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.
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. Mary
Sandro
