Phone Skills Training for Your Business
Why are Phone Skills Important? Or Are They?
FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER
Why aren’t phone skills considered important? I’ve been working diligently to figure it out. In my training and speaking engagements, I always ask folks if they have received formal phone skills training. Only a few hands go up each time. It boggles the mind!
Phone skills should carry just as much importance (if not more) as face-to-face customer engagement. First impressions matter. Sloppy phone skills set the tone for a lackluster outcome. I’m on a mission to spread the gospel on the tools and techniques for spectacular phone experiences. I am a student of outstanding customer service. It’s easy for me to find lifeless and bland service. When I get that gem of great service when placing a business call, I file it away in my little bitty file of goodness.
Business owners and managers… you should try it, too. A little R & D (rip-off and duplicate) can provide you with some benchmarking for your own phone support strategies. If you call another business and you like what you hear, partner with your phone frontline to replicate that positive experience.
3 reasons why phone skills are undervalued
So, why aren’t phone skills important in our businesses? I have observed three things that are occurring in business today. In my 30 years of customer service experience, here is what I’ve seen:
REASON #1: Business owners AND managers don’t invest in good PHONE SKILLS training
The logic is skewed. Businesses tend to focus training on the back-end of a business transaction versus the frontline. Leaders are more focused on transactional processes and sales techniques. Have you heard this? “Once we get ‘em in the front door, we are gonna wow their socks off!” No one seems to recognize that “getting ‘em in” is most of the battle! Exceptional phone skills (which requires exceptional phone skills training) will increase those chances of “getting ‘em in the front door.” By focusing on the front-end (i.e. the first impression, which usually happens over the phone), businesses create relationships, not transactions.
Leaders often assume good phone skills are innate. Well, surprise! They are not. Managers often tell me the business just needs to get “back to the basics.” Nope. If you don’t already have the basics down, you are doing it wrong. It’s probably too late. Tough love, I know. But, frankly, I’m tired of the weary voices I hear on your phone lines. It’s time to do something about it.
Unless you are a unique human being, no one wants to call a business. Just think about calling businesses that aren’t your own. Why is it that we usually pick up the phone to make that call? Because we just want to chat with a lovely customer service representative? NO! We place those calls because we need information, something has gone wrong, or something is unclear or confusing. We make a tough situation worse when we don’t provide our phone professionals with the phone skills training they desperately need.
Here’s a nice trite saying that has a ton of meaning: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It is so refreshing to have a pleasant interaction when calling a company. We underestimate the value in that experience. Dead Ringers has placed THOUSANDS of mystery shopping calls. Our call evaluators have some hardy souls; it’s genuinely painful to listen to some of the interactions they have to endure!
REASON #2: A business has no direct competitors
Someday I’ll write a blog about this just to help me vent. Maybe tell a few stories from my big old file of bad phone interactions. You are spared today, dear readers!
REASON #3: WE ARE Lazy
We just don’t want to do the grunt work. Yep. We’ve built elaborate phone systems just so we don’t have to talk live to our customers.
Have you called you lately? How many menu options do you have? How many numbers do your consumers have to navigate before they get to speak to a live professional?
And the laziness abounds. Businesses have dismantled the “0” in phone menus so we can get to a live person. Oh, then some amazing tech has been applied to the laziness. Voice commands versus entering a number. As soon as I hear this, I start yelling “human!” or “representative!” Even that doesn’t work.
I once worked for a company that prided itself on how quickly we could get customers off the phone. We were dinged when our call times increased. What can we do NOT to create relationships with our customers? Mind blown.
Stop being lazy. Get off the couch and institute an energetic phone strategy. Implement some real phone skills training. How novel to actually answer the phone with no menu options! Some companies are getting it. A great example is the Discover Card. They feature their call center in their telephone ads: “We’d treat you like you’d treat you.” Google them sometime. They are fun and refreshing to watch.
Phone Skills Training For Your Business
PHONE SKILLS IS WHAT WE DO.
As I said, I’m on a mission here. There’s nothing I enjoy more in my professional life than to help businesses create meaningful conversations with their clients. There’s a real need for phone skills training for businesses in every industry. That’s why I’m proud to be a part of Dead Ringers. We’re not just a secret shopping service; we evaluate every aspect of your business’ customer experience, and then we develop customized, actionable solutions that produce measurable results.
Phone skills training is our forte. If you’re ready to give your phone skills a big boost, I hope you give us a call. We’ll analyze that all-too-important first impression, evaluate those undervalued phone skills, and provide training solutions that generate marked improvement to your customer service, call efficiency, and (of course) your bottom line.
relax: a whitepaper on phone etiquette
Transitioning your customer experience from face to phone can be scary. We can help. Download the “RELAX” whitepaper today to learn how to transition your business from face to phone—without compromising the all-important customer experience.
Phone Skills Training
Ready to experience a comprehensive, interactive and fun phone skills training program? Purchase your On-Site Training package today to set your staff up for success.