Customer Service Over The Phone

Dial the phone number listed in your advertisements and on your card occasionally and pretend to be a customer with a question.  You may be surprised at what you hear.  You may learn why business is not as brisk as when you or someone else answered calls with a friendly greeting and “How May I Help You?”  Have you ever attempted to reach a company with a need or business only to give up when you could not reach a human?   

Today’s technology has made it next to impossible in some cases to reach a person unless you know their extension or direct phone number ahead of time.  Perhaps the system asked you to type in the first three or four letters of the person’s last name.  You type it in and the system rejects the input and asks you to try again.  After a few more tries it either hangs up on you or you hang up in frustration vowing never to waste your time with this company again.  

Another variation is a third party answering service that answers with the wrong company name, corrects themselves and then proceeds to inform you that all they do is take messages.  They certainly cannot give any serious answers but usually offer to have someone contact you later “at their convenience.”  They do not show any interest in your needs since they simply are covering the phones for someone and perhaps have found another job they are starting the next day.

One quotation is “you only get one chance to make a good (or great) first impression.”  The other side of the coin is “you only get one chance to make a really bad impression.”  Periodically check up on your answering system to make sure that you are not losing potential business due to simply losing an interested prospect who never got to become a paying customer.

One final thought is to always include your name, company, phone (with extension if necessary), email and other contact information on all your email communications so that people do not have to search for a phone or fax number.  Make it as easy as possible for prospects to become paying customers.  

I hope to hear from you soon.  Until then, keep it clean...

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678.314.2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net.