At MeloTel, we care a great deal about customer service. As consumers ourselves, we pay close attention to how we’re treated whenever we enter stores or call companies on the phone. As customers, it obviously feels great to be treated with courtesy and respect. However, as members of the telecommunications industry, we feel it mandatory to offer our customers the best customer service in our field!
In a number of our past blogs, we’ve doled out a myriad of customer service tips. They are especially important guidelines to follow when you’re working on the phone. As we’ve often highlighted, when you provide over-the-phone customer service, you don’t have the benefit of hand gestures and facial expressions to communicate your point. Instead, your tone and inflection carry a lot of weight.
It’s vital to use positive language.
“Positive language is the art of using words and phrases to communicate a positive, supportive tone to your employees, customers, and anyone else you meet,” writes Peggy Carlaw of Connections Magazine, “Using positive language is important for building rapport with others. It makes a huge impact on the way you are perceived as a manager or coworker.”
Never forget that the words you use can have a very significant impact on the reputation of your brand. Using positive language helps for your customers to feel that they can count on you. By making clear what you can do for your customers as opposed to what you can’t do, you build trust and develop stronger relationships with the members of your target audience.
What are some examples of positive language?
In a few of those blogs we mentioned earlier, we discussed the concept of the “sandwich technique”. The idea is to sandwich a potentially negative reply between two positive ones. For example, “That’s a good question, I appreciate you asking that. While I’m unable to get your item delivered to you overnight, what I can definitely do is expedite the order and waive any shipping fees.”
On HelpScout.com, Gregory Ciotti agrees that using positive language is a must. He notes that it is a great way to avoid accidental conflicts due to miscommunication. Using the scenario of delivering a backordered product, Ciotti offers the following examples of how to communicate with a customer using negative and positive language.
“Negative language: ‘I can’t get you that product until next month. It is back-ordered and unavailable at this time,’” he writes, “Positive language: ‘That product will be available next month. I can place the order for you right now and make sure that it is sent to you as soon as it reaches our warehouse!’”
The right tools are necessary for clear communication.
“It’s frustrating to be on the receiving end of support when the team isn’t outfitted correctly,” Ciotti also mentions, “I watched such a scenario unfold a while back with brand new software I was using. Like many growing companies, they falsely believed that Gmail was ‘okay for now.’”
At MeloTel, we strongly advocate for businesses to take advantage of VoIP telephony. Contact us to learn about how our cloud-hosted Commercial Phone Services can provide you and your team with the right tools to provide the best customer service in your industry. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-888-MELOTEL or use the Live Chat feature on our website!
