BUSINESS
Telephone 101
Are your first impressions first rate? by Tom Borg Let’s talk about your green industry company’s first impressions.
Photo by Michal Bahn, FreeImages
Even if you think your company does a pretty good job managing this all-important step, you’ve probably not given it all the attention it deserves.
Experts agree that how your telephone is answered at your small business increases or decreases the possibility of gaining new customers.
In this article we'll look at just one aspect of this process: the way your telephone is answered. Experts agree that how your telephone is answered at your small business increases or decreases the possibility of gaining new customers.
UAC MAGAZINE | FALL 2019
It has been said you only get one chance to make a good first impression, yet your managers and employees are giving first impressions every time they answer the telephone.
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Most business owners would concur that the first contact your prospects have with your company can make or break the relationship. When consistently done properly, it can be viewed as part of an all-important process that funnels more and more new clients into your business.
Imagine these scenarios 1. Your prospect picks up your beautiful color mailer describing your wonderful green industry services and decides to call your office number listed. The phone rings several times and then finally, one of your office staff answers the phone sounding rushed and frantic.
Your prospect calls your office. The phone rings three times and immediately they get a poorly recorded message asking them to leave their name, number and, nature of their request and that someone will get back to them at a “later time.”
2.
A potential customer calls your office and a gruff sounding person curtly tells them to hold. No, friendly greeting, just the words “please hold.”
3.
None of the three scenarios spell certain success for any green industry company hoping to gain new clients. Yet, this barrier to trust building and winning new customers plays out time and time again every day throughout North America.
Paying the price According to Susan Wilson Solovic, CEO, SBTV.com: “A customer may be impressed with your firm’s product or service, but their impression may change dramatically the first time they call your office. How your business phone is answered says a lot about your firm. If your employees are rude or mishandle customers, it could cost you more than one customer. Word-of-mouth can transform that one bungled call into ten lost contracts, because there is no fury like a customer scorned!” Take that thought one step further. Today, with social media, one bad call response could be shared with thousands of potential customers in a matter of minutes.
The root of the problem Let’s look at some of the reasons why this happens all too often.
