Recently, news channels reported that in Chicago and all over the country, computer systems at Target stores stopped working. A Sun Times reporter shared, “People reported waiting in line for more than 45 minutes before giving up altogether. During the downtime in Chicago, the lines grew… shoppers took to social media to warn others and share a laugh.”
At your local customer service office or call center, you may have experienced something similar. A customer calls in, you try to look up the account or address and realize the system is down. Panic
The W.A.V.-Wording, Attitude and Voice
I had the opportunity to speak with 100 marketing students at a prestigious Chicago university this week. I asked them if they knew what the W.A.V. was and one student sheepishly raised his hand to share that the wave was something the crowd did at a sporting event. He gave me the perfect opening to explain that the W.A.V. represented wording, attitude and voice which are used strategically in marketing and sales efforts. My objective was to show them that their personal W.A.V. would affect their future. The students had 3 specific “ah hah” moments and we can learn from them, too.
The Phone Interview
A panel of students was instructed to assess the Wording, Attitude and the Voice of a job candidate as they listened to less than 1 minute of a phone interview. They had to decide on whether they would offer the candidate the job based on his W.A.V. The panel and all the students were unified in their assessment and decision to not offer the candidate the job because:
1. His wording showed he was only interested in himself and what the company could do for him.
2. The attitudes he projected were bored, tired and sarcastic.
3. His voice was monotone and lifeless which made anything positive he may have done in the interview to go unnoticed.
The “ah hah” moment for the students: A diploma isn’t enough to get the job.
Sales and Marketing
Several students were given the role of salesperson and they were provided a scripted phrase to deliver to the group using their voices to project a specific attitude. The group of students who were the observers needed to vote for 1 salesperson they would give their money to and they needed to be able to explain why.
Student #1- Used a perfectly worded statement to close on the sale but, the student sounded bored and tired. No one chose this student. Because of his lifeless voice they stopped listening and didn’t like him.
Student #2- Had a friendly voice and attitude as she said, “The price is $250.00. Is there anything else I can help you with?” Half of the students really liked this approach although they weren’t sure if they would have given the student their money. But they liked the salesperson!
Student #3-Projected a caring attitude but, had disastrous wording for a salesperson. “Do you want to start service or call around for other prices?” Most students thought this was the most considerate approach and would have taken the advice given and called the competition.
I did tell the students that if student #3 worked for me he would have been fired for intentionally sending my prospective customers to the competition. That got their attention! Words matter.
The “ah hah” moment for the students: My W.A.V. matters and when the right words are partnered with a friendly attitude and confident voice it is easier to succeed.
Choosing Your W.A.V.
I wanted to help each person in this large group realize that what comes out of them, their W.A.V., demonstrates who they are. I asked the group if they had all heard their voices recorded and of course they said they had. I asked for a show of hands if they liked the sound of their voice and only 3 people raised their hands. There was a lot of nervous laughter. Each student had the opportunity to speak and share the two main attitudes they wanted to convey to others through their W.A.V. Both confident and knowledgeable were at the top of everyone’s list. Unfortunately, many of them sounded timid and tired.
The “ah hah” moment for the students: I may feel a certain way inside, but if I don’t work on my voice, I may alienate people or be passed over for opportunities.
The Phone Interview
A panel of students was instructed to assess the Wording, Attitude and the Voice of a job candidate as they listened to less than 1 minute of a phone interview. They had to decide on whether they would offer the candidate the job based on his W.A.V. The panel and all the students were unified in their assessment and decision to not offer the candidate the job because:
1. His wording showed he was only interested in himself and what the company could do for him.
2. The attitudes he projected were bored, tired and sarcastic.
3. His voice was monotone and lifeless which made anything positive he may have done in the interview to go unnoticed.
The “ah hah” moment for the students: A diploma isn’t enough to get the job.
Sales and Marketing
Several students were given the role of salesperson and they were provided a scripted phrase to deliver to the group using their voices to project a specific attitude. The group of students who were the observers needed to vote for 1 salesperson they would give their money to and they needed to be able to explain why.
Student #1- Used a perfectly worded statement to close on the sale but, the student sounded bored and tired. No one chose this student. Because of his lifeless voice they stopped listening and didn’t like him.
Student #2- Had a friendly voice and attitude as she said, “The price is $250.00. Is there anything else I can help you with?” Half of the students really liked this approach although they weren’t sure if they would have given the student their money. But they liked the salesperson!
Student #3-Projected a caring attitude but, had disastrous wording for a salesperson. “Do you want to start service or call around for other prices?” Most students thought this was the most considerate approach and would have taken the advice given and called the competition.
I did tell the students that if student #3 worked for me he would have been fired for intentionally sending my prospective customers to the competition. That got their attention! Words matter.
The “ah hah” moment for the students: My W.A.V. matters and when the right words are partnered with a friendly attitude and confident voice it is easier to succeed.
Choosing Your W.A.V.
I wanted to help each person in this large group realize that what comes out of them, their W.A.V., demonstrates who they are. I asked the group if they had all heard their voices recorded and of course they said they had. I asked for a show of hands if they liked the sound of their voice and only 3 people raised their hands. There was a lot of nervous laughter. Each student had the opportunity to speak and share the two main attitudes they wanted to convey to others through their W.A.V. Both confident and knowledgeable were at the top of everyone’s list. Unfortunately, many of them sounded timid and tired.
The “ah hah” moment for the students: I may feel a certain way inside, but if I don’t work on my voice, I may alienate people or be passed over for opportunities.
For more information on Tooty Training™ for your team contact lori_miller@tootyinc.com.
Inclement Weather Challenges Logistics Customer Service Standards
The winter of 2019 has been a nightmare from coast to coast. 25 degrees below zero in Chicago and blizzards on the west coast were only a couple of Mother Nature’s cruel tricks. Customers aren’t always understanding when it comes to delays in deliveries or services such as picking up their garbage. Often-times the only tool customer service representatives have at their disposal is to wait for updates on routes from the operations team and to hesitantly suggest service will be attempted “hopefully tomorrow”. We should be better prepared. We can surprise our customers with our great attitudes and realistic solutions. Here are some suggestions that will help your team push through the rest of this winter and prepare for spring weather concerns.
Scripting:
Deciding on the right words to use is an important public relations step. We need to effectively educate our customers on how they can prepare, what they need to do and what they can expect during inclement weather. Your website, automated phone messaging and the information communicated by customer service representatives all needs to be in alignment.
1. Preparation- Remember to think like a customer and don’t assume an instruction such as “clear the area of snow and ice” will mean the same thing to them as it does to a driver. These great tips should be posted on your website with a date and be recorded as part of your initial automated message and on hold message for customers.
2. Customer to Do List- Restate your service recovery process and include a reminder to check your website for updates. With product deliveries or something such as garbage service, if your process is that you will attempt service the next business day or following week, and that you would like the customer to leave carts out or make sure bins are accessible, then include that.
3. Safety- Highlight your commitment to the safety of your drivers and your customers.
Scripting:
Deciding on the right words to use is an important public relations step. We need to effectively educate our customers on how they can prepare, what they need to do and what they can expect during inclement weather. Your website, automated phone messaging and the information communicated by customer service representatives all needs to be in alignment.
1. Preparation- Remember to think like a customer and don’t assume an instruction such as “clear the area of snow and ice” will mean the same thing to them as it does to a driver. These great tips should be posted on your website with a date and be recorded as part of your initial automated message and on hold message for customers.
2. Customer to Do List- Restate your service recovery process and include a reminder to check your website for updates. With product deliveries or something such as garbage service, if your process is that you will attempt service the next business day or following week, and that you would like the customer to leave carts out or make sure bins are accessible, then include that.
3. Safety- Highlight your commitment to the safety of your drivers and your customers.
Tips for Customer Service
1. Make sure your entire team is updated on the status of routes (hour by hour) and when it is anticipated that service will resume. Problems arise when we use a robotic response such
as, “If we don’t service you today, we will attempt service the following day.” Are you providing a Friday customer their service on Saturday? Will a truck be in that town the
following day?
2. Don’t assume all reports of a missed service or delivery are weather related. Complete your assessment.
3. When a storm is anticipated, the customer service and operations teams need to meet and talk through a plan.
4. To tactfully exit a conversation with an angry customer use something such as: I understand your frustration and appreciate that you took the time to call us today. Our first concern
is that you, your neighbors and our drivers are safe. We will be checking road conditions throughout the day.
Remember, once winter has passed, we will enter spring and summer where rains, flooding, hurricanes and tornados will create issues. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Take the time to review what has not worked for your team and your customers in the past and craft a plan for inclement weather that will allow great customer service to out weigh anything Mother Nature sends your way.
If you need help with scripting or specific difficult customer situations, please reach out to me at: lori_miller@tootyinc.com or 708-478-5772. A recent attendee to our Difficult Customer Training session shared: I had an upset (not furious, but frustrated) customer call this morning, I was able to use the tools I learned yesterday and by the end of our call she couldn’t stop thanking me. Thanks again for hosting the call, it was very informative!
Customer Service for Municipal Waste Services
Municipal agreements can have a variety of different requirements that speak directly to the customer service a hauler will provide. Often-times the customer interaction points are not clearly defined. 1. The primary focus is on what a driver will be doing which is only one customer interaction point.
2. Your customer service department may also work directly with citizens to set up service or handle questions. That is a second customer interaction point.
3. The third interaction point tends to be what Tooty calls a Back of the Room Customer Service Representatives or BR-CSR. These are individuals who interact directly with the municipality via phone or e-mail and they tend to be in dispatch and accounting departments. In some cases, the only interaction citizens will have is with these BR-CSRs. These representatives tend to operate without any customer service training or standards which can lead to problems with your valuable municipal clients.
I want to share with you a recent request I received from a municipality. A county official asked if Tooty would secret shop the two haulers that split the service for their county. The county had been receiving complaints from the citizens and wanted to get in front of those complaints. (No one enjoys hearing from an angry citizen at a city council meeting!) The county also had inspectors out in the community who were assessing what citizens had at the curb, illegal dumping and other issues that make citizens angry and frustrate a hauling company’s operations department. Since the county uses Tooty training for its solid waste and utilities departments to improve their efficiencies and customer care, they were counting on some unbiased assessment that would help them help the haulers and make the citizens they serve happy.
Tooty made 44 secret shopper calls to the two haulers and posed as citizens with questions on everything from recycling and bulk items to recycle bin deliveries.
Key Points
1. All 44 calls were answered by someone in dispatch.
2. All representatives were untrained in customer service.
3. Every representative had different answers for common questions from the citizens they serve.
4. Each representative panicked when asked about a cart/bin delivery status.
5. The background noise from within the dispatch offices was disturbing.
6. Each person worked for a well-known hauler that had a separate customer service department.
2. Your customer service department may also work directly with citizens to set up service or handle questions. That is a second customer interaction point.
3. The third interaction point tends to be what Tooty calls a Back of the Room Customer Service Representatives or BR-CSR. These are individuals who interact directly with the municipality via phone or e-mail and they tend to be in dispatch and accounting departments. In some cases, the only interaction citizens will have is with these BR-CSRs. These representatives tend to operate without any customer service training or standards which can lead to problems with your valuable municipal clients.
I want to share with you a recent request I received from a municipality. A county official asked if Tooty would secret shop the two haulers that split the service for their county. The county had been receiving complaints from the citizens and wanted to get in front of those complaints. (No one enjoys hearing from an angry citizen at a city council meeting!) The county also had inspectors out in the community who were assessing what citizens had at the curb, illegal dumping and other issues that make citizens angry and frustrate a hauling company’s operations department. Since the county uses Tooty training for its solid waste and utilities departments to improve their efficiencies and customer care, they were counting on some unbiased assessment that would help them help the haulers and make the citizens they serve happy.
Tooty made 44 secret shopper calls to the two haulers and posed as citizens with questions on everything from recycling and bulk items to recycle bin deliveries.
Key Points
1. All 44 calls were answered by someone in dispatch.
2. All representatives were untrained in customer service.
3. Every representative had different answers for common questions from the citizens they serve.
4. Each representative panicked when asked about a cart/bin delivery status.
5. The background noise from within the dispatch offices was disturbing.
6. Each person worked for a well-known hauler that had a separate customer service department.
Identifying your Back of the Room CSRs
I know that some of you have them. I’ve seen them! When I have the privilege to visit an office I do try to meet as many people as I can to see how they connect to customer service. There are times when I am told that “those people” only work with the municipality or brokers. They don’t talk to customers.” It is important, maybe even critical, for you to evaluate those who seem to work behind the scenes.
1. Do they send emails?
2. Do they talk on the phone?
3. Are they as great as your customer service representatives?
4. Have they been through training?
You have an opportunity to surprise your current municipal customers with improved customer service and to share some key differentiators with those municipalities you are hoping to close a deal with. Be proactive versus waiting for municipal officials to identify your customer service weakness.
Customer service is not a job title or a department, but a philosophy of how we care for those we are lucky enough to serve.
If you would like to try a Tooty Secret Shopper campaign or your back of the Room Customer Service people need training, please contact: Lori Miller at 708-478-5772 or lori_miller@tootyinc.com
Deal Breakers
Today the phone will ring into your organization and if you are lucky, you will have a golden opportunity to sell your services, help a citizen or solve a problem. Having a great sales and marketing strategy or a fantastic CRM tool is one part of the equation. But, the customer’s impression of your organization through a customer service or sales representative can make or break the deal. At Tooty, we have a unique point of view to share with you because we FEEL what customers go through as we make secret shopper calls and listen into monitored conversations each week. Based on over 2,000 surveys we completed in the last two months we have documented 4 deal breakers that may be scaring your prospective customers away or infuriating the citizens you serve.
Deal Breaker #1- Long hold times
How long is too long for a customer to wait? 2-3 minutes has been a common measurement standard for years. In some markets customers will not wait more than a minute while in others they wait as long as it takes. Your phone system should keep the data on when the customers in your market hang up the phone. That will help you determine your market standards.
Deal Breaker #2- Passing around the customer
Customers become frustrated when they spend 5 minutes talking with one person who then transfers the call to another person who asks the very same things all over again. It gives the impression of inefficiency and can make a customer wonder how complicated working with you will be. At Tooty Inc., we help organizations implement a One Call Does It All protocol where every person is trained and empowered to handle the customer from start to finish.
Deal Breaker #3- Broken promise
Your customers may understand that they need to wait for a return call sometimes. The preference is not to wait at all, but if they have to they expect the promise of a return call to be kept. When I ask sales and customer service representatives when a return call should be made to a customer if the standard is within 2 hours, they always say 2 hours. A customer’s expectation would be that a return call would be received in half that time. That is what they are measuring you on. You have 2-ways to verify your team’s record with returning calls. 1-ask your front line representatives who doesn’t return calls. They can tell you because they receive those complaints from customers! 2- Let Tooty make secret shopper calls into your organization that require a call be returned. We will evaluate the customer experience, document whether a return call is received and the time.
Deal Breaker #4- Conflicting personalities
What impression would a prospective customer have of your organization if the customer service representative who first answers is dynamic and the person who the call is transferred to is disengaged or unprepared? Insides sales, account managers, national sales, help desk, accounting and other departments are equally accountable to excellent customer care.
Tooty’s signature training program Telepicting ™ focuses on how a prospective customer perceives a representative based on voice, attitude and knowledge and concludes whether that customer would give him/her their money or trust the answers given. It is a fun and impactful training exercise.
Deal Breaker #1- Long hold times
How long is too long for a customer to wait? 2-3 minutes has been a common measurement standard for years. In some markets customers will not wait more than a minute while in others they wait as long as it takes. Your phone system should keep the data on when the customers in your market hang up the phone. That will help you determine your market standards.
Deal Breaker #2- Passing around the customer
Customers become frustrated when they spend 5 minutes talking with one person who then transfers the call to another person who asks the very same things all over again. It gives the impression of inefficiency and can make a customer wonder how complicated working with you will be. At Tooty Inc., we help organizations implement a One Call Does It All protocol where every person is trained and empowered to handle the customer from start to finish.
Deal Breaker #3- Broken promise
Your customers may understand that they need to wait for a return call sometimes. The preference is not to wait at all, but if they have to they expect the promise of a return call to be kept. When I ask sales and customer service representatives when a return call should be made to a customer if the standard is within 2 hours, they always say 2 hours. A customer’s expectation would be that a return call would be received in half that time. That is what they are measuring you on. You have 2-ways to verify your team’s record with returning calls. 1-ask your front line representatives who doesn’t return calls. They can tell you because they receive those complaints from customers! 2- Let Tooty make secret shopper calls into your organization that require a call be returned. We will evaluate the customer experience, document whether a return call is received and the time.
Deal Breaker #4- Conflicting personalities
What impression would a prospective customer have of your organization if the customer service representative who first answers is dynamic and the person who the call is transferred to is disengaged or unprepared? Insides sales, account managers, national sales, help desk, accounting and other departments are equally accountable to excellent customer care.
Tooty’s signature training program Telepicting ™ focuses on how a prospective customer perceives a representative based on voice, attitude and knowledge and concludes whether that customer would give him/her their money or trust the answers given. It is a fun and impactful training exercise.
Telepicture Sample
Age: 34
Appearance: Jeans and a tee-shirt
Facial Expression: none
Attitude projected: disorganized, unprofessional and bored
What is your impression of the company: One-person operation, not trustworthy
Would you give the representative your money: No
Was there a sales strategy: No
If you’d like to learn how you can receive a complimentary Telepicting™ evaluation, please contact: lori_miller@tootyinc.com
Voice, Attitude and Wording Shape Image
How many words does it take for you to determine if the customer on the other end of the line is in a bad mood? One? Maybe two? You hear your customer’s voice and you can’t help but start to pass judgment on cranky old Mr. Smith. After the conversation is over, you turn to your co-worker and say, “You won’t believe the jerk I just spoke with!” Your teammate nods her head and smiles as she says, “Wait until I tell you about mine!” Before you know it, everyone is talking about their customer as that jerk or that idiot that needs to get some manners.
How many words do you need to utter before your customer concludes that you will be happy to help or that you will be difficult to work with? The process of associating a face or image to a phone voice is what Tooty coined as Telepicting ™. And your Telepicture sets the stage for what happens next. You can disarm a cranky customer with a cheerful voice or turn around someone who is having a bad day. You can win a sale, collect more money or rescue a bad situation based on voice, attitude and wording choice.
Your company or organization’s website lets the world know what to expect when they call in or meet a representative. The wording on your website probably describes your staff in such glowing terms that the expectation is high. The customer or citizen you serve may be looking forward to the great experience. Do you really know what happens when someone calls in to your call center, help desk, department or office?
You need help from the expert team at Tooty if:
- You want to confirm your staff is doing an amazing job over the phone.
- You want to discover areas where your team could be more effective and positive.
- You have the same problems today that you had yesterday, last week or last month.
- Departments are not working together effectively.
- Your call volume is out of control resulting in long
Training Your Second-String Customer Service Team
Summer vacations leave your office short-handed. Often-times you find you must recruit someone to help with the phones who has not been trained or who isn’t working in customer service for a reason! Customers tend to wait on hold longer when you aren’t fully staffed, and they are likely to get incorrect information or incomplete help which generates additional calls. Training your second-string customer service representatives allows you to utilize your personnel more effectively and to be prepared for anything that affects customer care.
Tooty Secret Shopper Calls and employee performance evaluation scores do reveal what your customers are experiencing right now. My conversations with managers during June and July revealed that untrained back-up Customer Service and Sales representatives are causing more harm than good.
Selecting your second-string players
In a perfect world everyone within the office would be ready, willing and able to back-up customer service or sales. Use this check-list as you consider who your second-string players should be:
- Must have a nice voice
- Must love our customers and people in general
- Can step away from other duties to talk with customers
- Is a team player
Training your second-string players
No one performs well when they are thrown into something without training and practice. Training should begin 1-2 weeks before you expect the person to start taking calls, but it doesn’t have to take 1-2 weeks. The best process to develop someone who has helped in the past or who is new to customer service or sales should include:
- Side-by-side training with your best representative where he/she can hear the conversation and observe how the technology is used. Let the individual handle customer calls
I Hate Scripts
You and I have heard the declaration “I hate scripts!” more than once. We aren’t going to dwell on why you or someone you work with might get angry at the mention of a script. I want to point out what you and your team are missing when these great tools are left to gather dust on the corner of the desk.
Celebrating an individual’s improvement
Hunter is a CSR at the Orlando District and she has been with Waste Connections for almost a year. Her Tooty scores were up and down and she was frustrated by the scripts. During our coaching session together, she shared that she was frustrated by all the words on the script along with trying to figure out which one applied to the call at hand. We reviewed the residential and commercial existing customer scripts and she created her own version to use. It was a check list that applied to any customer calling. Hunter said, “I created this one to ensure I get all the information first, then I can determine which script I need so I’m not looking all over the place and losing my mind because of how different each one is laid out.” Hunter took initiative in creating a tool that would work for her. It had all the components of the full scripts, but visually it worked better for her because there were less words to look at. After using the new script, she gained confidence and found that it worked well for her and her customers. Hunter is happy to share the results of working with a script and not against it. “Thank you so much for helping me tweak it to fit my brain!! Just thought you should know your suggestion has worked for me marvelously and the underdog is going for the gold now J The last 2 tooties I had I received 100 % score on!”
For all you managers out there, this is what Hunter’s manager, Julia wants you to know.
“I decided to try the (Tooty) coaching. My job is to provide every opportunity for success for the folks who report to me. I try to accomplish that on my own, but I know that everyone learns differently and is motivated in different ways. These Tooty sessions are another tool for us that is clearly effective. I would be crazy not to tap into the mother-load as it were! Go straight to the source and get some coaching/teaching!!! It has clearly made a difference and reminds me to entertain all available options in the pursuit of success.”
Creating Scripting to Make More Sales
When I received an e-mail from an office manager with the subject “accidental sales” I was intrigued. Hilary, the Office Manager of Salina Waste in Kansas, had noticed that city customers call every day asking about bulk pick up or other service needs. She said, “
I would like to have a script or guidelines on how to navigate a phone call that wasn’t originally meant for our company. When city of Salina customers call, it would be great
Action Versus Intention
In customer service our attention tends to go towards putting out fires. Goals for improving or changing a process are put on the back burner for so long that we forget we ever had goals. It’s exciting and motivating to be able to share with you how others have been able to improve and innovate while handling the day to day demands that revolve around customer care. For all of us it is about taking head-knowledge, what we know about, and putting it into action.
Let me introduce you to 3 women of action!
Cynthia has been a Customer Service Representative since 2016. During the annual Tooty Training program, we focused on selling services- business to business. The Tooty script is great, but CSRs admitted they may only get 1 or 2 calls for new service in a month and aren’t confident when it comes to recommending service. I suggested that if there was someone who was talented with excel that the formula offered during training could be turned into an amazing tool that would allow a CSR or inside sales rep to enter in some details from the script and quickly determine a service that would best fit the customer’s needs. Cynthia not only offered to do it but, followed through! The tool will also shorten talk time.
In her role as Customer Service Manager, Destini attended the webinar Tooty offers to managers. The office had staffing issues. Destini said, “Our jobs are more than head count and phone calls”, which is what she discovered after she used the work-time-study formula provided by Lori Miller to document the number of customers that came to the office, inbound and outbound calls and customer e-mails. This data helped Destini and upper management make an informed decision about staffing.
Deana had been a CSR for just over a year before receiving the award as a 2017 Top 10 CSR in all of North America for Waste Connections. Her average for 2017 was 99! Deana said, “If I can do it, I know that you can do it. Just use the tools provided and the sky is the limit!” While on site providing one-on-one coaching to CSRs we noticed that small details that impact customer service and accuracy were not given attention. Every CSR had a different level of knowledge and there wasn’t time to share facts during the day. As the new Lead CSR, Deana took a Tooty suggestion to create a “Did you know” board where CSRs are incentivized to share what they learn each day- ah ha moments.
We don’t get very far by thinking about or wishing for things to be better. Action steps and deadlines make a difference.
Who Is Your Customer
During a recent training session, I asked someone who is designated as a back-up to answering the phones who her customers were. She was confident in her response, “I don’t have customers. I don’t have anyone from the outside call me.” I explained that customer service isn’t a job title, but a trait a person has. It is about understanding who you interact with each day and being intentional about helping him or her to the best of your abilities. It’s about serving people. She caught on quickly and came to understand that her customers were most often people within the office and those from other offices who don’t pay for a service, but count on her to help with something. Internal customers are important.
Recently, a manager suggested that we should remove a Tooty Customer Service score because the person who handled the call was not part of the “customer service department”. I can understand being disappointed by a low score, but the focus should be on how to help the individual and team improve. Not to erase the result.
Casting the vision for customer service in 2018
As a team, define who your internal customers are and agree to demonstrate excellent customer service to them. Consider including:
- Response time to emails, etc.
- Answering internal calls professionally
- Using please and thank you
For your paying external customers, you need to know where the calls are routed and who potentially will talk with them. If you have people on your team who need to be better-teach them. It is the perfect leadership opportunity.
Maybe answering phones is a part of your daily duties. Or, a customer call may be transferred to you or you might be asked to help-out a co-worker when it is busy. Be prepared to serve and be grateful to serve.
