How to Be a Phone Professional

Ok! I’m peeved, miffed, rankled… Why should I have to pay taxes at a higher rate just because I work hard enough to make over $200,000 a year? I earn it and I’m tired of you leeches expecting me to cure all of your problems. I’m doing fine myself. Don’t you people realize that if you tax me more, I’ll spend less, the economy will slow down and we’ll all suffer? Bring back Bush!!! There I’m glad I got that off my chest.

The real topic of this week’s page nine is about being a phone professional, or if you’d rather, being professional on the phone. I "do" the phone thing for a living. On an average "Dave" day, I will answer around 45 calls per hour. I don’t tell you this to impress you, rather I tell you this to elicit sympathy. HEP ME!

Last week for the umpteenth time I was told by one of the headcheeses in the agency that the phones were the "most important" job in the office. Between three full time phone people we answer close to 800 calls a day. To many of those callers, their only exposure to the Secretary of State’s Office is their experience with us on the phone. That’s shy it is important to at least give the perception we are decent, competent, and obedient civil servants.

I’ve been in this current position, picking up blinking line after blinking line, for approximately 17 months now. Despite my usual lack of depth perception, I have picked up a thing or two to do a better job. The most important thing you can do in answering the phones is to be a good listener. Many callers get flustered when they are making a call. They aren’t prepared for a conversation, they don’t know exactly what they are looking for, nor do they know the information you have available to you. To make the call as short and as efficient as possible, you have to try to get the caller to focus on what they are making the call for. This is done by listening to not only their words but by listening to what they are not telling you. There is a major difference between hearing and listening.

Seldom do I make a caller repeat themselves. It is an effective tool to paraphrase what you believe they have just told you. "So what you are saying is…" This relays to the caller that you have heard what they said. This also immediately clears up any mis-communication that might have occurred.

One important thing to keep in mind when relaying the information you have available to you back to the customer, is not to reveal too much. Too much information is going to confuse them. Answer what they are asking. If they have further questions, you can present more information to them at that time.

How do you deal with a hostile caller? Again the best thing to do is to try and get them to focus on the real reason for their call. To satisfy a dissatisfied customer it is best to offer a couple different solutions to their particular problem. This tells them that you are trying to resolve the situation not escalate it or ignore what they are saying.

The last bit of advice is to act as "professionally" as you can on the phone. Yawning, inappropriate language, continuing a conversation with someone else, are rude to do in person and they should not be done over the anonymity of the phone either. While it’s good to try and be personable, remember this is a business call and the tone of the conversation should remain just that.