4 Tips to Answer Calls Pleasantly (and Avoid Being Ghosted by Your Customers)

Are you familiar with the term “being ghosted”? While Halloween is fast approaching, this turn of phrase has more to do with being avoided by former associates than being haunted.

Still, there’s nothing more terrifying than losing a customer and watching your bottom line take a hit. We have some advice on how to answer calls pleasantly.

Here are 4 tips that help avoid scary customer service and can help lift your caller’s spirits:

1. Slow, steady, and clear win the day: In other words, be aware of your enunciation. There is almost nothing more frustrating for a caller than the inability to distinguish one word from another. Do not put your customer in the position of needing to ask you to repeat something, simply because you’re speaking too fast, muttering, or both. Clarity not only goes a long way in conveying your sense of ownership in your work, but it ensures that the customer gets all of the important details (like the name, location, and contact information of your business) right the first time.
2. Hold with hospitality: Occasionally, placing your callers on a brief hold is unavoidable. If and when this becomes necessary – it is always best to politely request permission first. Think of all of those times in the past the phone of the company you were calling rang and rang, only to be answered with an abrupt – and in no way affable – “hold please” before you were unceremoniously cut off. Irritating, right? Right. You never know when one of your callers may have a legitimate emergency. And if you put them in the holding cell without any options – there’s a good chance you’ll never hear from them again.
3. Repeat all messages: Leave nothing to chance. When taking a message, allow your caller to finish speaking, and then read back the details to them to make certain you’ve dotted all I’s and crossed all T’s.
4. Hire an answering service, instead: Here’s the thing – you can hire a full-time receptionist and sink thousands into salaries and benefits packages, with no guarantees that the arrangement will work out, and every certainty that at some point in the journey – you will hit a roadblock (even the most amicable roadblock) with vacation time conflicts and dips in productivity. OR – you can enlist the services of a professional answering service that delivers on the four points above consistently – while delivering so much more.

It’s the spooky season – but making sure your customers don’t disappear like a spirit or – worse – run from you shrieking and screaming is a year-round prospect. Edwards Answering Service can help you provide timely, courteous customer service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Reach out to us today to learn more.