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Your phones are ringing off the hook, but you don’t seem to be closing a lot of sales—what’s wrong with this picture? There may be crucial elements to customer service that you’ve been overlooking. Successful business calls take practice and a lot of attention to detail. To help you master the art of business calls, here are four tested ways you can make your customers happy over the phone.
Develop your own professional greeting
You may be answering calls to your 1300 number through your home or mobile phone, but that doesn’t mean you should answer business calls the same way as you would any other personal phone call. A simple ‘Hello’ simply does not cut it!
Aside from greeting the caller, make sure you state the name of your business clearly, a short description of what you do, and your name. Better yet, have a professionally recorded business intro that answers your calls the same way every single time. That way, you can project a larger image and reassure callers that they are dealing with a reliable and legitimate business.
Remember to express gratitude
For most people, picking up the phone is akin to lifting a heavy anchor. In this day and age of the internet and SMS, calling means they’re willing to put in their time to talk to you and discuss matters that are important to them. Make sure you recognize that and show appreciation for their time by thanking them during the call.
Another way to show gratitude is by showing you’re prepared to answer their questions. Always have three to five points in mind about how your product or service can become a solution to your customer’s problem. Remember that your primary goal is not just to sell a product, but resolve their issues. If you focus on that, they’ll be the one thanking you for it.
Listen and take notes
Listen—this seems to be a no-brainer but this is something that most entrepreneurs forget while multi-tasking. Yes, it’s important to keep juggling work but remember that the kind of customer service you provide determines whether people will keep coming back to you or go to your competitor. Always have a pen and paper ready, or opt for a call recording service so you can go review conversations.
Not only can you make sure that you don’t miss a single detail, you can also use this tool to review your interactions and find points for improvement for you and your staff when it comes to customer calls.
Make call backs within an hour
More than the calls you take, it’s also necessary to pay attention to the ones you fail to pick up. Who is answering your calls and how fast do you make call backs? Something as simple as having a live person pick up, instead of going straight to voicemail can increase your leads by up to 75%.
Choose a phone answering service that takes messages and sends them to you via email or SMS immediately so you can respond at your soonest available time. Making business calls a pleasant experience for you and your customers is easy with the right mindset and business telecommunication solutions on hand. If you have any business communication questions, please ring us up at 1300 ALLTEL or visit us at ALLTEL.