Proper Phone Etiquette Demonstration

For some people it can be easy to just look up an article and be able to soak it all in with a full understanding of the subject. As well as there are people that need to visually see what is happening for them and be able to grasp what is being said. I am like the latter person, a visual learner, the more visual and hands-on, the more I can take it all in. 

With this understanding, we have created a simple live demonstration you to watch and understand. We have two different scenarios, one demonstrating how to properly handle a professional phone call and the other showing how sadly many people are still treated on a professional phone call. Below we will start with a short background of what is happening in each clip, then you can watch the clip by pressing the play button in the middle of the video.

Mary and the Lamp

The Bad

Here we have Mary, Mary had recently bought a lamp from Blue Mex Lighting and was having trouble getting it to work. Like many of us would, she took to calling the customer service phone line to get some assistance. Watch in the four clips, to see for Mary's reactions and feelings and for Tammy's behavior.

In this clip you can see that Mary becomes concerned shortly into the phone call, you can tell just by her demeanor that her call for help didn't go as she hoped. Next, let see what was actually being said to Mary.

Immediately, you can see Tammy is agitated that Mary called in the first place and interrupted her work, even though helping customers is part of her job. Tammy also became condescending to Mary when she started to ask what she wanted. Lastly, Tammy informs Mary that she will tell a person that she called, than promptly hung up without receiving any of Mary's information.

It is phone calls like this that steer people away from dealing with them at all. Because Tammy could not have been bothered with helping Mary through her issue, she has cost the company a lot of money and reputation. Mary will, more than likely, not ever shop there again and will warn others about them as well.

The Good

The professional attitude in a simple customer service phone call can make the difference in the customer's attitude. Now we will see how everything goes for Mary and her lamp when Tammy was given proper phone etiquette training.

Just like before, you can tell that Mary is upset while dialing the phone but very quickly into the phone conversation, you can see she has a more calm and relaxed feeling. The customer service person's professionalism and behavior on the phone has given Mary the confidence that she will receive help and that her issue will be resolved.

In this clip, Tammy immediately begins to smile before answering the phone. Smiling can change the entire tone of her voice to a friendlier one. She then asks for Mary's information at the beginning of the call, just to ensure if an issue does arise during the call, she will be able to get into contact with Mary again. After Mary has given Tammy her information, Tammy repeats the issue back to make sure that both parties are on the same page together. Tammy then stays on the phone with Mary as they trouble shoot the issue together. Once they have resolved the issue completely, Tammy makes sure that there isn't anything else that she could help Mary with. In this case, there wasn't, so Mary was thanked for calling and reminded that if she ever needs anything, Blue Mex Lighting is always happy to help.

It's the subtle difference in those two scenarios that can determine the well being of a company. A bad customer service agent can cost the company a lot of money. A good customer service agent can bring in more clientele for the business due to happy customer's word of mouth.