Time is money. Time is of the essence. There’s no time to waste! Take your pick. Each of these idioms aren’t simply clichés. They are important bits of truth. All business owners know how important it is to use time wisely. And, as a result, budgeting their time is as important as budgeting their money. When it comes to your phone reps, the same approach to doing business is true. It’s important for them to make good use of their time.
When it comes to working on the phone, this isn’t always easy. Yes, it is incredibly important for your reps to gain favour with their callers, leads and customers by engaging in some friendly banter. It helps to establish rapport. And building relationships is a major part of any business’ growing success. However, there is a fine line between relationship-building and wasting time. And it isn’t necessarily the fault of your phone reps.
Have you ever encountered a chatty customer? Of course you have. We all have! And while there’s nothing particularly bad about a customer who wishes to have a long chat in the world of relationship-building, it’s not exactly a good business approach to spend too much time on the phone with people when the time isn’t leading to any additional income for the business. As a result, it’s often important to find ways to kindly get off the phone.
Here are four polite ways to close your calls:
1. Express your gratitude. A great way to transition your conversation towards its closing is to offer your thanks for it. “Well, I really want to thank you for calling today, it was a pleasure to speak to you”. This is an excellent way to let your customer know that you appreciate his/her business while still needing to move on to other things in your day. Be sure to let your customer know that you’ll be available to speak again in the future.
2. Declare your enjoyment. The key to getting off the phone without sounding abrupt or rude is communicating that it’s not for lack of pleasure. Letting your customer know that you enjoy speaking to him/her will certainly soften the blow for someone who wishes to keep on talking. “Well, I must say that it was really a pleasure to speak with you today, and while I do need to take another call, I look forward to speaking with you again soon.”
3. Ask a closing question. Sometimes, you need to be somewhat direct about bringing the call to a close. And, again, you don’t need to be curt, abrupt or rude about it. “Before I let you go, is there anything else that I can help you with today?” And while this question does, of course, have the potential to lengthen your conversation, it brings it back to business-related issues that can help to generate more revenue for your business. If the answer is “no”, it helps you to transition towards your goodbye.
4. Offer a promise to continue the conversation. The end of a conversation doesn’t necessarily mean the end of a conversation. It can simply be a break in the discussion that can resume at a later time or date. In order to be as productive as possible during your work day, you may need to communicate the following to chatty customers. “I will definitely need to get back to you on that one. Allow me to look into it further and I’ll contact you shortly.”
At MeloTel, we place the providing of excellent customer service at the top of our list of priorities. We also firmly believe in the use of VoIP-based telephone technology in order to best serve today’s world of consumers. For more information about our Commercial Phone Services, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-888-MELOTEL or use the Live Chat feature on our website!
