Mary Sandro asked:

Talk about first impressions; telephone greetings are critical. Prospects are deciding whether or not to do business with you. Irate customers are deciding how helpful and competent you are. Yet many companies convolute the telephone greeting to the point that employees hate saying it and customers and prospects dread listening to it. There is power in simplicity. For best results, incorporate three easy elements: pleasantry, brevity, and sincerity.

Pleasantry- A pleasant greeting is essential to a successful call because it sets the stage emotionally. In general, listeners tend to mirror or “catch” the emotional states of speakers. This is a principle of communication that holds true whether one is speaking to a group of 1000, a small meeting of 10, or a single customer over the telephone. In other words, people respond in kind. If we answer the phone gruffly, chances are the caller will become gruff. If we answer the phone pleasantly, chances are the caller will be pleasant, and we all know which caller is easier to work with.

Imagine you are a customer calling a place of business. The professional on the other end of the phone sounds irritated. What is your response to a greeting like that? When I’m a customer, my response tends to be irritation. I start thinking to myself, “Well, you think you’re irritated now? Wait until you get finished with me, then you’ll know what irritation is!” I wasn’t even irritated when I called the company. I simply caught the professional’s irritation.

I’ve had the opposite experience as a customer too. I am irritated, highly irritated. I really want to let somebody have it. I call the company, but the person who answers the phone is so nice and professional I can’t bring myself to yell at them. I hate when that happens. This time I’ve caught their professionalism.

One of the easiest ways to attain an emotional state quickly, like being pleasant, is to use body language. Research conducted by John Grinder and Richard Bandler suggests that body language helps create emotional states. If we carry ourselves with slumped shoulders, frowning face, bowed head, averted eyes, and shallow breathing, we will probably feel depressed. If we smile, breath deeply, pull our shoulders back, and look straight ahead, we will probably feel good. How do you carry yourself all day at work?

I recommend that professionals establish a ritual before answering the phone. In order to sound pleasant, we need to be carrying ourselves accordingly. My ritual is to sit up on the edge of my seat, pull shoulders back, take a deep breath, smile, let the phone ring twice, then answer. I never answer my phone unless I’ve gone through my ritual. My business is too important. Sometimes I’ll even stand before I answer the phone if I need an extra jolt of energy. Stand on your head. Do jumping jacks. Do whatever is necessary to attain a pleasant state before answering the phone. (Within limits of course.)

Sincerity- No scripts. I am against scripting greetings because they sound insincere, irritate callers, and discourage employees. Scripted greetings usually include some kind of slogan. “Hello. It’s a beautiful day here at the XYZ Company.” Now I don’t care where you work. It can’t be that good all day. At some point saying, “It’s a beautiful day…” is going to be a stretch or insincere. The other risk is that the caller is irate. An employee from a furniture company confided to me that she hated answering the phone, “It’s a beautiful day…” because irate callers would snap back, “Well it’s not a beautiful day where I am and get over here and fix this thing!” Is it any wonder why employees and customers hate scripted greetings?

You want the greeting to be natural, which also makes it easier to sound pleasant consistently. The key elements of a telephone greeting are: department or company name, your name, an offer of assistance. An example of a switchboard greeting might sound like this, “XYZ Company, this is Bob. How may I direct your call?” A greeting from someone in the accounting department might sound like this, “Accounting, this is Bob. How may I help you?”

State the company or department name so that customers and prospects know they are in the right place. How many times have you been five minutes into a call only to realize the caller would be better served in another department? Always state your name because it is a sign of authority. Stating your name implies that you are accountable. It also creates a personal touch. Lastly, end with a question that expresses your desire to serve the caller.

Brevity- Keep it short. I have heard telephone greetings that are so long, I feared the person answering the phone was going to hyperventilate and go into cardiac arrest trying to get it out in one breath. Excessively long greetings are unprofessional for many reasons. They don’t sound pleasant or sincere because technically they are impossible to execute. Employees hate them and those feelings come through. Callers hate them because they waste their time. Fortunately, by following the guidelines above brevity is assured.

Summary- Telephone greetings are a powerful part of doing business. To be successful, keep greetings simple. Practice a ritual to be pleasant. Remain unscripted. Be brief.

Kurt Duncan asked:

More and more, businesses owners are making the decision to have certain tasks outsourced.  While this has been a standard business practice for almost 30 years, with companies now being in highly competitive positions due to the economy, business owners are looking for ways to handle business while saving money.   Outsourcing is one option, often seen used for call handling.  However, instead of outsourcing, telephone call answering systems’ trends now allow a company to run efficiently and effectively without the need to pay for a full-time employee in a foreign country.

Many of the larger corporations use call centers in countries such as India and the Philippines.  Although common, many customers have valid complaints.  For instance, language barrier is often a problem, leaving customers feeling frustrated.  Additionally, outsourcing to foreign countries is now having a backlash in that serious business mistakes are made, costing the company money and customers.  To rectify the problem, innovative options have been developed so telephone call answering systems can be used within the United States.

By using an answering service business such as this, customers are being handled by trained professionals, leaving them feeling satisfied with the support provided.  In addition, the business owner is still paying less than what would be spent to hire a full-time employee.  In fact, many of the telephone call answering systems now being used are so advanced and well designed that one person can do a job that at one time took two full-time workers.

The greatest trend is again that telephone call answering systems allow people to be hired within the United States so outsourcing to foreign countries becomes limited or obsolete.  This improves customer interaction, builds confidence among American workers, and ultimately, helps to boost the economy by keeping jobs at home. 

Another interesting trend for some telephone call answering services is that companies can set up processes so calls can be routed to the same call center or call taker.  This way, customers actually have the opportunity to build a professional relationship with the remote receptionist, which is good for business.

Additionally, companies using telephone call answering systems now offer call takers advanced training so rather than just taking messages they can actually answer customer questions, provide certain information, take orders, schedule appointments, offer technical support, and in some cases, work through disaster recovery solutions.  With this increase in skill, customers receive immediate resolution, which obviously is great for business.  This also takes a load off other employees or business owners so they can focus their attention on other ar

Kurt Duncan asked:

Telephone answering services are even more popular than they were years ago.  This type of service offers a number of benefits that can help a business run more efficiently and effectively.  Unfortunately, major business deals have been lost because of phone messages not being received.  Something as simple as a phone call can have a serious impact on a company’s success or failure, which is the primary reason telephone answering services are so helpful.

When a potential or existing customer calls into a company, they want to receive prompt attention. Even if the issue or question is minor, to the customer it is important.  To show every customer that they are a top priority, business owners need a method of taking, processing, and tracking phone calls in a timely and professional manner.  While there is a cost for outsourcing telephone answering services, the money invested would be well spent.

Regardless of the size of the business or industry type, telephone answering services ensure customers are given optimum customer support.  Having a remote receptionist, someone that takes all incoming calls quickly and as a great representative of the company will result in happier customers, which means more business.  Although recording machines are convenient, people still appreciate having a real person answering the phone.  Therefore, when the office is closed, telephone answering services allow human contact that customers want.

Having a business answering system also ensures that important or emergency messages are handled properly.  This way, if a customer, vendor, or other professional needs to get in touch with someone within the company after hours, the remote receptionist would take the call and have the ability to page someone so the message is passed along to the appropriate individual.

Additionally, depending on the type of service a company chooses, some telephone answering services use highly trained people to man the phones that could provide callers with information for resolving an issue immediately.  With this, the caller would not have to wait until the next business day to get resolution.

Telephone answering services for situations such as this result in all types of problems being handled in an efficient way.  Let us say a tenant had a major water leak at night and desperately needed to reach the landlord.  The telephone secretary could provide that person with the names and numbers of utility companies that need to be contacted for the water to be shut off while also advising the tenant that the landlord would be in touch first thing in the morning.  The tenant has a good solution and the business owner does not have to get up in the middle of the night to provide the tenant with the same information the call center provided.

Kurt Duncan asked:


There will always be situations in which people need medical advice but cannot get in to see or get in contact with a doctor.  This might be due to living in a rural area, having no automobile, living without insurance, or simply having a problem during the middle of the night.  A nurse telephone triage service has become increasingly popular in all of these scenarios.  With this type of service, people can get answers or advice for health issues, some serious and some minor.

With new technology, call center services such as this have improved the lives of many people.  With 24-hour assistance, individuals have a means of getting information or advice from a registered nurse any time of day.  With a nurse telephone triage service, a person with a concern could call at 3:00 in the morning and get the assistance needed so an informed decision could be made whether to wait and see a doctor in the morning or head directly to the emergency room.

The type of equipment used with a nurse telephone triage is high tech.  For instance, these systems provide nurses with access to all kinds of medical data so they can provide the patient with the best and most updated information available.  Although this type of service is manned by highly professional and trained registered nurses, there will be times when even they need to gain better insight and with the equipment used, they can.  The benefit is that a service like this creates an opportunity for nurses to help people with medical problems that might otherwise never get the care needed.

A nurse telephone triage is also highly beneficial to doctors.  After working long hours during the day and possibly spending time in the evening at the hospital making rounds, they need down time like everyone else does.  Having a nurse telephone triage allows doctors a break since these nurses have the training and expertise to offer advice in many medical situations.  Rather than the doctor using a standard type of medial answering service, which means phone calls or pages during the middle of the night, the nurse handles a lot of inquiries.

Obviously, from the patient’s perspective, having someone to call when the baby is crying and running a fever, knowing how to treat a minor injury, or being provided with advice on when to seek emergency treatment brings peace of mind.  The healthcare industry has many challenges in today’s world but with the aid of a nurse telephone triage; solutions are moving in the right direction.  Even though these nurses are not doctors and cannot provide answers in all situations, nurse telephone triage services have made a positive impact.