Top Nine Peeves about How Businesses Answer Their Telephones

A LinkedIn group of business professionals was asked for their "pet peeve" on how telephones are answered. Eighty-five responses came in, very quickly.

Pet peeve #9: Reaching a recording that repeats, "Your call is very important to us. We will be with you shortly". The caller was reportedly placed on hold for 45 minutes.

Pet peeve #8: The business associate who answers the call sounds irritated at being interrupted by a call, and is perceived as being disrespectful to the caller

Pet peeve #8 (a tie with the one above): When the company representative says, "Would you please hold?", and without giving the caller a chance to say anything, immediately puts him or her on hold.

Pet peeve #6:  Employee who answers a call with a script and sounds fake and excessively polite

Pet peeve #5: Answering the telephone without saying the name of the business and the employee's name

Pet peeve #4: Answering the telephone with very long scripted greetings instead of just the essentials (see # 6 above)

Pet peeve #3: Answering the telephone using a speaker phone

Pet peeve #1 (tied with the one below): When the company employee's English pronunciation is difficult to understand on the telephone and also may not understand the caller's questions.

Pet peeve #1: When the American-born customer service rep answers the telephone so fast and mumbles so that the caller cannot easily understand the greeting. The customer service rep has said this greeting hundreds of times, but it may be the customer's first time to hear it.

Customers in the USA are more diverse than ever, coming from many nations, may have a hearing loss or be speaking to you in a noisy place. Clear speech is crucial for your customers!

Business Speech Improvement provides intensive coaching in verbal skills, including professional telephone skills for understanding callers with strong accents. Check out your options now; one seminar is closing enrollment soon!

Corporate voice mail message services: causing customer frustration

You call a company, and are asked to say and spell your name, address or customer number so your information can be found before transferring you to a customer service employee. Despite ultra-clear pronunciation, the machine doesn't understand you - repeatedly. Sometimes you then give up, or try to get around the system by dialing another number. Sometimes, if you wait long enough, a customer service rep comes online - and then has to calm a customer who maybe wasn't frustrated before making the call! So why do companies use these systems if they cannot recognize most names and numbers?

How do you handle it when the machine doesn't understand you?
Tell us your strategies; let's start a discussion here!

Business Speech Improvement provides intensive training in diction, accent modification, presentation skills, sales communication, and much more!

How to lose a customer without even trying

I walked into a service business to possibly buy something. The sales rep referred me to his colleague, who specializes in that service. The colleague was not available today, so the sales rep gave me her contact information so I could call her later.

His poor customer service skills most likely cost a sale for the business. The customer service rep should have taken my contact information and passed it on to the proper specialist, himself. In doing so, he would have shown more professionalism, the company would have had a better impression in my mind, and the right specialist would have had a chance at a sale.

As some sage said, take care of the (potential) customer, and the customer takes care of you!

Business Speech Improvement (www.BusinessSpeechImprovement.com) provides intensive training in verbal communication skills, including small talk skills and also sales communication. Great speech makes business sense!