This article has been accepted for publication in the March 2005 issue of Executive Branch, the newsletter for the Maryland Society of Association Executives

8 Ways To Inspire Telephone Courtesy
By Barbara Brown, PhD

It’s true! Telephone techniques do matter. If you don’t believe me, just think about the last time someone was rude, unprofessional, or indifferent to you on the telephone. It undoubtedly impacted how you felt about the person, the service, and the company. Having recently experienced my own less-than-positive person while making hotel reservations, I can personally attest to the impact.

That said, examine the telephone techniques of your employees. Do their mannerisms create impressions of caring, courtesy, and competence? If not, you could be losing customers or at the very least irritating them.

As leaders, you expect employees to:

• Be friendly on the telephone
• Project an image of professionalism
• Set a positive example for the company
• Use a cooperative tone when addressing complaints

Of course, your customers expect the same. The challenge is finding ways to inspire employees to ‘want’ to continuously use telephone techniques that meet and exceed these expectations. Use the following dialogue strategies as a start:

1. “When concluding conversations, you always ‘thank’ customers for calling (your desired telephone technique). Our customers appreciate that courtesy and you actually help our company retain those customers (how desired telephone technique impacts the organization).”
2. “As your supervisor, I don’t have to spend a lot of time resolving callers’ complaints (how desired telephone technique impacts the organization). That’s because you can either resolve the problem or know where to refer the caller (your desired telephone technique).”
3. “You always return calls promptly (your desired telephone technique). That prevents you from having to spend valuable time reacting to callers’ perceptions about poor service (how desired telephone technique impacts the individual).”
4. “If you don’t want to talk to the same caller multiple times about issues that could have been resolved during the first call (how desired telephone technique impacts the individual), you should confirm that you have resolved all the caller’s issues before you end the conversation (your desired telephone technique).”
5. “When transferring callers, if you give the telephone number of that specific department (your desired telephone technique), you would not have to spend time reconnecting the same caller (how desired telephone technique impacts the individual). This would also reduce the number of complaints our office receives about poor service (how desired telephone technique impacts the organization).”
6. “You complain that you always have to repeat information to callers. If you talked more slowly during conversations (your desired telephone technique), you might not have to repeat the information as often (how desired telephone technique impacts the individual).”
7. “If you want callers to be more friendly with you on the telephone (how desired telephone technique impacts the individual), you might use a more friendly tone of voice during conversations (your desired telephone technique). A tried and proven way of sounding friendly is to ‘smile’ when answering the telephone.”
8. “One of our required office protocols (how desired telephone technique impacts the organization) is that everyone uses a ‘standard’ greeting when answering the telephone (your desired telephone technique). That’s the case whether or not you recognize the name and number from your caller ID. This practice also prevents you from having to explain your telephone answering approach in instances when the person on the other end of the line is not who was actually indicated on the caller ID (how desired telephone technique impacts the individual).”
   

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