Telephone Etiquette: The Key to Customer Satisfaction
You should aim to make every phone call your business receives a step toward a sale or new client. This may seem impossible, but proper telephone etiquette can help you achieve it. That’s because people appreciate respectful and orderly treatment.
Proper telephone etiquette will always be in demand because it creates a common structure for every phone call your business receives. When callers know what to expect every time they call in, they feel less anxious on the phone, which can be a big problem for business.
You may not be able to apply proper telephone etiquette in every call by yourself, even though it is very important. In this post, we’ll explain why this is the case and what the right tool for proper telephone etiquette is.
Importance of Customer-Oriented Telephone Etiquette
Customer-oriented telephone etiquette is about knowing not just how to make your callers feel respected but about knowing how to gather relevant information from each call. In short, becoming a better listener. The benefits here are two-fold.
By understanding how to properly address each call that comes in, you are setting the stage for a positive interaction. You’ll understand the framework for positive interactions and you’ll be able to put it into action with every call. Enough positive interactions will start to build up your business’s reputation.
Callers will know that at the very least, when they call in, they’ll be treated with respect. This makes your business a safe option rather than a risky one. Customers don’t like risk, a safe option will win out every single time.
More often than not, callers will feel appreciative of being treated respectfully and may feel inclined to “pay it back.” Customer-oriented telephone etiquette is about laying the framework on which a strong and positive relationship can be built.
Why You Won’t Be Able to Implement Telephone Etiquette on Your Own
Proper telephone etiquette has many benefits. However, you may not be able to use it in every call with your customers. This can happen for several reasons.
One main reason is that you lack time. You may have to deal with other tasks, such as managing in-person customer interactions, inventory, or client appointments. These tasks can prevent you from handling every call properly. You may not even have enough time to answer every call.
You need a call receptionist, like My Receptionist, if you want to use quality telephone etiquette in your business or practice.
Key Elements of Effective Telephone Etiquette
Quality telephone etiquette is a hard science that you can learn. You will need a virtual receptionist to properly implement telephone etiquette.
However, learning the key elements of effective telephone etiquette is important because it’ll help you spot quality virtual receptionist services from the mediocre.
- Manners are paramount: The simplest way that this can be summarized is manners matter. If you can’t ensure that you’ll display good manners when answering a call, it’s best not to pick up at all. No interaction is better than a negative one. You’ll want a virtual receptionist with kind and friendly live agents.
- Time consideration: Consider your caller’s time by not wasting it. This is the crux of telephone etiquette. While it’s true that you want your caller to feel respected and not rushed, you should never waste their time with small talk. Callers hardly ever appreciate having to be social when making a call to a business. Make sure that everything said revolves around the caller’s needs.
- Next steps: Always leave your caller with a key next step that they can do. This can either be setting up an appointment, having them consider your services, or simply informing them of what they may need in the future. A “next step” is crucial because it gives your caller a bit of direction, which in turn makes them feel as if the call was productive.
Now that we’ve broken down what effective telephone etiquette looks like, we can begin to discuss how a virtual receptionist service is the key to bringing it all together.
Role of Virtual Receptionists in Telephone Etiquette
A virtual receptionist is the only way to use consistent and proper telephone etiquette in your business. This is because a virtual receptionist service, like My Receptionist, has:
- Trained personnel and manpower to meet the needs of big and small organizations
- Trained live agents who specialize in customer service and interactions
- A role to free up your time so that you can focus on more important matters
You should not worry about how a virtual receptionist service handles your calls. If you do, then you need a better service. A virtual receptionist service should answer every call with proper etiquette and free up your time.
Best Virtual Receptionist for Telephone Etiquette
My Receptionist has been mentioned a few times throughout this post, that’s because they are unequivocally the best virtual receptionist service on the market. My Receptionist has been able to cement its position at the top because of three key factors.
These are:
- Trained and friendly live agents
- Solid core features
- Strong additional functionality
My Receptionist has trained staff that answer your calls in the manner that you want them to. You can create a custom script for them to follow and My Receptionist will ensure that each call answered adheres to this script.
This means that you can decide not just the flow of each call but what information is gathered from each call. This information is then sent to you in one of three ways. Either via text, email or even fax. What this allows you to do is review the most important points from each call on your time.
My Receptionist has other features available including a robust scheduling platform. The scheduling platform is used to keep track of upcoming appointments and other important dates.
You can find out more about how it works on the relevant page but simply put, My Receptionist is the premier virtual receptionist service that can help your business improve its telephone etiquette.
Upgrading Your Capabilities and Telephone Etiquette
My Receptionist is the head of the table when it comes to virtual receptionist services but if your organization, firm, or business needs additional functionality, then you are going to need Always Answer.
Always Answer is the undisputed world heavy-duty solution for all your answering needs. Not only does this service have several call centers spread throughout the United States, but you can also leverage the full power of these call centers to benefit your business.
These call centers can be used not just to impress your customers and callers but also for industry research purposes.
You see, Always Answer offers a customer survey feature that sees a team from Always Answer working with you to develop a set of questions that can be used to gather relevant information from your customers and clients.
This information can then be used to improve your services and customer interactions. Always Answer offers much more functionality aside from customer surveys. You can find out more on their services page.
For the Best Customer Service and Telephone Etiquette in 2024
Proper telephone etiquette is essential for your business or practice. It helps you build a great relationship with your callers and persuade them to use your services. My Receptionist is the best option for customer service and telephone etiquette.
My Receptionist’s trained staff and experience can serve your callers and your business with respect.
Call us today for the best customer service and telephone etiquette. You can revolutionize your day-to-day operations in just a few minutes.