When I work at a company, I get a lot of phone calls every day. However, if the quality of response is poor, it may affect not only the person in charge but also the impression of the company, so be careful.

If you are the person in charge of answering the phone, you need to acquire good quality response methods before a bad reputation builds up. You have to prepare the opportunity to receive it.

In the worst case, the customer may complain or the transaction may be refused, so please respond as soon as possible.

In this article, we will introduce the characteristics of people who are said to be bad at answering phones and how to improve them.

If you are concerned about the quality of your telephone response, or if you have been pointed out that an employee’s response is poor, please refer to this guide.

What are the characteristics of people who are bad at answering phones?

We will also introduce the characteristics of good responders, so if you have been told that your company does not respond well, or if you want to improve the quality of your company as a whole, please make use of it.

Characteristic of people who are bad at answering phones 1: Low tone of voice

On the phone, you communicate only with your voice, so if your tone of voice is low, it is easy to judge that this company has a bad impression.

No matter how polite and considerate you are in what you say and how you use your words, if your tone is low, the atmosphere will be bad, so be careful.

On the phone, if you raise your tone a little more than you normally would , it will give a better impression to the other person.

Characteristic of people who are bad at answering the phone 2: Talking quickly

Some people speak faster when they are nervous, but if you speak too quickly, the other person may not be able to hear you .

Also, your voice may convey tension to the other person, and you may be labeled as “restless.”

Companies that are good at answering the phone often try to speak as slowly as possible and at an appropriate tempo that is easy for the other party to hear .

Characteristic of people who are not good at answering phones 3: Speak in a voice that is difficult to hear

It is very difficult to hear if the tongue is not smooth or the voice is muffled .

In face-to-face communication, information can be obtained from sources other than voice, so it may be possible to manage voices that are difficult to hear.

However, since you only use your voice to communicate over the phone, it is important to be conscious of speaking clearly with your mouth wide open .

It is also a good idea to practice appropriate responses by role-playing with other employees so that you don’t have to ask the other person over and over again.

Characteristic of people who are bad at answering phones 4: Extending the ending

Even if you use the correct honorifics suitable for business, extending the endings of the words will give a childish impression.

Depending on the other party, you may feel frustrated with “bad attitude” or “not being polite”.

You can improve the bad impression even if you just stop speaking with extended endings such as “-desuka-?”

It’s difficult to check your own speaking habits, so it’s a good idea to ask other employees to check them. Alternatively, you can record your own voice and listen to it.

Characteristic of people who are bad at answering phones 5: Explanations are often vague and unclear

If your answer to the other person’s question is ambiguous or you don’t understand a lot of things, you may give a bad impression.

In addition to the quality of the response of the person in charge, there may be cases where people feel distrust toward the company, wondering, “Is this company all right?”

If you don’t have the information you need to answer the other person’s question, or if you need to check with your boss about how to respond, it’s better to hang up and call back later. It makes a better impression.

Characteristics of people who are bad at answering phones 6: Long explanations

Too much explanation can confuse the other person.

Be conscious of answering concisely to the other person’s questions, as they may judge the quality of the call response as poor.

A phone call is a way of communicating with each other. Try to keep the description as short as possible to avoid wasting valuable time.

Characteristic of people who are bad at answering the phone 7: Talking over the other person’s story

Even though the other party is talking, if you cover it and speak, it is easy to judge that the quality of your response is poor .

If you are interrupted, you will feel very uncomfortable, so try to calm down and listen to the end of what the other person is saying before you talk .

Characteristic 8 of people who are not good at answering the phone: They do not understand what the other person is saying

Customers and business partners who call the company may have a problem or want to confirm important information.

Therefore, when receiving a phone call, it is necessary to understand what the other party is saying, what the purpose of the call was, and what information should be conveyed in order for the other party to achieve their purpose. I have.

If you can’t understand what the other person is saying, the impression you get from answering the phone will be lost, so try to listen carefully .

Characteristic of people with poor phone response 9: Long hold time

Keeping the hold time to a few seconds, or even tens of seconds at the longest, will give a good impression.

If you anticipate making them wait for more than a minute, it might be better to call them back rather than put them on hold to avoid creating a bad impression.

It is important to respond appropriately based on the fact that the other party who is waiting at the phone line cannot do anything during that time.

[For companies] How to get the impression that you are a company with good service?

Method 1 to improve the quality of telephone correspondence: Reconfirm the importance of telephone correspondence throughout the company / workplace

First of all , let’s reconfirm the importance of telephone correspondence in the whole workplace .

Focus on the employees in charge and tell them what kind of negative impacts will be caused if the quality of the telephone response is poor.

Method 2 to improve the quality of telephone correspondence: Get the employee in charge to receive training

Once you understand the importance of answering the phone, it is recommended that you conduct training to improve the knowledge and know-how of the employees in charge .

If you do not have training know-how in your company, it is a good idea to ask a company that provides training services for call centers.

Method 3 to improve the quality of telephone correspondence: Decide rules for handling complaints

Even if the person in charge of answering the phone receives training, it is not always effective immediately. Due to poor quality, you may receive angry voices from customers and business partners.

As a company, it is safe to think about what to do and set rules for handling complaints.

For example, set rules such as “I will notify my boss immediately when I receive a complaint” and “I will call back once I have confirmed the situation from what the other person said” .

It is also recommended to create a manual of answers.

In addition, be sure to inform the employees who actually answer the phone about the set rules.

use a dedicated service

For example, you can use a telephone answering service to outsource the handling of phone calls, or use a call forwarding service to reduce the work load of the person in charge and secure the time to carefully respond to each call. prize.

For call forwarding services, we recommend using “Canario” provided by NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation.

AI automatically takes over the incoming call, which helps reduce the burden on the person in charge of answering the phone.

summary

If an employee does not respond well to the phone, it may damage the reputation of the company, so be careful.

It is necessary for employees to take appropriate measures such as checking the quality of their own telephone response and conducting necessary training as a company.

With reference to the contents introduced this time, let’s check whether the company has a bad telephone response.