what are the five most important standards for a professional phone call?
99381
The answer may very, depending upon who you speak with, but as someone who has been the supervisor of a marketing research firm and who has also been a customer service rep for a telephone company, I would have to say the five most important standards, as I have been taught, for a professional phone call are as follows:\n\n1.  Friendly but professional tone of voice.\n\n2.  No dead air.\n\n3.  If you have to put the person on hold, give them an exact timeframe as to when they can expect you to come back, i.e. if you say, "Do you mind holding for a minute?" then come back in exactly one minute.  If you need more time, simply tell the person, "Thank you for holding.  I apologize about the wait.  I am still working this issue out for you.  Do you mind holding for another minute?"\n\n4.  Do not clear your throat, sneeze, cough, etc. with the other person on the line.  If you have to do so, make sure they cannot hear you via a mute button on a headseat or by covering the receiver.\n\n5.  Match the other person's pace.  If they're a fast talker and you're not, speed it up.  If they're a slow talker and you're a fast talker, slow it down.  This will maximize communication between the two of you, it will cut down on frustration, and it, thus, makes the phone call much more efficient.\n\nHope these help.  Best of luck.
1097463
I use it to make calls.  How do you use it?
934002
Number 5. It sounds a bit more professional.
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What sort of notes are you looking for on customer service industry?? I work as customer support expert, guess I might be of some assitance.\n\nCustomers and clients are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the merely adequate. For them, extraordinary service is the rule, not the exception. Anything less, and they're happy to vote with their feet and their wallets. That makes extraordinary service necessary, not just desirable and in turn, mandates a strategy to help ensure that comapny you working for matches that standout service standard on a daily basis.\n\nFor starters here are few of them..\n\n1. Define what extraordinary really means.\n\nIt's an easy term to toss about, but knowing what exceptional service entails is essential to establishing the procedures and the mindset with which to achieve it. So, delineate what extraordinary means — is it lower price? Keeping appointments on time or making certain that telephone service reps always say "please" and "thank you"? By knowing precisely what is merely good enough — and what takes your business beyond that — you get a firm handle on what you need to do to hit that goal on a consistent basis.\n\nFor 1-800-Got-Junk? that means calling a customer to let them know that the van they're expecting is going to arrive on time.\n\n"We pledge to arrive on time, in a clean shiny truck, with two friendly uniformed drivers — but so can anyone. What makes us unique is our truck crew will call the customer 15 minutes ahead of time, and let them know we're on time," says Christopher Bennett of the Vancouver, B.C., junk removal service. "This has a huge impact on the customer. Calling ahead sets exceptional expectations — even if we're running late, the customer appreciates the call in advance."\n\n2. Ask if you're not sure.\n\nMany companies may find it understandably difficult to genuinely pinpoint what extraordinary service really entails. So, do some legwork. Conduct focus groups with customers to see what they really value. Ask your complaint department, if you have one, to identify topics that are frequent targets of dissatisfaction. Often, you may find extraordinary translates to a holistic grouping of issues, not just one product or service. "Often, being extraordinary means offering someone a truly exceptional experience," says Dr. Noelle Nelson, author of "The Power of Appreciation in Business." "The quality of something may be good, but it's the overall experience that will really define customer loyalty."\n\n3. Allow your people to be extraordinary.\n\nSaying you want extraordinary service and actually carrying it out is a tough nut without the necessary authority. One of the biggest challenges of providing a consistently top-drawer performance is shifting conditions — what's appropriate for one customer may not work with another. . For instance, one customer may be so dissatisfied that a partial refund may be in order. By contrast, other customers who are a bit less peeved may be happy with a problem solved without any sort of refund.\n\nSo, allow employees reasonable freedom of choice to read a situation and react accordingly. For instance, Nelson suggests giving employees a budgetary allotment which they can use, as needed, to address refunds or other unexpected costs associated with giving customers the benefit of the doubt. To illustrate: Southwest Airlines gives its telephone customer service reps the authority to OK refunds if a caller claims they didn't get the airfare they wanted. (The reps charge their own credit cards, then later get reimbursed.)\n\n4. Share information.\n\nIf you run a retail business, business management tools, such as Microsoft's Retail Management System, can be invaluable in tracking critical data, such as what items and services are selling particularly well. If you have that data, don't keep it a state secret. Shari
688734
Phone Book, phone, finger, use them
902340
#1 - take off your phone number!!!!\n#2 - the English language is a wonderful thing... learn it
602192
press talk to talk press end to end the call
405609
Try The Call.  It really works.  www.thecallonline.com
312320
like what phone number ?
204203
Ok you want to get the points on your Quality Eval. \n\nI am a former Operations Manager in call centers. Here is what most reps missed.\n\nCheerful- say your greeting script cheerfully\n\nGain agreement with the customer- customer mentions his/her issue you reply, something like this," Mr____ ,so I understand you correctly you are calling today because your cell phone isnt working properly and you feel it may be the signal, is that correct?" Once your customer says yes to the question, then you can move on to helping him\n\nNo dead air. Never leave a customer listening to nothing, if you have to say "is it a nice day in______?" while you are looking for something on your system. If it takes too long put your customer on hold\n\nIf you are going to put a customer on hold ask the customer permission,"may I put you on hold for 1to 2 min" Customer says yes, you say thank you. Stopwatch your hold time, watch the phone (hold indicator time) never put your phone in wrap-up while on hold it tricks the main computer in the call center and messes up your talk time, it will look like you are spending too much time. Make sure that you come back to that customer after the time you gave him to check in. Come back on the phone and say, "thank you for holding Mr.___, I am still researching, may I proceed to keep you on hold?" \n\nThese are very important things\n\nOnce you feel you may have resolved the issue. make sure you gain agreement again with the customer. "is everything working properly?" \n\nuse words like great good, excellent, etc positive words always make the customer more happy they are talking to you.\n\nAfter you have gotten agreement that you have resolved the call you can then say, "is there anything else I can help you with today?" customer says no then you end the call with the script. never say bye bye at the end of a call. i know it is hard, but it lacks professionalism. \n\nIf the customer has other issues go back gain agreement, and go back through everything again..\n\nAs long as you do those things you will get top scores.
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Taking difficult calls\nMaking sure that calltakers don't take long breaks, or no breaks\nSupervising Staff with training and appraisals\nSick and Holiday Cover\n\nIt generally depends on the call centre too as to what other duties are involved.
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When a Stranger Calls.\n\n"The call is coming from inside the house!"
682261
Practice 5 Star Service\n\n1. Know their names\n\n2. Know their needs\n\n3. Smile\n\n4. Exceed their expectations\n\n5. Have Fun
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http://www.callcenterops.com/
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Telephone, telegraph and tell-a-secret\n\nLOL
590362
It definitely used to be required. I haven't lived there in a while so I'm not sure if the current practice is more like America where they prefer to call and speak to someone in person. Many of the jobs in the Sydney Morning Herald ask for references to be sent along with the resume/CV.
171089
A telephone, that is, when it's ringing.  =)