At MeloTel, we provide our customers with top-of-the-line services and equipment to help them do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Our Commercial Phone Services, for example, offer crystal clear communication over the cloud, allows for unlimited calling to over 22 countries AND offers a FREE Polycom Phone Program! Arguably, there is no better deal in the telecom industry – although we wouldn’t advise anyone to argue it.
But once you take advantage of our Commercial Phone Services, the rest is up to you. What we mean is that the ways in which you use the phone to conduct your job will truly make or break the success of your business. Is your customer service regimen up to snuff? Only your customers can truly answer that. But, to ensure that you’re doing the best job you can when you’re on the phone, you may want to follow certain guidelines.
Here are five tips for providing top-notch service on the phone:
1. Answer your calls quickly. Customers hate waiting. Whether it’s waiting in line, waiting on hold or waiting for their calls to be answered, it’s simply not a fun thing to do. It also appears unprofessional when a phone is ringing for too long a time. You should either have a professional answering service in place to immediately direct calls to appropriate departments or have your phone staff answer their calls expeditiously.
2. Speak with a smile. You may not realize it, but there’s a pretty big difference between speaking while smiling and speaking without smiling. Your tone of voice and overall demeanour is simply a lot more pleasant when you smile. Be sure to let your customers know that you are happy to hear from them. Your friendly attitude will go a long way in helping the entire customer service experience to be a great one.
3. Use professional language. No matter what industry you work in, it’s important to avoid slang terms when conducting business. Unless you have a personal friendship with the customer you are speaking with, you don’t want to give off the impression that you shouldn’t be taken seriously. You also want to showcase the respect you have for the people who support your business. Avoiding the use of foul language, at all costs, is also very wise.
4. Learn the phonetic alphabet. This is a very important tip as it will enable you to receive and provide information as correctly as possible each and every time. Don’t assume that the person you are speaking with understands difficult or unusual spellings correctly unless you’ve confirmed it using the NATO phonetic alphabet. Here’s an example: “MeloTel: M like Mike, E like Echo, L like Lima, O like Oscar, T like Tango, E like Echo and L like Lima.”
5. Keep hold times to a minimum. There will always be times when you are required to put a customer on hold. But, as mentioned earlier, no one likes waiting. Have an appropriate hold routine in place. Make sure that it includes you asking your customer if he/she is willing to hold (instead of telling him/her to hold) and be informative about how long the hold time will be. If it appears as if you’ll need extra time, go back to the call to make the customer aware.
For more information about our Commercial Phone Services AND for a taste of what MeloTel’s customer service over the phone is all about, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-888-MELOTEL. Of course, if you prefer, you may also the “Live Chat Support” feature on our website. Simply click on the rectangular orange icon at the bottom left corner and begin typing in your question!
