Chapter 3:
Winning Telephone Skills
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the
Help Desk Professional
Second Edition
Objectives
• Understand the power of the telephone
• Handle calls professionally
• Avoid the most common telephone mistakes
• Use proven techniques to place callers on hold
and transfer calls in a positive, professional way
• Use a variety of techniques to continuously
improve your telephone skills
• Consistently convey a positive, caring attitude
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Winning Telephone Skills
• The telephone is the primary way that customers
obtain service from many help desks
• The telephone will always play a role in customer
service
• Professional telephone skills help to ensure that the
help desk handles customer requests in a prompt,
courteous, and consistent manner
• Consistency builds trust and teaches customers what
they can expect during calls
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Creating a Positive Telephone Image
• Responsiveness and a caring attitude are
fundamental to a positive telephone image
• A customer’s perception is influenced by:
– How long it takes to answer the telephone
– The energy and enthusiasm analysts convey
• Conducting business over the telephone can be
frustrating and impersonal
• When handled properly, the telephone can be an
efficient, effective way to deliver support
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Understanding the Power of the
Telephone
• The telephone is one of the most common
ways that businesses and customers
communicate
• At a help desk, analysts may handle:
– Incoming calls
– Outgoing calls
• Telephone technology automates many of
these activities
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Understanding the Power of the
Telephone (continued)
• Factors that influence the telephone
technologies a help desk selects include:
– The help desk’s size
– The company’s goals
– The nature of the company’s business
– Customer expectations
• The technology a help desk uses affects how
customer contacts are directed to analysts and
how analysts’ performance is measured
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Understanding the Power of the
Telephone (continued)
• The best companies diligently manage
voice mail messages
• Calls are returned promptly, even if only to
let customers know:
– The call was received
– It has been logged in the company’s
incident tracking and problem
management system
– It is being handled
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish
• Jan Carlzon refers to service encounters
as “Moments of Truth” for a company
• Each and every service encounter is
critical to the success of the company
• Each of these moments contributes
considerably to how customers perceive
an analyst and the entire company
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish (continued)
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish (continued)
• Using a script is a common help desk practice
• Script - A standard set of text and behaviors
• Scripts enable analysts to focus their energy on
solving problems and handling unique situations
• Analysts may use scripts when they need to find a
positive way to say something they do not feel
comfortable saying, such as “No” to a customer
• Scripts also enable customers to perceive that the
help desk delivers services consistently
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish (continued)
Answering the telephone:
•
How you answer the telephone sets the tone for the
entire conversation
•
Pick up the telephone promptly, but with composure
•
Use your company’s standard script to ensure that
customers are greeted in the same, consistent way
1.
2.
3.
Announce the name of your company or department
Give the caller your name
Ask the first question
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish (continued)
• “Help Desk, this is Carmen. How may I
help you?”
• “Help Desk, this is Sue. May I have your
name please?”
• “Hello, Options Unlimited, this is Leon.
May I have your Customer ID?”
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish (continued)
• Listen actively to the customer’s request
• Ask for the same information in the same order every
time
• If you speak with a customer regularly, verify the
information rather than skipping over the step
• Skipping steps is a disservice to your customers and
your coworkers
• The help desk is a team setting; by being consistent
you:
– Communicate your company’s policies
– Convey to customers that anyone can assist them
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish (continued)
Handling Calls About Unsupported Products or
Services:
• Few companies can be “all things to all people”
• The cost would simply be too high
• Many companies define a list of supported
products and services
– Internal help desks support products most used by
employees and that contribute to company goals
– External help desks support products and services that
are developed or sold by the company (unless they are
being compensated to do so)
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish (continued)
• Analysts often have a hard time referring
customers to another group or company
– Particularly analysts who may be familiar with the
product the customer is calling about
• The number of analysts assigned to a help desk
is determined by its projected workload
• Analysts who assist customers with unsupported
products undermine the ability of the team to
handle the work within its scope of responsibility
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish (continued)
• Remember that there is always something you can do
– “What I can do is transfer you to the group that supports
that product. They will be able to help.”
• If you do not know who supports a product, let the
customer know you will look into it and get back to
them
• Best-effort – A policy that means you do your best to
assist the customer within a predefined set of
boundaries, such as a time limit
– Let the customer know in advance that you are under a
time constraint, or that you may have to refer them to
another group or vendor
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish (continued)
Taking a message:
• If a particular analyst is unavailable, let the customer know
that and ask “who is calling”
– Explain the analyst’s absence in a positive way
• Ask the customer if there is anything you can do to help
• Offer to take a message or transfer the customer to the
analyst’s voice mailbox
• When taking a message, write down all important
information
– The caller’s name, telephone number, the best time for the
analyst to return the call, any message the caller chooses to
leave
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish (continued)
Closing the call:
• There is often a temptation to rush the
closing of a call
• Trust and customer confidence comes by
taking a little extra time and making sure that
the customer is comfortable with the steps
you have taken, before you hang up the
telephone
• Ending the call on a positive note leaves the
customer with a lasting, good impression
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish (continued)
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish (continued)
• Target resolution time - The timeframe within
which the support organization is expected to
resolve the problem
• Severity - The category that defines how critical a
problem is based on the nature of the failure and
available alternatives or workarounds
• Workaround – A way to circumvent a problem
either partially or completely; usually before
implementing the final resolution
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Handling Calls Professionally from
Start to Finish (continued)
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Avoiding the Most Common
Telephone Mistakes (continued)
Putting a customer on hold:
• When necessary, putting customers on hold in a
professional manner instills confidence
• Let customers decide if they would prefer to have you
call back rather than being put on hold
• If you are taking longer than expected, return to the
caller and provide an update on your progress and
the option of either continuing to hold or receiving a
call back
• A good guideline is to never ask a customer to hold if
you are going to be longer than three minutes
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Avoiding the Most Common
Telephone Mistakes (continued)
Knowing when and how to transfer calls:
• There are a number of reasons why you may need to
transfer a caller
• There are a number of different ways to transfer a
caller:
– Hot transfer (conference call)
– Warm transfer
– Cold transfer
• A primary consideration of which technique to use is
the amount of information you have received or given
until the point when you determine a transfer is
needed
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Avoiding the Most Common
Telephone Mistakes (continued)
Hot transfer (conference call):
• Occurs when you stay on the line with the
customer and the service provider
• Appropriate when:
– You can continue to contribute to the
resolution of the customer’s request
– You can benefit from hearing how the problem
is resolved
– Time allows
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Avoiding the Most Common
Telephone Mistakes (continued)
• Before establishing a conference call:
– Ask if it’s okay and if not, ask what the customer would prefer
• When establishing a conference call:
– Explain the problem to the service provider along with how
you feel he or she can contribute to the resolution
– Ask the service provider if it’s okay
– Use common sense!
• When permission is granted:
– Bring the customer on the line and introduce the customer to
the service provider
– Explain the reason for the call and provide any information the
customer has given you thus far
– Stay on the line until the call is complete and close the call
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Avoiding the Most Common
Telephone Mistakes (continued)
Warm transfer:
• Occurs when you introduce the
customer and the service provider to
whom you are going to transfer the call
but you do not stay on the line
• Appropriate when:
– There is no perceived value to be gained or
given by staying on the line
– Time does not allow you to stay on the line
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Avoiding the Most Common
Telephone Mistakes (continued)
• Before you warm transfer a call:
– Ask if it’s okay and if not, ask what the customer would prefer
• When warm transferring a call:
– Your company’s policy will determine whether you place the
customer on hold first, or simply transfer the call
– Ask the service provider if it’s okay to bring the customer on
the line
• When permission is granted:
– Bring the customer [or service provider] on the line and
introduce the customer to the service provider
– Explain the reason for the call and provide any information the
customer has given you thus far
– Give the customer and the service provider the ticket number
– Ask them to let you know if you can help and then hang up
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Avoiding the Most Common
Telephone Mistakes (continued)
Cold transfer:
• Occurs when you stay on the line only long
enough to ensure that the call has been
transferred successfully
• Appropriate when:
– The customer asked to be transferred
– You quickly realize that the caller has dialed the wrong
number or should be transferred to another person or
department
• A cold transfer is not appropriate when the
customer has provided detailed information
about the nature of their request
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Avoiding the Most Common
Telephone Mistakes (continued)
• Before you cold transfer a call:
– Let the customer know you are going to transfer him or
her to the correct department
– If the customer does not want to be transferred, ask
what he or she would prefer
• If a call back is preferred, set a time that is convenient
for the customer
• Clearly communicate to the other service provider
when the customer wants to be contacted
• When appropriate, provide the customer with the
telephone number of the person or group to whom
you are transferring the call
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Fine-Tuning Your Telephone Skills
• Telephone skills, like any other skills, need to be
honed
• Periodically attend a refresher course
• Learn new best practices
• Don’t forget the basics!
– Be responsive
– Demonstrate a caring attitude
– Acknowledge the fact that customers are living,
breathing human beings who have called because
they need your help
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Fine-Tuning Your
Telephone Skills (continued)
Using a speaker phone:
• If possible, use the speakerphone behind closed
doors
• Ask all callers for permission before using a
speakerphone
• Introduce each person that is present
• Briefly explain why each person is present
• Participants who are speaking for the first time or
who are unfamiliar to other callers may want to
identify themselves before they speak
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Fine-Tuning Your
Telephone Skills (continued)
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Fine-Tuning Your
Telephone Skills (continued)
Self-Study:
• Books, videotapes, and audiocassettes
are available
• Take advantage of any training programs
offered
• Make your supervisor aware of training
possibilities that you think will help
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Fine-Tuning Your
Telephone Skills (continued)
Monitoring:
• An excellent training technique when used
properly
• Analysts receive specific feedback on how they
can improve their call handling
• Promotes the consistent handling of calls and
provides employees and supervisors specific
guidelines used in measuring performance
• Some companies use as both a training tool and
as a way of measuring performance
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Fine-Tuning Your
Telephone Skills (continued)
• A monitoring program must be implemented carefully
and analysts must perceive they are being given the
opportunity to be successful
• Most companies:
– Involve the help desk staff when designing a program
– Define guidelines
– Provide analysts a checklist or scorecard
Used properly, monitoring enables you to put yourself in
your customer’s shoes and objectively assess the
quality of your service!
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Fine-Tuning Your
Telephone Skills (continued)
Customer satisfaction surveys:
• Event-driven surveys - Customer satisfaction surveys that
ask customers for feedback on a single recent service
event
• Overall satisfaction surveys - Customer satisfaction
surveys that ask customers for feedback about all calls
they made to the help desk during a certain time period
• Help desk managers use survey responses to:
– Measure the performance of the team
– Identify improvement opportunities
– Measure individual performance (event-driven surveys)
– Identify training needs
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Fine-Tuning Your
Telephone Skills (continued)
Use feedback to identify your weaknesses
and determine ways you can improve.
Remember that your recollection of an event
and another’s perception of an event may
represent different perspectives!
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Letting Your Caring
Attitude Shine Through
• Providing superior customer support is a habit – a
state-of-mind that requires enthusiasm and passion
• Using scripts is an excellent habit-building technique
• Help desks that respond to calls in a consistent
manner are perceived as more professional
• Understand your company’s policies and resist the
temptation to deviate from those policies
• If you believe a policy needs to be changed, explain
why and provide reasonable alternatives
• Remember there is always something you can do
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Chapter Summary
• The telephone is the most common way that
businesses and customers communicate today
• Telephone technologies used by help desks range
from simple voice mail boxes and fax machines to
highly complex, automated systems
• Support providers must see each and every customer
encounter, or “Moment of Truth,” as critical to the
success of the organization
• Two things that frustrate customers most are being
placed on hold for an extended period of time and
being repeatedly transferred
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Chapter Summary (continued)
• You can minimize customer frustration by listening to
your customer’s preferences and carefully managing
their expectations
• Telephone skills, like any other skills, need to be
honed
• Techniques you can use include self-study,
monitoring, and customer satisfaction surveys
• Superior customer support is hard work
• You have to work at it every day and you need to
develop good habits
• Take care of yourself, stay relaxed, and let your
caring, can do attitude shine through
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