Product Tips: Is Your Phone Greeting Professional Enough?

According to our clients, one of the best features of our virtual phone systems is being able to record custom greetings. Businesses love the fact that they can record and use their own voice to greet callers, making every incoming call a more personal experience. But one important thing to consider is whether or not the greeting you have is projecting a professional enough image for your business. In many cases, your telephone greeting is the first interaction potential clients will have with your company. As such, you want that experience to provide the best possible first impression.

Draw on Your Own Experience as a Customer

Surely you’ve had to call other businesses in your lifetime, as both a consumer and maybe even a colleague. Before you record your own greeting try to draw off the experiences you’ve had and avoid the mistakes you’ve encountered on the other end of the line.

Helpful Hints:

When recording a greeting, there are a few simple tips to help make it sound more professional:

• Write it Down – Don’t try to remember all the info you want to convey – you may forget something important or stumble over your words.

• Consider Your Audience – Always have the end-user in mind when recording a greeting.

• Speak Slowly and Clearly – Your callers won’t want to replay your message 3 times to understand it.

• Give Specific Information and Clear Instructions – IVR (interactive voice response) is a great tool but it will be ineffective if your callers don’t understand what to press or say at what time.

• Smile – It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book but it works.

The Proof is In the Pudding

Before you officially use a recorded greeting, play it back and listen to it objectively. Try to imagine you are a first-time caller and that this greeting is your first impression of the company. How does it make you feel? Was the recording friendly and could you hear and understand everything clearly? Was it short and sweet or did it drag on a bit too long? All of these things can make a difference in how your business is perceived by a caller so be sure to consider every angle and modify wherever necessary until you achieve exactly what you want your greeting to accomplish.

Enlist Help

Maybe you just don’t have the right voice for recording phone greetings. There’s no rule that says you have to be the one who greets your callers. If one of your employees happens to have a particularly golden voice, why not have her handle your greeting? Or, use a professional. Our professional voice studio option gives you access to qualified voice talent for your greetings. You provide the script and we’ll do the work. The bottom line is, if you don’t think you’re right for the job, don’t worry – there are plenty of options available to you.

Having the option of recording the telephone greeting that your callers hear when they dial your business is a very attractive benefit. It can really help you stand out amongst your competition and give your company a larger, more professional appearance. Just make sure the greeting you use projects the right image. When it’s done right, a custom greeting can impress callers and provide a unique personalized experience for your customers. When it’s done wrong, well, what customers?

Labels: product tips, professional phone etiquette, small business

9 Tips to Help You Maintain Good Phone Etiquette and Professional Best Practices

Talking to customers can be stressful. Many small business owners may feel awkward, shy, or simply lacking the relevant people-skills.

The good news is that a Virtual PBX already gets you off to a good start—it’s generally recommended not to keep a caller waiting beyond the third ring, and your IVR menu kicks in right from the first! So now, since you've already designed a killer call menu, it’s only a matter of keeping the momentum going into the call.

Here are a few simple tips to help you out:

1. Be positive and energetic, but don’t overdo it. People naturally respond to genuine enthusiasm, just as they intuitively sniff out a fake (think of your favorite TV host as opposed to that guy with the crooked smile from the used-cars commercial—see the difference?). So before you answer the phone, take a moment to put yourself in a good mind space. Some suggest smiling while you speak, but it might be enough to simply avoid being sullen. The important thing is to be focused and genuine.

2. Friendliness vs. Familiarity. Business communications is really about keeping a balance between personality and professionalism. You want to have character and set yourself apart from others, but at the same time, you also want to maintain a professional image. The difference between friendliness and familiarity embodies this balance. To be friendly is to be courteous, helpful, and allow a touch of good humor. To be familiar, on the other hand, is to cross that boundary and behave in a way that might be appropriate between friends, but utterly unbecoming amongst strangers.

   An example can be something as simple as addressing a caller by the first name, or as absurd as making a wise crack.

   Even if the person you are talking to sounds like a laid back individual, just remember you’re sitting behind an office desk representing a company, so be sure not to cross that fine line. (You’ll be surprised how some people can allow themselves a lot of liberty, but cringe at the slightest remark when coming from the other end)

3. Listen. When a person calls, let him speak without interruption and pay attention to what he’s saying. You may think that you’ve heard this story a hundred times before—but this is a new caller, with a new situation, and it’s your job to treat it as such. Don’t let complacency get in the way and take you off on a mental excursion. Silence may be golden, but guess what—once he’s finished talking comes your turn to show that you’ve been paying attention.

4. Be Positive. I was going to say ‘don’t be negative’—but this didn’t really take any more effort. It goes to show just how easy it can be sometimes. Always have your best foot forward and be prepared to help, even if a matter happens to fall outside the scope of your job-title.

   • Instead of ‘I don’t know’ or ‘that’s not my job’, try ‘let me find out for you’
   • Instead of ‘I/we can’t do that’, try 'let me see what I can do’
   • Instead of ‘No!’, try offering an alternative.

5. You’ve gathered information, now use it. Whether you’re using a CRM utility or manage things manually, make sure you review all previous notes and enter new ones as you go. You don't want callers repeatedly asked the same questions. Remember that they've been probably waiting on hold for a while before getting connected, and your task is to make their experience as expedient as possible. Value their time, and they’ll value your business.

6. When transferring a call, don’t just pass it along thinking ‘good riddance!’ Notify the caller and make sure the other person is debriefed. Stay on the line and don’t hang up before you’re sure the call has been connected. Introduce the caller to your colleague and don’t neglect to say goodbye (common courtesy is too easily forgotten). It’s also a good idea to make sure you’ve got the caller’s phone number before you start transferring them so that you may call them back in case you get disconnected. The safest way is to ask for it right at the start of the call.

7. Be upfront. If there’s something you’re not sure about, say so and offer to find out the answer. If it’s going to take a while, consider offering to hang up and call them back (if they’re calling long-distance) or to schedule a call-back.

8. If you've scheduled a call-back—call back! Even if you haven’t found an answer yet—if only to say “I’m sorry, I’m still working on it. I’m afraid it’s going to take a bit longer than I thought.” A call-back is an appointment. Meeting it shows that you care about helping the customer, that you value their time, and that you're genuinely doing your best to resolve an issue.

9. Make sure you give the right information. Lastly, nothing is more frustrating than calling about an issue three different times and getting three different answers. Don’t ad-lib. Don’t take a best guess. A customer calls support to get reliable information, not your opinion. Find out whatever you don’t know and make sure you get it right before you pass it on to the customer.

Conclusion

To sum things up, we’re all customers. We all know what aspects of a service we enjoy, what can be done better, and what REALLY irks us. Just use your own experience and common sense to guide you. It all comes down to the oldest lesson in the book, the Golden Rule of common decency:

"Don't do to others what you don't want done to you"

(or whatever iteration you prefer)

Related Articles

1. 13 Tips To Help You Design IVR Menus Better than the Pros
2. Tips to Help You Record IVR Voice Prompts Like a Pro
3. How a Live Answer Service Can Supplement Your Virtual IVR

Labels: business phone etiquette, cell phone etiquette, good etiquette, office phone etiquette, phone etiquette at work, phone etiquette in the workplace, phone etiquette tips, professional phone etiquette