Phone Answering Skills

Phone answering skills are critical for businesses. The telephone is still most business's primary point of contact with customers. And the way you answer your company's phone will form your customer's first impression of your business. These phone answering tips will ensure that callers know they're dealing with a winning business:

1) Answer all incoming phone calls before the third ring.

2) When you answer the phone, be warm and enthusiastic. Your voice at the end of the telephone line is sometimes the only impression of your company a caller will get.

3) When answering the phone, welcome callers courteously and identify yourself and your organization. Say, for instance, "Good morning. Cypress Technologies. Susan speaking. How may I help you?" No one should ever have to ask if they've reached such and such a business.

4) Enunciate clearly, keep your voice volume moderate, and speak slowly and clearly when answering the phone, so your caller can understand you easily.

5) Control your language when answering the phone. Don't use slang or jargon. Instead of saying, "OK", or "No problem", for instance, say "Certainly", "Very well", or "All right". If you're a person who uses fillers when you speak, such as "uh huh", "um", or phrases such as "like" or "you know", train yourself carefully not to use these when you speak on the phone.

6) Train your voice and vocabulary to be positive when phone answering, even on a "down" day. For example, rather than saying, "I don't know", say, "Let me find out about that for you."

7) Take telephone messages completely and accurately. If there's something you don't understand or can't spell, such as a person's surname, ask the caller to repeat it or spell it for you. Then make sure the message gets to the intended recipient.

8) Answer all your calls within one business day.

9) Always ask the caller if it's all right to put her on hold when answering the phone, and don't leave people on hold. Provide callers on hold with progress reports every 30 to 45 seconds. Offer them choices if possible, such as "That line is still busy. Will you continue to hold or should I have ________ call you back?"

10) If you use an answering machine to answer calls when you can't, make sure that you have a professional message recorded, that does the same thing as tip # 3, and gives callers any other pertinent information before it records their messages. Update your answering machine message as needed. For instance, if your business is going to be closed for a holiday, update your recorded answering machine message to say so and to say when your business will reopen.

Remember the phone call is the only impression the caller is left with, make it a positive one, thanks.

Competitor Practice Phone Analysis

Oftentimes, we are asked what other competing practices are experiencing and how they might compare. By definition, competition is a business relation in which two or more parties compete to gain customers. Given the number of inquiries, we thought, "Why don't we find out?"

We are now offering a “Competitor Analysis” which will enable you to learn what specials your competitors are currently offering, compare prices, customer service skills, and much more ($349 per report or $35 per call).

Learn firsthand what your competitors are doing so that you can provide an advantage to gain more customers.

Webinar Recording "Effective Patient Retention Plans For Life"

Here is the link from our webinar with Aesthetics360 on Wednesday on "Effective Patient Retention Plans For Life": http://www.box.net/shared/774cq7jbte

Here are the results from the polls on the webinar:

What is your average cost per lead?

$500 or above - 8%
$351 - $500 - 25%
$201 - $350 - 17%
Below $200 - 0%
Don't know - 50%

Do you use a program to track patients?

62% yes
31% no
8% not sure

What programs do you use to track past patients? (multiple answer question)

Excel 33%
CRM Program (i.e. Goldmine, ACT, OptiTrak) 33%
E-mail Program (i.e. Constant Contact, Outlook, What Counts) 33%
Paper 0%
Don't know 22%

What systems do you use to reach out to past patients? (multiple answer question)

Follow-up Cards, Thank you cards 92%
Phone calls 72%
Newsletters 67%
Birthday cards 50%
Loyalty Programs 58%