There are a variety of skills involved in telephone answering, and delivering good customer services. Our Zoomettes have years of training and experience in this, so are well placed to offer you some tips. It doesn't all come as naturally as you might think!
Active listening - imagine you are listening to someone explain something to you in person. What do you do? Do you stand there giving them no response whatsoever? Probably not! Even if you don't vocalise anything, chances are your head is nodding, or tilting, your eye brows raising, and you may even be mouthing words without sound. Much of that will not transmit over the phone, so you need to translate it into audio. A simple 'mmhmm', 'oh', 'yes' or 'right' lets the customer on the end of the phone know you are still there and you are still paying attention. Total silence over the phone worries people as they can't be sure you haven't put them on hold, or even just ignoring them!
Fill the silence - similarly, if you need to do anything that leads to prolonged silence, you should have a few uncontentious questions to ask ("did you have a good weekend") so that there isn't a silence lasting longer than about 10 seconds. You do need to be careful that you don't end up babbling or sounding nervous - you want to portray the image of a friendly, confident company!
Wednesday 22 February 2012
Tuesday 7 February 2012
How Do You Handle Snow Days?
It's snowed! A source of excitement to young and old alike, snow can also be a cause for big problems for businesses. When staff and deliveries can't get to where they need to be on time, business can end up stopping altogether. Now, here at Zoom we can't do much about any deliveries that you need to get in or out, but staff not making it into the office? That, we may be able to help with!
We offer the ability to sign up to our call answering services as an ad hoc service. You become a member for life and can use the Zoomettes as short term cover whenever you need to. That includes snow days as well as illnesses, emergencies, bank holidays or even just those extra busy times. We can even route certain calls to any number you like, so even if you're stuck at home, you can still speak to important clients as if you were in the office.
We know you can't plan for the unexpected, so we don't need you to predict the weather or anticipate staff illnesses, all you need to do is give us a call and our telephone answering service can be on line in as little as 10 minutes.
We offer the ability to sign up to our call answering services as an ad hoc service. You become a member for life and can use the Zoomettes as short term cover whenever you need to. That includes snow days as well as illnesses, emergencies, bank holidays or even just those extra busy times. We can even route certain calls to any number you like, so even if you're stuck at home, you can still speak to important clients as if you were in the office.
We know you can't plan for the unexpected, so we don't need you to predict the weather or anticipate staff illnesses, all you need to do is give us a call and our telephone answering service can be on line in as little as 10 minutes.
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