At MeloTel, we don’t just care a lot about our business. We care a lot about your business too! After all, our company is only as successful as its clients. It’s our job to ensure that our top-of-the-line services help your business to thrive in ways that it never could before. Of course, employing VoIP technology goes a long way in making your telephone services the best that they have ever been.
However, as we often like to blog about, good use of the telephone has a lot more to do with utilizing best phone practices than it does the equipment and technology you use. Often, the MeloTel Blog will comment upon the various ways in which you can implement best practices over the phone. Our last blog was no different. Especially with the busy holiday season nearly here, it’s more important than ever to exhibit excellent customer service.
Sometimes, this can get overwhelming. And sometimes, we just get too wrapped up in how busy our days are that we forget to pay close attention to the ways we sound when we’re on the phone. Offering your customers the best version of yourself each and every time they call you is very important. There are bad habits that we’re all guilty of having that we need to be mindful of. Here are five no-no’s in the world of customer service on the phone.
1. Answering only with “hello”. Now how professional does that sound? Especially on busy days when we have our business number forwarded to our cell phones, we may get caught up in answering the phone as if it’s our friends calling. This reflects poorly on your business. Be sure to answer each of your calls stating the name of your business as well as your own. You want to make sure that your greeting – your first impression – is always a professional one.
2. Being abrupt and rude. It’s practically the holiday season. People are looking to speak to customer service reps who are courteous, polite and even joyous during this time of year. The holiday season, however, is also the busiest time of year. It stands to reason that both you and your phone reps may be a little bit more stressed than usual. Take measures to ensure this isn’t heard through the phone. Any signs of rudeness can haunt your business for a long time.
3. Having a generic voicemail greeting. If your voicemail is one of those generic “not available right now, leave a message at the tone” types, you run the risk of exposing your brand as low-brow and unprofessional. At least, this is the impression you’re bound to give to callers who hear such voicemail greetings. Be sure to have a professionally-worded and spoken voicemail that is representative of the high-quality brand that you own.
4. Having no voicemail at all. In today’s advanced world, there are some telephone norms of the past that should no longer exist. Among them are busy signals and numbers without voicemail capabilities. Imagine not even being able to leave a message for someone who is unavailable to speak. You may be surprised how much such an occurrence still occurs. It shouldn’t for your business, however. Ever!
5. Using a traditional landline. In case you weren’t already aware, Voice over Internet Protocol is the wave of the future. And it is available to you today! There are so many Telephone Features that are available as part of MeloTel’s Commercial Telephone plan that we don’t know where to start. Actually, we do! It all starts with a phone call. Don’t hesitate to give us a call at 1-888-MELOTEL today!