Effective Telephone Communication Skills for Receptionists

Term Definition Introduced in:

Active listeningThe highest level of listening; the listener is engaged and entirely focused on the speaker Module 3

EmpathyUnderstanding the complaint with no interest in either agreement or disagreement, but instead acknowledging emotion(s) Module 2

Evaluative listeningA level of listening where the listener hears what is being said, but is focused on their response and not the speaker Module 3

QTIP An acronym that stands for Quit Taking It Personally Module 4

Selective listeningA level of listening where the listener is tuning in and out, but not fully engaging with the speaker Module 3

 Glossary Page 1

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EFFECTIVE TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION SKILLS MODULE ONE Female: It's Friday afternoon. Your bosses are ready to pile the ton of work on

your desk. There are three people waiting to talk to you. And the phone

is ringing. There's a lot of requests coming in very fast. And it's easy to

feel a little bit overwhelmed. And imagine trying to answer the phone.

You might end up with a little bit of irritation in your voice.

Now, answering the phone can certainly be an annoyance at times. I

understand. You've got a lot of priorities. You've got a lot of things that

you need to get done. But the first step to acquiring exception telephone

skills is to understand when the phone is ringing, no matter who you are,

no matter what you're doing, no matter how urgent your current task is,

answering the phone is the most important activity of the moment.

Now, unfortunately, in a busy workplace, answering the phone in a timely

manner might be challenging, let alone staying consistent call to call and

person to person. The saying you never get a second chance to make a

great first impression is never more applicable than during that first call.

During this important dialogue, you'll begin to create a perception of the

quality of your company or practice and the level of your service.

In fact, if you work in a medical office, it might be at this point where a

potential patient makes the decision to come in for a consultation or not.

You might be the one person that can directly influence the overall health

and financial wellbeing of the entire company.

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Really your title should be the director of first impressions. You are the

one that is the voice of the company. And how you answer that phone will

create an immediate image in the mind of the caller, especially the first

time caller. You have the most important role in the entire company or

practice. And it all starts with a smile.

When speaking on the phone, smile. When we smile, we change our

facial expressions. It effects the sound of our voice. Our vocal tone can

be greatly affected by the manner in which we use our facial muscles.

One of the oldest telephone tricks is to have a mirror near the telephone

so you can monitor your facial expressions and be sure that you are

smiling.

Several studies have indicated that as much as 87 percent of the opinions

people form about us when speaking to us on the phone are based on the

tone of our voice. If 87 percent is based on the tone, that means only 13

percent is based on the actual words we use.

With all that we do, people can hear our personality and mannerisms

through the tone of our voice. And it's important that by smiling we bring a

more pleasant, more welcoming tone to our voice. And it helps all callers

feel greeted and welcomed.

Now, with your greeting, you need to be consistent caller to caller, person

to person. And this starts with making sure that you answer the phone by

the third ring. Now, I know you're busy. I know you have a lot of other

things going on. There's a lot of things happening at this moment. But

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that call is truly one of the most important things that you can do. And

answering that phone by minimal the third ring, shows the caller that they

are important, not just to you, but to the company, because remember you

are the face of the company. And once you've answered the phone, and

of course you're smiling, you want to greet the caller with a warm and

sincere welcome.

As the director of first impressions, you need to be consistent how you

answer the phone. Your customers will come to know what to expect from

you through this greeting. And in order to help you be consistent person

to person and call to call, you want to use a script. And the script doesn't

have to be long. It doesn't have to be detailed. It just needs to be a

guideline of what you're going to say when you answer the phone.

Now, many companies use a simple script like, hello, XYZ Company, this

is Kim, how can I help you? Something simple. Something to the point

and something direct. Shares with them that identify what company

they've called, who they're speaking with, and that you're there to help

them.

See, your role as a reception is to be the face and the voice of the

company. You are the first contact that the caller is going to make when

they call your company.

And that being said, you need to clearly enunciate the words that you say.

This means speaking them in a clear and concise way that can be easily

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understood. This means avoiding slurring or speaking too fast, or maybe

even speaking too slow.

And I'll share with you -- I recently was working with a hospital down in

Miami. And many, many times when the folks would answer the phone,

they would say their name so fast. And it was often with a little bit of an

accent, and possibly even a little -- the names were unfamiliar to me, that I

often found myself saying, "I'm sorry, could you say your name again?

Who am I speaking with?" And it became very frustrating.

And even when I left messages, I might say, "Hi, Joanne, this message is

for Dr. Gozabels. Just needed to follow up on scheduling his

appointment." When she would leave me a message back, she would

say, "Hi, this is Joanne from Dr. Gozabels' office. Just needed to follow up

with you. Give me a call when you have a chance. Bye-bye." And she

would say it so fast that at times I couldn't tell if she was saying Dr.

Gozabels or Dr. Gonzales. And I had mistakes occur because I could not

clearly understand what she was saying. So it's important that especially

if you are leaving voice mails or if you are creating your own voice mail

message that you do speak clearly and that you clearly enunciate the

words that you are saying.

Again, this is going to be especially important if you have a regional

accent that might affect the communication.

Now, we ought to be prepared. You never get a second chance to make a

first impression. So we need to start with the basics.

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When the phone rings, we've answered it, we've greeted them, and now

we're ready to find out what they need. They've called us for a reason.

So we want to have a pen and paper ready. When they start telling us

what that reason is, we want to write down their name and give it a little bit

about what they're telling us. We need to be fully engaged in what the

conversation is. We want to be able to use their name in conversation, be

able to call them by name, and to speak with them in a tone that is

professional and polite.

Now, in order to do that, we're going to have to make sure that we never

answer the phone with food in our mouth. Now, I understand you have to

eat and I understand sometimes you do eat at your desk. But it is

important that if you do have food in your mouth that you've got two

options. One, is you hurry up and swallow it, yum, yum, yum, and get it

down or you go ahead and you wait and let the call roll over to another

receptionist, or possibly to a supervisor or someone else that can handle

it, or worst case to voice mail.

But, again, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. It's

better not to answer the phone when you have food in your mouth than to

answer it with food in your mouth.

And we've all made that mistake. I know I'm guilty of it, you know, we

want to answer that phone, it's right there, it's ringing. But we want to be

conscious of that first impression, it's very, very important for our

customers and for our clients.

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We got to remember customer is number one. We want to focus on

providing great customer service and focus on that customer's call. Give

them the attention that they're looking for and prevail to provide the

information that they're looking for to be able to have a successful call.

{End of recording.}

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EFFECTIVE TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION SKILLS MODULE TWO Female: Module Number Two. Right Words for the Right Message. Worlds have

meanings. And they have meanings beyond their definitions. And

sometimes we get frustrated with that, and especially if we get a phone

call that's asking for someone and that person's not there. It's happened

to me many times, and both on the calling side and the being called side.

And it's important that we manage what we say. We need to use the right

words to convey the right message.

Take for example, if you were to call your accountant, and it's three o'clock

in the afternoon, and you call your accountant and the receptionist says,

"Yeah, hold on, let me see if he's in. Ah, no, sorry, he's got to take -- he

took his dog to his vet. He won't be back till later. You want to leave a

message?" That leaves a certain impression in your mind. I mean think

about what kind of words might describe that type of interaction. I

certainly wouldn't use the words professional, and I certainly wouldn't use

the words high quality. It almost sounds like an unprofessional business.

And if that's the kind of people that my accountant works with, I'm not sure

I want to work with that accountant. If that's his level of standard, if that's

the quality that he produces, I'm not interested. I'm willing to pay a little

more for a higher quality person and higher quality effort.

And it's important that, as a receptionist, we portray the higher quality.

Our clients, our customers will pay a little bit more if we treat them a whole

lot better. So we want to have a quality conversation with them, and we

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want to make sure that the impression that we give of the business is one

of quality, that it is one of promptness, it's one that we are taking control of

things, we're in business, we're professional, we're taking care of you.

And if you consider that -- I mean if I think about my accountant taking his

dog to the vet at three o'clock in the afternoon, I almost kind of think that

he's lazy. What's he doing? Why's he taking his dog to the vet at three

o'clock? Most people are working at three o'clock. What's up with that? It

just doesn't sound very professional.

So want to be very, very careful of what we say. And it all starts with a

greeting. So let's review the greeting.

A simple script for greeting would be something like, good morning, XYZ

Company, this is Kim, how can I help you? And this is a very common

script used by many, many companies. Now, of course your company

might have a slightly different script, and you want to follow the guidance

that your organization has provided. But if you don't have one, this is a

great script for starting.

Now, there's couple things you want to note about this script. First, it says

good morning. Could be good afternoon or good evening, whichever's

appropriate. But it starts with these two words because when someone is

calling you, they're doing other things sometimes. They're looking around.

They're waiting for the phone to be answered. They're not a hundred

percent engaged in that call. Not yet. And so when you pick up and you

say XYZ Company, this is Kim, they miss the first tenth of a second, the

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first couple of seconds, until they can engage and get with it. And in that

second, they miss what you say. Have you ever had that happen;

someone says something and you go, I'm sorry, what did you say? And

before they even get to answer, your mind's playing back what they said.

It took you a second to catch up. And that's exactly what's happening

here. So when you start with good morning, this allows the caller's brain

to engage so they can hear XYZ Company, this is Kim, how can I help

you? So it's important that you start with those simple little words; good

morning, or good afternoon, or good evening, to be able to provide the

listener, the caller, a chance for their brain to catch up so they can hear

the rest of what you're going to say.

But, now, it is important that you don't speak too slow or too fast when you

say this, because, keep in mind, speaking too slow sounds something like,

good morning, XYZ Company, this is Kim, how can I help you? It almost

sounds like I'm kicked back, I'm relaxed, I'm hanging out, I'm just not really

on top of things, I'm just kind of -- I'm doing my thing. And it doesn't sound

super professional.

Now, if you say it too fast, good morning, XYZ Company, this is Kim, how

can I help you, it sounds rushed. It sounds like I might not have time for

them. It's I'm doing other things. This call might feel like an annoyance.

So we want to get the right tone, the right tempo, and certainly want to

make sure to smile, because, remember, 87 percent of your message is

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going to be in your tone. So having a good script, being able to have the

right tempo, will convey the right message.

Now, a few things you want to make sure to avoid. Here's a few no-no's

that we're going to take a look at.

The first is my personal pet peeve, and that's giving too much personal

information. Let's start with personal information like someone being on

vacation, taking a kid to school, or doctors, being out of the office for

illness, or any other item that might be considered personal. As the

receptionist, you truly do control the image of the business. And when you

share too much information about others, it effects how the client or

customer thinks about the business. In the last example, it is best not to

share the personal information. Instead of saying that the accountant is

out taking his dog to the vet, it might be far better to say, Mr. Jones is

currently not available, can I have him return your call when he returns?

This would maintain a professional image. It would help the client keep

their trust and their faith in the business. And it would show him in a much

better light.

Now, of course, your company may already have guidelines for this. But if

they don't, it's best not to share any personal information that can affect

the customer's impression of your business. This would include being on

vacation. I mean imagine if you worked for a very successful lawyer that

takes three or four vacations a year. Now, the client doesn't know that he

stays there every night till 9 p.m. and he gets up at 6 a.m. every single

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morning to be in that office. But when they hear that he's on vacation

again, they might get the impression that he's lazy, he's not really working

their case. And this would affect how the client sees the attorney. This

would affect his relationship, the customer -- the client-attorney

relationship. And this is also true for being sick, especially if you have

someone who might have allergies take them out several times in a year.

The client might think, man, this person's always sick. It's not the

impression you want.

You want to avoid putting additional barriers in your customer's mind. You

want the customer to see your company as professional, as on top of

things, as getting things done, as doing quality work. And when you add

personal information, it unfortunately only degrades the quality. So it's

important that we don't add personal information.

On top of that, you want to avoid slang or jargon. This is another time that

your words will adversely affect the business. And in many companies,

trust and professionalism is very important. And how you speak on the

phone is an indicator of how the company is seen.

Take for example, if you called your largest vendor and they say, "Hi, ya,

how you doin?" And you ask for Mr. Smith. And they say, "Ah, Mr. Smith,

yeah, we call him Joey -- Joey Smomie. Hold on, let me see if Smomie's

available." You might think a little differently about your vendor if you were

working with that kind of receptionist.

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So it's important that we up our professional language. Avoid using words

like okay. Okay's good, but certainly is much more professional. No

problem is not very professional, but very well is much better. And avoid

ums. Ums are usually placeholders. They're time pacers. And we use

ums to fill up time when we don't have other words to fill it. It's okay for

there to be dead air. It's okay for there to be silence. We don't have to fill

every second of every day. It's okay not to have to fill the space.

If you find yourself saying ums, be conscious of it, and every time you say

um, just put a tic mark. And after time, what you'll notice is the number of

tic marks will gradually reduce as you become more and more aware.

And ums, again, are just time holders. So a lot of times when you find

yourself saying um, it's okay just to be quiet.

You know, a lot of times conversations might be, well, hold on while I'm

looking for that information. It's okay to say, hold on, let me take a look.

Look for the information and then come back. That's much more

professional approach.

Another pet peeve that we need to deal with is the hold a minute. There's

nothing more annoying than being transferred improperly. Have you ever

called a company, told your whole situation to the person answering the

phone, just to hear hold a minute, and then be transferred to someone

else who says, "How can I help you?" What does that mean? It means

you have to tell your story all over again.

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So here are some hard and fast rules in transferring a call properly. After

listening to the caller's concern, say something like, I understand. Or even

better, repeat the situation back to them to make sure you heard it

correctly. Then tell them what you're going to do. No one likes to be in

the dark when they're being transferred. And they can't read your mind.

They don't know where you're going to send them. So saying something

like, I'm going to connect you to Jane, she's in charge of our accounting

department, and she'll be able to help you from here. I will call Jane,

make sure she's available, and tell her your situation before I transfer her.

Is that okay? And a lot of times they'll say, yes, absolutely, that's great.

And what a great way to keep the communication clear and clean, and

keep them up on what is going on.

Now, of course, after you speak to Jane, come back to the caller and let

them know that you're going to put them through. Always give them

Jane's direct line in case they get disconnected. Now, if in calling Jane or

someone internally, you reach a voice mail, do not transfer them first

without giving them the option. Ask them, I've gotten Jane's voice mail,

would you like to leave a message or would you prefer I take a message?

And then you're able to take the message or do the transfer appropriately.

Now, another area that can help you to sound much more professional

and using the right words, is empathizing. And empathizing means you

understand where they're at, you understand what's going on. And some

great words that will help you to empathize would be, I see why you feel

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that way, I understand how frustrating this must be, and that must be very

upsetting.

Now, again, we have to be careful with our tone. In this instance we could

easily manipulate these words so that they sound almost critical or

sarcastic. And we want to be careful not to do that. So monitor your tone

to make sure you truly are giving the right message.

And, lastly, let's take a look at a few words that you're going to want to

replace, that have a little bit more of a professional sounding appearance.

Now, first is, I don't know. I don't know really says more of I don't care.

So better -- something better to say would be, let me find out for you. We

can't do that. We can't do that again; it sounds more like we don't care,

that's not important, it's not our issue. Instead, we want to take care of the

customer. Want to help them in what we can do, and to maintain a

positive attitude. It's better to say, well, here's what I can do for you, and

to provide the proper can-do information. Instead of saying, hold on, just

use instead, will you hold while I -- and tell them what you're going to do.

Avoid saying, who is this? Instead say, may I have your name please?

And this will provide a much more professional image.

And the last one we're going to briefly touch on is sentences starting with

you. Avoid this. This can sound sometimes accusatory. So we want to

try and start sentences with I. And that's very simple, just start your

sentence with the word I, I can help you with this, I can do this for you,

instead of you can't do that, or you don't know what you're talking about, I

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can help you, I can show you, let me show you where to go. And that will

help you to sound much more professional and much more in sync.

{End of recording.}

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EFFECTIVE TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION SKILLS MODULE THREE Female: Module Number Three. Improving Your Listening Skills. Listening is

critical to providing great service. When I first started working with

customers, my mentor had to remind me that we have two ears and one

mouth, and I need to use them in that proportion. And I struggled for a

while. It took me a while to slow down and just listen. But after months of

practice, I learn to stay quiet. And I thought I was listening. I was nodding

and I was patiently waiting while they spoke.

And maybe you've seen this as well. You're talking to someone and they

look like they're engaged, but then you ask them a question and they're

nowhere to be found. And I found out that although someone looks like

they're listening, they may not actually be listening.

And so let me share with you a quick story, and let's see how good your

listening skills are. A quick little listening test.

So all you have to do is listen carefully. There's only going to be one

question at the end. You don't have to write anything down. Just a very

simple three or four sentences. I'm going to ask you one question. You

ready?

Okay. You're the bus driver. Now, you get to the first stop and four kids

get on the bus. You get to the second stop and three kids get on the bus

and one kid gets off. Now, you get to your third stop and four kids get on

the bus and two children get off. Are you ready for your one question? It's

a simple one. What color are the bus driver's eyes?

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Hum. I could almost hear you thinking. And I can hear some of you

screaming, I don't know, you didn't tell me what color the bus driver's eyes

were. But wait a minute. Think back.

The very first thing I said was, you're the bus driver. And if you're the bus

driver, the eye color is your eye color. But, see, I know what happens. If I

guess right, you were calculating how many kids were on the bus and how

many kids got off the bus. See, you weren't really listening. You were

calculating the whole time.

And, see, active listening requires that we're fully engaged and we're

hearing everything, then we process it and respond. And that's why it's

important often when we're listening, to take a couple second break after

someone stops speaking to process what we heard and then respond.

Interrupting indicates that we're not really listening, because if we're

thinking, we're not listening. It's important that we just listen. So to help

you understand that, let's review the four levels of listening.

The first level is the Charlie Brown level. That's not listening at all. And

we all know this one. It's how Charlie Brown's teacher sounds in any of

the cartoons, and it goes something like, waa, waa, waa, waa, waa, waa,

waa, waa, waa, waa, waa, waa. And that's Charlie Brown's teacher. And

why can't we hear Charlie Brown's teacher's words? Cause Charlie

Brown's not listening. He's not hearing it.

Now, many of us, we have individuals in our lives, sometimes spouses,

sometimes bosses -- and I won't tell them -- but, that we tune out. And

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that's the first level of listening. It's the lowest level that we can achieve.

It's not listening at all. We've tuned out what's going on. We want to avoid

doing this when we're working with customers.

Level two is selective listening. And we've all had this happen. Imagine

you're at a dinner party, and you're gathered, and you're chatting, and

you're talking to different people, and you're engaged in a conversation

with one individual, and all of a sudden, somewhere on the other side of

the room, someone says your name. Your lead whips around, and you

look over, and you go, who was it, what'd you say?

We weren't really listening to the conversation we were having. We were

selectively listening to what we wanted to hear. And we have to be

careful. We do that. I know I catch myself doing that, especially when I'm

dealing with argumentative people. I listen to the points of the argument

that I want to hear, and then I counter them. That's selective listening.

That's not really fully engaged listening. And that creates more arguments

than anything else I've ever seen. Selective listening is the second level

we want to avoid. We need to get into active listening. But before we get

there, we've got one more level, and that's evaluative listening.

In evaluative listening, we look like we're listening. We're nodding. We're

doing the headshake. We're going, uh-huh. But in the back of our minds,

we're thinking, we're calculating, we're strategically listening to what

they're saying and we're waiting for them to stop so we can answer. This

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is evaluative listening. This is not active listening. And we want to avoid

this. And the best way to avoid it is to engage in active listening.

That means fully listening to what they're saying. That doesn't mean --

that means not thinking. That means not calculating your response. That

means listening. That means understanding what they're saying.

And the best way to do this is just to practice listening, not thinking, not

drawing, not writing, but listening. And this is a learned skill. Just like

anything else, it takes time. Many of us hopefully won't be starting at the

not listening level. But I know I started at the selective listening. And then

I had to -- once I got out of selective listening, I found myself into

evaluative listening. Once I learned that I was evaluating, then I worked

getting into active listening.

And as the progression happened, more and more and more percentage

of my time, I was able to spend in active listening versus evaluating or

selecting. It is a process, and it does take time. But as you take a step,

one step gets you closer to the next, gets you closer to the next, and

before you know it, you'll spend more time in the active listening.

{End of recording.}

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EFFECTIVE TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION SKILLS MODULE FOUR Female: Module Number Four. Professional Image. Although the person at the

other end can't physically see you, they certainly can hear you. And what

you say says a lot about your professionalism. Being professional adds

credibility to your organization, gets you respected as an individual, and

maintains great relationships with your clients.

Being professional means being competent, credible, skillful, and positive.

Competent means that you know what you're doing, you know what to do,

you know how to do it, and you're able to give the customer what they're

asking for. You're competent. And this takes some time. Especially if

you're a new receptionist, it might take you some time to become

competent in all the information the customers are going to ask for.

Second is credible. And credible means that they believe that you're

competent. They have trust in you. And this is more of an attitude than it

is actual skill. And the attitude is, I know what I'm doing, I can answer you

confidently.

And confidence really means I believe in myself, I know what I can do.

And as you develop your self-esteem, you become more and more

credible, and people are willing to believe you and challenge you less.

Now, skillful means you're able to get everything done. And positive really

is an attitude as well, is that I can do it, I'm here to help you.

And remember, every company exists to serve their customers. I think it's

so important, I'm going to repeat it. Every company exists to serve their

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customers. Customers are not there to serve the company. So it's

important that as part of the company, as the face, as the voice of the

company, that you are there with a positive attitude to be able to help the

customers to get the information that they're looking for, to get the action

that they're looking for, and to do it in a way that says I'm here to help you.

Now, I understand that as a receptionist, you might be getting a lot piled

on your desk. In fact, you might be getting pulled here and there, and

being pulled on this project and that project. In fact, you may even be the

chief fire putter outer in your office. But you have to be careful to never be

unprofessional. And being unprofessional might be something as simple

as answering the phone when you're rushed.

Have you ever talked to someone and you could clearly tell they didn't

want to be on the phone? They had something else they wanted to do.

That's a simple sign of unprofessionalism.

Another sign of unprofessionalism, as we talked about earlier, is the

language you use. You want to make sure you're using professional

language. Avoid jargons. Avoid sharing personal information about any

of your colleagues.

A simple reminder to stay professional is to put a little note on your desk; I

will be a professional at all times. And things happen. We understand

emergencies break out. Sometimes you have to drop everything to pitch

in to solve the problem. We have to remember that first impressions are

everlasting. It's important that when we pick up that phone, that we are

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calm, cool, and collected. We need to be able to portray an image of pure

professionalism.

Now, I understand this isn't always as easy as it sounds. I mean I

understand that you're not just sitting around all day doing nothing, waiting

for that phone to ring. There's life going on. But before the phone rings,

stop, take a breath, and answer the phone. Give yourself that moment to

pause. Give yourself that moment to recollect so that you can be there

and be present for that call, so that you can answer their questions, you

can provide them the information that they're looking for, and you can do it

at the highest level of professionalism possible.

Now, I know that sometimes the callers, they're not always the easiest

people to deal with. Sometimes they're a little demanding. Sometimes

they're angry, upset, and frustrating.

And we got to remember that part of dealing with the customers is to know

that it's not what we've done, it's who they are. And we don't want to bring

any of our frustrations into that challenge to be able to make their problem

more difficult. So it's important staying calm, cool, and collected. Now, in

order to do that, you're going to have to know when to say no.

Sometimes, especially if you're the pleaser type -- and I know I am -- is I

like to say yes to everybody. If you need something done, I'm the can do

person that can do it. You need a report? Done. You need that

document? Done. I can do it. I can get it done. I like being the go-to

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person. I like being able to get results. I like being able to show people I

can do it.

The challenge comes in is knowing when to say no. When do we not do

things so that we can do other things well, because if you're stretched so

thin that when that phone rings, you can't portray a professional image

cause there's so much other stuff going on, need to reconsider what your

tasks are and what is most important. And sometimes we have too much

on our plate and we have to reprioritize. So it's important, in order to do a

great job, we have to know when to say no.

Now, of course, when callers call, it may not always be a two-minute

conversation. It may not always be a quick answer. You may have to

look something up. You may have to get back with them. And it's

important when answering questions that you're prepared and you know

how to handle that. Again, some questions may be very easy ones you

can answer very quickly, the caller can move on, and you can move on.

But other ones might require you to go look up information. May require

you to make another phone call or reach out to another internal staff

member. So you need to understand how to handle that and have a

protocol.

And here's a couple options. If you have to get back to the caller or if you

have to answer a question that is not right at your fingertips, do you tell the

caller you'll call them back, look up the information and get back to them

or do you put them on hold while you research the information? Both are

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acceptable just depending on your situation. And this is something you

want to decide ahead of time. Which is the manner in which you're going

to handle it? What is your preferred methodology.

Now, of course the caller may demand that you get the answer right now,

and that can sometimes happen. If they insist, just say hold on, please

give me a moment, and I'll get your file or I'll get that information. And that

will allow them to feel like they're getting the information they need while

you can get the information in a timely manner and move on as well.

Now, you may encounter situations where you have to return calls, voice

mails are left. And it used to be getting back to someone within a week

was acceptable. Today many individuals will expect a call back within 24

hours. Some might even expect a call back by the end of the day. So

we've come in a much more fast-pace society than we've ever seen

before. Things are moving faster than we've ever seen. So you want to

make sure that you are returning those phone calls. Waiting two or three

days certainly will not create a level of professionalism that would be

expected.

Now, the other thing we might want to address here is if you're out of town

or if they go to voice mail and you're not able to return that call within 24

hours, let them know. It could be something as simple as I'm currently out

of the office, I expect to return on -- and I'll be returning calls on that day.

Make sure that they're aware of that just while you're out of the office.

And then, of course, make sure to stick to that. Once you do get back into

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the office, make sure to go ahead and review your voice mails to return

those calls promptly.

Remember people are working on a deadline, and they may need that

information urgently. So do make sure to return those calls promptly.

Now, one other item we're going to touch on here is ending the call.

Ending the call professionally, one of the best tips I've ever learned is

paraphrase what the next step is. Provide the next step for that caller.

This will help reduce confusion and help get better results with each and

every call. And it's as simple as this. Let's say for example that you're

scheduling an appointment for one of the clients, customers, to meet with

one of the internal staff members. It could be something as simple as,

great, well, I'll look forward to meeting you at our office at -- here's the

address -- at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning, and we'll go over the samples at

that time; is that correct? Great. We'll look forward to seeing you then.

Have a great afternoon. Something as simple as that.

You want to summarize what the expectations are, what the next steps

are. Could be a meeting. Could be a phone call. Could be a fax.

Whatever the next step is, you just want to go ahead and summarize it so

that they're very, very clear in where they're going.

Now, of course, you may get difficult callers. You may get callers that are

frustrated, and they start blaming you, and attacking you. And we need to

remember to remain professional at all times.

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And one tip to remaining professional is use the acronym Q-tip. And Q-tip

simply stands for quit taking it personal. Quit taking it personal. See, it's

not about you. They're not attacking you. They would attack anybody

who happen to be answering a phone that day. It just happens to be you.

So it's important that we use the Q-tip acronym. And I used to love to tape

a little Q-tip to my computer screen to remind me that they weren't

attacking me personally. They were just in the attacking mode and I

happened to be in their path. So we want to remember, any time you get

a difficult customer, difficult client, they just don't want to listen, it's not

about you, it's all about them. And remember the acronym Q-tip, quit

taking it personal.

{End of recording.}

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EFFECTIVE TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION SKILLS MODULE FIVE Female: The Difficult Customers. The difficult callers. You're a professional.

You're calm, you're cool, you're collected, your day is going great. And it's

an hour to go and your phone rings. You're not expecting this. The caller

is mad. They've called before, and everyone has hung up on them.

They're demanding that you help them right now. You ask them good

questions. And the caller goes on and on and on, and gets more upset

and more upset. They start to become verbally abusive, using four-letter

words left and right. They're angry. They're mad. And you're stuck.

What do you do?

See, it's frustrating being at the other end of that phone call. And you

didn't do anything to provoke or prompt it. But the key starts with

understanding the signs of an angry caller. And those signs start with a

high-pitched voice.

When we're relaxed, our vocal cords are relaxed. But we get stressed,

we get tense, our vocal cords get tense, and you start to hear that their

pitch starts to raise. You'll find that they take long pauses because they're

upset, they're angry. The sighs, the demands, the short terse answers,

and the volume gets louder. So these are all signs that you're dealing with

an angry customer.

Now, why do they get angry? Usually it's because they have a specific

problem that needs attention. Now here's what's interesting about that, is

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that problem may not be the reason that they called. That problem might

be something totally different.

Say, for example, last summer when my cell phone wasn't working, I was

extremely upset. I was to the point of being angry, because I had talked to

five different people from my cell phone carrier's office, and all of them

said it will be fixed in 24 hours, 24 hours, 24 hours. Five different people,

two weeks later, and it still was not fixed. I was frustrated. I was mad.

And I was going to let somebody have it cause this shouldn't be.

I went down to the cell phone office and I was ready to give the manager a

piece of my mind. I was ready to tell him how upset I was, and how angry

I was, and how I was leaving their company, I was going to tell everybody

how bad they were. And by the time I left that office, I was thanking the

manager. I had gotten no compensation. I'd gotten no solution. But she

had solved the problem. The problem was I didn't feel like anybody cared.

And as soon as she showed me that she cared and she reach out and she

gave me specific examples of things that she was going to help me get it

resolved, my problem was solved. The problem wasn't that the phone line

didn't work. Of course, that was a bit of a problem. But the bigger

problem was the phone company didn't care.

And so it's important that we identify what the real problem is. And that

comes through answering questions.

Let's go through a couple step process and how exactly to handle an

angry caller. First starts with asking specifics, finding out the information,

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what are they looking for, what are they upset about, why are they angry?

Then it goes into summarizing the problem, sharing with them what you

feel their problem is.

Next is offering choices. Well, we can solve the problem by doing this or

by doing this; which would you prefer, customer? And then follow up on

those choices. Okay, it sounds like you'd like to do this. I'm going to go

ahead and do that for you. And lastly, offer extras. Extras could be

compensation, it could be free giveaways, it could be any number of

things.

What is important is before you get to the angry caller, make sure you

have some extras that you know you can offer. It could be as simple as

putting them on a list to get coupons. It could be as simple as sending

them a thank you letter for bringing the problem to your attention. It could

be compensation, but not always.

So you want to understand and take a look at what does the caller really

want, ask the specifics, summarize the problem, offer the choices, follow

up on the choice, and offer the extras.

Now, on the don'ts -- when dealing with an angry customer, don't interrupt

them. Let them vent. Don't try to be logical. It's only going to get them

more upset. Have you ever tried being logical with someone who's angry?

Oh, it's a losing battle. There is no logic because not a logical issue, it's

an emotional issue. And definitely don't put the blame on somebody else.

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This is not the time to play blame game. It's not the time to deflect the

blame. Accept the blame as part of the company and move on.

I will share with you, when people get angry, they get upset. And when

they get upset, they don't always think clearly. In fact, one study said that

when someone is angry and they're so mad they start seeing red, they

actually lose half of their IQ.

Now, I can tell you I've met with a lot of people, and some people can't

afford to lose half their IQ. So we want to be very, very careful in dealing

with angry people. They are not logical. They're not thinking clearly.

If an average person loses half of their IQ, an average hundred point IQ

goes down to 50, that's about the IQ of a third grader. That's what you're

dealing with. So it's important that we try not to reason, we try not to logic

-- and definitely don't put blame or get defensive when people get angry.

Now, anger triggers abuse. They get so mad they can't communicate,

they're upset, they start saying all kinds of interesting things, most of

which are four-letter words. Now, wherever you work, I am a hundred

percent certain that they do not condone you having to accept verbal

abuse from customers or clients. I understand customers and clients are

the key to your business, but I am absolutely certain there's no workplace

in the planet that I know of that forces you to have to accept that kind of

abuse. So let's take a look at how to handle the abusive caller.

The first is stay calm. Remember Q-tip, don't take it personally, you're not

the target. Now, oftentimes the abusive caller is going to be using words

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and accusations that are not true, they have no basis for validation, and

they're simply letting off steam. So you want to give them a warning. And

usually it starts with, I beg your pardon? The second time they do it, say

something, like, sir, if you continue to use that language, I will have to end

this call. And the third time that they do it, sir, I'm going to have to end this

call, and you hang up.

Now, once you've done that, document what happened and make sure to

inform the supervisor of the call. Many times these folks will call back and

say something like, that customer service person of yours, or that

receptionist, they hung up on me. And you need to document what

happened, the fact that you gave them three warnings, and that you

terminated the call.

So it's important that we do not accept this kind of abuse. It is not part of

our job. It is not a requirement of our job. We just need to know how to

handle it so that we don't have to deal with it.

Now, avoid making value judgments. Be careful and stick to just the facts.

Avoid adding more emotion. A lot of times when we say I think, I feel;

those are value judgments, you know, I feel like you're attacking me, huh-

uh. Sir, I need you to lower your tone of your voice. Sir, I need you to not

use that kind of language. Stick to the facts and avoid the opinions. You

don't want to give them anymore ammunition to start a fight. They're

already argumentative enough. So at this point it's important that you not

argue with them anymore.

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Now, the argumentative caller, you need to make sure to speak softly with

them. They're looking for a fight. They're looking to draw you in. So be

careful not to pick a fight with them. Ask their opinion and reply in yes or

no sentences.

Now, a couple more tips to dealing with your difficult callers is identify the

central ideas and facts, and stick to them. Take notes. Avoid judging their

motives and illuminate your distractions. There's a lot of distractions that

can happen as we are talking with someone, and certainly people coming

up to our desk, people wanting things, emails, smart phones. We need to

make sure that we're eliminating as many of those distractions as we can

to make sure we stay focused on the call at hand.

Now, we want to accept concern and build a rapport to be able to work

with this caller and to move them forward.

Now, lastly, is the talkative caller. And these are the ones that start

innocently enough, they find out how your day's going. And then by the

second call, they're chatting a little longer. By the time you're on the fourth

of fifth call with them, it's an hour or two, and it's out of control.

I have a client that I work with that the first couple calls were great. Today

I dread calling them, because I know it's going to be an hour and a half

call minimum. And he just goes on and on and on and on. We know

these type of callers. And when we see their number come up, we almost

want to send them to voice mail. But we have to be professional. We

represent a company. We have an image to maintain.

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So let me give you couple tips when dealing with a talkative caller. And

the first tip is use the caller's name to get their attention. So if the caller

was Joe and Joe was talking and talking, he's telling you about his

weekend, and his kids, and his dog, and the fun he had -- you'd say, Joe,

hold on a minute. And then change the subject and move on with the call.

Now, silence works as well. You do have to be a good listener. You want

to be careful to ask them closed-ended question.

Now, open-ended questions are questions that require them to give you

feedback or to give you more information than just yes or no. Closed-

ended questions are questions that require a yes or a no answer. And

you need to be polite but be firm.

Now, one of the tricks that I found is a lot of times talkative callers don't

feel like they're getting heard. So they constantly rehash or they tell you

the same things over and over again. And the good way to move past that

is say, okay, Joe, let me see if I got this. What you told me is you were

doing this, this, this and this, and you were looking to do this; is this right?

We paraphrase and summarize. And by paraphrasing and summarizing,

we're able to show them that we're listening, and they can move forward.

And this sometimes prevents them from rehashing the same information

over and over and over again. They now feel heard.

Couple of things to avoid. Avoid showing them frustration. This becomes

unprofessional. So we don't want to say, Joe, okay, I get it. But I know

many of you, like me, are thinking that in your mind. You might even put

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the phone on mute and go, oh, not him again. We understand it's

frustrating having a caller that just goes on and on and on. But it's

important that we remain professional.

We want to avoid interrupting them rudely. We know they do it to us.

They don't let us get a word in edgewise, but we have to remain

professional.

We also want to avoid dominating them. It could be very, very easy,

especially if you're a strong personality to say, look, Joe, I just don't have

time for this, call me back when you really need something. It's not going

to come off very, very good. You don't want to dominate them.

You could try, sir, could you hold on for two minutes, I have a call on the

other line. And let them sit for two minutes. Come back, finish the call,

and move on. Now, of course, you don't want to do this too often, but

certainly with these extra talkative callers, you do need to draw the line.

You need to draw the boundary as to where they are and where you're

going.

Dealing with difficult callers can make our life as a receptionist very, very

hard. But if you follow these simple steps through dealing with the angry,

the argumentative, and even the talkative caller, you'll find that being able

to handle them is so much easier. It will allow you to stay professional, to

keep a great smile, and to be able to answer the phone confidently every

single time it rings.

{End of recording.}