Program Outline for Telephone Training in Etiquette, Systems, Courtesy and Customer Service Skills by Telephone Techniques Training

Have you ever considered actually what is conveyed to your callers over the telephone? Do the people that answer your callers appear empathetic to their needs? Are they friendly? In control? Using positive language? Are they listening to the caller? The participants will learn the basics of customer service and how to project a professional telephone image and leave with the skills to be confident, credible and capable.

Course Outline:

What do your callers really want?

The participants put themselves in the customers' shoes and evaluate the importance of good telephone manners and the importance in delivering good customer service.

Customer perceptions:

Discussion on why we lose business and why our customers go elsewhere. Usually, making a good first impression on the telephone will not be a problem, especially when you get pleasant callers. When they get their information they are appreciative. But there are other times when callers may not be quite so well mannered. How will you react? Video: "Legendary Customer Service"

Projecting a Professional Telephone image:

Comparison on Face to Face contact versus telephone contact. When you talk to someone in a face to face setting, how much of the message do you think is conveyed by what you say - the words you use. Guess what happens when you're on the telephone? We will discover the ways to convey a "professional telephone image"

Tone of voice:

Discussion on the importance of voice tone. How do we make the caller believe we care about their situation through our voice? We will address vocal quality - rate, pitch, volume, clarity and tone.

Using positive vocabulary:

Rephrase blunt communication for better results. Looking at emotional trigger words and expressions that can irritate the caller. For example: - 'I don't know', 'we don't' 'he's not here' 'not my department'

Ten steps on handling incoming calls:

Here we will demonstrate the most effective way in to answer our callers including how to greet them, transfer and hold calls. How do we handle multiple calls without panicking? How do we question our caller and what are the barriers to effective listening? (Video - 'Telephone Excellence')

Additional telephone techniques:

Taking complete messages. Telephone tag - how to avoid it. Effectively dealing with dialects and accents on the telephone.

Dealing with difficult callers

Understanding customer types - ANGRY, SWEARER AND WAFFLER (Video - 'How to deal with Angry customers over the telephone')