When you are talking to someone face to face, you pick up all sorts of clues about their mood and meaning from their body language and facial expression as well as their tone of voice and choice of words. Unfortunately, you have much less to go on when you are answering the telephone. Tone of voice becomes much more important, which is one of the reasons why all our call answering operatives are trained to smile before they even answer the phone.
It is very easy to give the wrong impression over the phone, simply by sounding slightly distracted (perhaps when you are typing the message, or taking the caller's details). You can come across as bored and uninterested. It is worthwhile over-compensating slightly so that you sound lively, interested and friendly. But don't go too far the other way or you could give the impression that you are being sarcastic, which will quickly irritate the caller.
Whatever your role in your business, if you are talking to a client on the phone they are building an impression of the business as a whole from the way they perceive you. If you aren't sure how you come across on the phone, ask someone to listen in and give you an honest opinion.
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