Phone Etiquette!

They say first impressions say a lot about your business. For many potential new customers, they first interact with or meet your business when they call on the phone.

In today’s tech-savvy society, it seems a machine rather than a human answers more phone calls to businesses. The entire process of answering company phones, from how quickly you respond to how you conclude the call and what is said in between, either with a live person or a voice recording, can determine whether potential customers choose to do business with you… or not!

There’s a saying that goes, “Little things mean a lot”.  Far too many businesses take answering the phone for granted. After all, what is so hard about answering the phone? However, having a set policy and procedure for answering the phone not only ensures the phone is answered the way you want it to be, but it also implies to ALL employees that you are a professional organization in ALL areas of your company.

With today’s business climate of limited and multi-tasking staff, there is often little time to answer the phones appropriately. In this case, a professional voicemail should be used in place of a live voice.  Just because a customer isn’t able to reach you does not mean they cannot be greeted with a message and feeling that creates a positive impression.

Remember that when someone calls your business they want something and it’s typically an answer to a question. In the 15 Rules to Phone Call Etiquette, Rule #5 is, “Take Notes”. Even if you use a voicemail system, ask the caller if they would prefer to leave a message or be sent to the person’s voicemail.  “Little things” do mean a lot!

Having a policy and set procedure on how you expect your phones to be answered is a small but important part of operating a professional business.

If you’d like to see the 15 Rules to Phone Call Etiquette, click here.

What I just shared was from my Sound ADvice email newsletter that subscribers receive nearly every Wednesday.  If you’d like a free subscription, drop me a note to Scott@ScLoHo.net

By the way, back in 2003 when I was starting my advertising career in Fort Wayne, I was invited to speak to a group of building contractors at their weekly breakfast meeting.  They thought I was going to pitch them on radio advertising but instead, I helped them with the way they converted leads to build trust over the phone and the advice I gave them was very similar to what I just shared with you.

These were small contractors, maybe two or three, perhaps just a solo entrepreneur and caller ID wasn’t standard on cell phones two decades ago.  I asked them, “What do you say when you answer your phone?” Most of them said, “Hello”.

My simple advice was to answer it professionally.

Hi, this is Gene from Gene’s plumbing, how can I help you?

This tells the caller that they’ve reached the right number and they are talking to the right person too.  6 months later I visited that group again and asked how many of them changed the way they answered the phone and what the results were.

Those that followed my advice saw an increase in business because they were converting more incoming calls or leads.

Even if you are not a business owner, try that with your own phone too.  If you call me, I’ll usually say my name and ask how I can help you.

This advice also applies to your voicemail message too.