When your reputation is on the line…

Jonathan Dow, Managing Director of Class Club Investments Ltd, writes about the do's and don'ts of telephone etiquette for businesses.

This week I’ve got a complaint. I have had my fill of poor - let’s rephrase that - exceptionally bad telephone manners. The scenario goes something like this:

Picked up the phone to book my son’s birthday party at a local tree top adventure and the girl that answered was clearly in the grip of hysterical laughter. Fine if I had been involved in the joke, but I wasn’t. Unbelievably I didn’t get past ‘hello’, as the laughing continued, continued and continued some more. I was on the verge of hanging up, but I had to make the booking so I persevered - asking the usual questions parents would ask: how many children allowed per party? How many adults had to be present? and so on. But each question was met with suppressed laughter. I found this insulting and just plain rude.

As a customer service obsessive, I immediately thought what would I do if that person worked for me? How many customers could she potentially alienate? The thing is we all assume people know how to answer the phone. The reality is they don’t.

We’ve all experienced the ‘Hello, ABC Limited’…….in a monotonous, robotic voice. What does that greeting convey to you? To me it says: “hello anonymous customer, I am so bored and I don’t give two hoots about you.’’  It’s akin to brushing aside the outstretched hand-shake when greeting someone in person. Imagine doing that at your next meeting or networking event – yep I think you’d be remembered alright but for all the wrong reasons.

At one extreme some businesses script the entire call from the word ‘hello’ to the last ‘goodbye’, leaving nothing to chance or improvisation. Try calling Sky TV – it’s like they’ve hired a team of drones! But call the lifestyle company Cox & Cox - they actually talk to you like you’re an old friend.

So on the subject of general telephone etiquette, we did a straw poll in the office and came up with our pet hates.

Nothing worse than:

• Being put on hold without being told how long for and where your call is being transferred too.
• Hearing somebody typing while you are speaking to them – you know you have only got half their attention
• Eating – yuk – hate hearing it – like hearing somebody slurp soup – urghh!
• Calling with a query only to be told they want you to send the query to them by email. If I wanted to send an email, I would have done so in the first place.
• Being cut off. Nothing is more frustrating.
• Someone not bothering with, forgetting or mispronouncing your name. It’s been with you all your life – it’s special – remember the callers name! Write it out phonetically if you can’t pronounce it.
• Mumbling – makes us frustrated and feel old before our time – hate it.
• Insincerity – we all dislike it when someone says: ‘Have a nice day now!’ – very American – but we are not in America! Or anything that is said clearly without meaning.
• Talking in jargon, specific to your trade  - we don’t all understand your industry speak!
• Similarly, using acronyms that we don’t know where the actual words would suffice. This just makes us feel stupid unnecessarily.

What we really like is:

• A positive greeting: Good morning, this is Sarah speaking, how can I help you?
• We love it when someone remembers us or has a record of when we last called, or our last order. It makes us feel good. If they add in your name it’s even better
• Sincerity  - we like to feel our call is wanted and important.
• Somebody that really listens and quickly understands our needs.
• We like somebody that reads our mood. Sometimes it’s obvious we just want our questions answered quickly and sometimes we feel up for a chat around the subject we are calling about.
• We want someone positive. Even if they can’t help us immediately we want to know when they can, or if they can recommend someone else that can. I like to hear the words: “Certainly Sir, that’s no problem,’ or “I really understand your problem, I will get somebody to sort this out and call you back in five minutes.”
• We want to speak to someone that has the answers we need. Either the person answering should be knowledgeable or quickly pass us to the relevant person.

So the top tips:

1. Ask your team to draw up a telephone manner ‘pet hate’ list. Not only is it cathartic but it also helps refocus everyone’s minds on providing exceptional customer service at every touch point.
2. Make sure you have the right people at the gateway to your business. You might have had Michelle on reception for years, but is she really right for the job? Would she be better employed doing the admin she so loves? Could you slide sparky Sean into her seat, whose mission in life is to help everyone in his path?

If you are a business owner, have a think about your telephone image – remember it’s your reputation on the line!

Jonathan Dow is the managing director of Class Club Investments Ltd that includes Club Class Chauffeurs, with hubs in Sussex, Gloucestershire and Leicestershire, and Club Class Insurance Services Ltd. His company has been awarded several national awards for its exceptional customer service. The organisation is also an Investors In People Gold accredited company as well as an Investors In People Champion - placing it in the top 3% of all UK companies for world-class business performance through its people. For more information visit: www.clubclassonline.co.uk

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk