Telephone Etiquette & Techniques on Handling Difficult Callers

Love the phone or hate it, it is becoming clear that it is the way to do business and it is here to stay. As the telephone is now widely used in business, it is important that we excel in areas of telephone communication. So being able to handle telephone calls efficiently and effectively will let you go a long way to enhance not only your own image but also the image of your organisation.

After the workshop, you will be able to:

• determine how callers measure your service and what it takes for you to do your job professionally
• demonstrate the 2Vs to project a professional image of yourself and enhance the caller’s confidence in you
• say the four phrases in a telephone call
• apply the techniques to handle different difficult caller situations
• demonstrate proper telephone etiquette to enhance your image and that of your organisation

Outline

• Customer Service Basics
  – Understand what it takes to do your job professionally
  – Service as defined by customers
• You As The Communicator
  – Managing your voice
  – Use professional service language
  – Use of questions
  – Use of empathic listening – levels of listening
• The Structure of a Telephone Call
  – The 4 phases of a telephone call
• Develop Telephone Etiquette to Project a Professional Image
  – Announcing yourself
  – Put customer on hold
  – Making an outgoing call
  – Terminating a call
• Techniques in Handling Different Difficult Situations
  – The approach to dealing with angry/irate callers
  – Ways to interrupt a talkative caller to refocus them back to the issue
  – The different methods of saying “No” when it is just not possible to accede to their requests
  – Ways to get callers to work with you towards your proposed solutions
  – Role Play