What Does how You Answer the Telephone Have to do With Marketing?

By: Jim Newell

Have you ever called a business that you were unfamiliar with, and the person who answered sounded less than eager to help you with the information you were looking for? Did they sound too busy to help you, or under too much stress?

Maybe they answered with just one word that described their type of business, with no greeting, something like “garage”, “locksmith”, or “plumber”, leaving you a little confused as to who you actually called. Unless you are in a very small town, there may be more than one of that type of business in the area.

Many times the first contact a new prospect has with a business is a telephone call. This is especially true for “brick & mortar” businesses. It is therefore of paramount importance that this contact be positive for the caller.
That telephone call will usually be from someone who is totally unfamiliar with the exact products and services your business provides. They most likely need information. If they receive the information they need quickly, and in a friendly manner, they may very well make the jump from prospect to customer.

The first contact a prospect makes with any business sets in their mind an unconscious picture of how that business responds. If that contact was positive, great. However if it was negative, that prospect may be lost forever.
I have presented sales and marketing classes and seminars to many industry trade groups. I use as an example one of my customers who always answers their phone in a way that you can feel their enthusiasm to help you, it makes no difference who answers, because they all use the same enthusiastic greeting and you can “feel” the smile. I have even given out their phone number, so attendees could hear a good example.

So how do you convince your employees to answer the phone with enthusiasm? You should start with a short training program for all people who answer the phone.

• You need to let your employees know how big a part of how they answer the phone is to customer acquisition.
• Have them help you develop a script that everyone will use. They will feel a sense of ownership.
• Put a mirror at each phone station, so the person answering can see their smile. People on the other end of the phone
can “feel” that smile.
• It is very important that you monitor how the phone is being answered, if a particular person cannot learn and use the
script, they should be reassigned so they are not responsible for answering the phone.
• All persons answering the phone, including the business owner, senior managers, whoever must use the same script and
enthusiasm.

In closing, remember any contact with a prospect or existing customer needs to be treated as an opportunity to gain a new customer or help the existing customer decide to buy more products or services from you. In other words all prospect or customer contacts are part of marketing.