be treated with respect and not just as an account or a number. Asking “Could you tell me your name please?” is a very polite way to do just that.
Positive 1st Response
After the customer’s first initial explanation for their call, having a positive response like “I’d be happy to…”, “No problem, I can definitely assist you with that”, or “Certainly, I’d be more than happy to help you”. Responses like these will have a have a reassuring impact on your customer.
Verbal Nods
These are little used, but a powerful trick that makes the difference in whether your customer feels like you care about what they were saying, or if the conversation was cold and they were talking to a computer. When listening to the customer, utilizing “verbal nods” makes the customer feel that you are listening. Using phrases like, “I understand; I see; I appreciate that; etc” for example, may seem obvious, but it’s surprising how many customer service reps don’t use them. Your customers feel like you are engaged and listening to them.
Use positive language instead of negative language
When speaking to customers, one of the worst things you can do is use negative words in talking to your customers. In doing so, you set the customer up to hear only whatever is wrong. Using words with ‘not’ in them, for example: “don’t, can’t, won’t, etc.” Negative words like these stick in your customers’ mind and that will be all they hear throughout your conversation with them. Be intentional on using the phrases that will always sound positive. Instead of saying, “I am sorry, but you can’t have that for 2 weeks” it can be, “I can certainly have that for you within 2 weeks“. Providing the customer a positive option at the end of a negative experience will lead to a happier customer. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT tell your customer what you cannot do without giving them a positive resolution. That is unacceptable in serving the customer and will only result in further frustrating them and prolonging your call.
Summarize & Repeat
Another important piece to making your customer feel like they are being taken care of, is to summarize what they have shared with you and the step(s) you are taking or have taken to resolve their need at the end of the call. Repeating back the reason for the call not only lets them know you were listening, but also gives you the opportunity to make sure you understand their needs AND gives the customer a change to add any additional information that may have been missed. This gives you the ability to know you have met the need for the customer’s call.
In Customer Service, we want the customer to go away with a very positive impression of us. Callers remember the first impressions, and the very last impressions.
Keeping these simple, yet powerful telephone essentials will go a long way towards giving your clients a consistent customer service experience.
