It often astonishes me how poorly many receptionists or sales people answer the phone. When are companies going to realise that the first point of contact is the ONLY one that matters. If the first point of contact is poor, why should I ever listen or call back.

How familiar are these statements to you. “Name, postcode, who wants him, what’s it about,” These were all designed by a sales prevention officer. It all seems easy doesn’t it? We answer the phone in a professional corporate manner and show that we care for each individual customer. They could be a customer today or maybe in three months time. They could be making a complaint that we believe is unreasonable. SO WHAT!!!!!. The idea that “we would have a great business if our customers understood us” is becoming far too prevalent in the UK today and will kill business at a time when everyone should be looking to do more ,mange customers expectations and ensure their experience with our company is a great one.

A client of mine was having a problem with retaining customers and when we looked into the situation properly we found out that because he was very busy the incoming calls were too high for his receptionist to handle and therefore rather than tell him she just rushed people off the phone.

This was handled easily by doing two things 1. Retraining the receptionist. 2. Using the phone system to better effect so that calls were diverted to the right people.

This is not always that easy to handle. We must be aware of the short and long-term damage a poor initial response will give.

Do you know how your phones are being answered? Do you check? If we want to be the best of the best we must start looking at all areas of our business. We cannot say, “Oh she’s just the receptionist or my people are very busy.” Spend time and money now on training and extolling your ethos and reap the rewards. The alternative is too horrific to think about.