Talking on the telephone

1. Talking on the telephone • Nowadays, even with e-mail and the internet, the telephone is still probably the most common means of communication in business, and used efficiently it has two advantages.

2. Advantages of the telephone • It is fast • It allows people to converse even when they are unable to meet. • It is a great leveler: status, physical appearance and surroundings don’t show • It is a great focuser: it removes the social and emotional distractions of face-to-face encounter

3. Telephone problems • The telephone, for all its convenience and speed, also has the power to convey rapidly a poor impression of the efficiency of individuals and the organizations and create considerable confusion and irritation.

4. cost • Certainly telephone calls seem cheaper than sending a letter. Many organizations calculate that the average cost of sending a letter taking into account the staff time involved and the overheads as well as postage/courier, is about 25Rs, which would buy quite a lot of telephone time even at current rates.

5. We have all suffered from the irritating waste of time caused by bad telephone manners: • Trying to get a line • The person required not being available • Being left hanging on( albeit to the sounds of the latest popular classic tunes) by an operator who appears to have gone to lunch • Being passed from department to department (or even diverted from phone to phone without our knowledge!) in an effort to find someone who can answer the query

6. Wrong or engaged numbers • A caller who has all the time in the world to chat when we are busy • Of late get plugged on to CRM software who will keep on giving you instruction to keep on dialing without ever getting to a live person on the other side Any of these time-wasters can take longer than it takes to write or dictate a letter.

7. First impressions count • But the telephone can exact other costs. Frequently, the first contact a caller has with an organization is with the person who answers their first call. • That person, either through a lack of courtesy, lack of knowledge about the organization, or how to use the telephone itself can, however innocently, create an initial bad impression of the organization which is difficult to correct.

8. The faceless voice Perhaps the principal cause of much of this apparent inefficiency is that although the standard telephone allows oral communication, it does not transmit visual communication (non-verbal messages like facial expressions, gestures and postures) which are important giving way to problems like:

9. Words are missed • Words are misheard • The message is misunderstood because, the visual cues and feedback are missing • The conversation somehow doesn’t seem so immediate

10. Not only does this lack of visual communication cause messages to be received incorrectly, but it can also cause messages to be transmitted incorrectly by putting callers at what they feel to be a psychological disadvantage. • Many people have developed a positive dislike of the telephone because they cannot see the person to whom they are talking, with the result they lack the confidence to make and answer calls clearly and efficiently. • The proliferation of the answering machines has, for many people, made this fear even worse

11. Given the importance of the telephone in modern business operations and the prevalence of bad telephone habits (of which we are all guilty at times) , it is surprising that very few books or courses on business communication offer more than a paragraph or two on the subject of telephone technique.

12. For this reason, this is just an attempt at correcting the balance somewhat by: • Providing guidance on making and answering calls efficiently and therefore • Cutting the cost of telephoning

13. Picking up verbal clues • The telephone is not merely a second-rate communication channel • For most purposes, a telephone conversation is as effective as a face-to-face meeting • Indeed, given the saving in travel time and costs and the facility of audio- and videoconferencing, it is set to replace most meetings

14. Being a verbal detective • Trust your intuition when picking up clues about the other person’s personality, feelings and mood • Stay relaxed and allow ideas about the speaker to drift into your mind- unforced impressions can prove to be remarkably accurate • Look out for hesitations, self- mocking comments and other clues about the speaker’s state of mind.

15. Check your hunches by replaying your impressions to the caller, use ‘reflecting back’ phrases like ‘what you seem to be feeling is…’ • Use ‘anticipatory feedback’ to guide your conversation: imagine the other person’s response to a statement you are about to make and then modify what you actually say to achieve the intended result

16. Basic telephone rules • Be brief: but not at the expense of making yourself clearly understood and not to the extent of being abrupt and discourteous. Lack of telephoneconfidence often causes people to talk for longer than they would face-face conversations

17. Be courteous This is specially important when telephoning to avoid creating a bad impression which is so difficult to correct. Your tone of voice is crucial in conveying a courteous, cheerful impression as the words you use Remember too, that even if you are not yet using a video phone, your facial expressions affects the tone of your voice. Smile!

18. Be resourceful • Don’t be clueless. • Always think of ways in which you can be most helpful. • If you are taking a message for someone else, use your local knowledge to suggest helpful ways of getting the caller and recipient of the message in touch with one another so that the caller can judge in an informed way what they want to do.

19. If the caller has been put through to your department but no one in your department knows anything about the matter, think quickly, who else in the organization might know something and be able to help? • If you are really unable to help, sound sincerely concerned, not uninterested.

20. Speak clearly • Enunciate and articulate your words particularly clearly to counteract both the poor acoustic quality of the telephone line and the absence of lip movements to help the listener. • When giving names and numbers, if there is any ambiguity use the phonetic code used by all emergency services to clarify messages.

21. A for Alpha B for Bravo C for Charlie D for Delta E for Echo F for Foxtrot G for Golf H for Hotel I for India J for Juliet K for Kilo L for Lima M for Mike N for November O for Oscar

22. P for Papa Q for Quebec R for Romeo S for Sierra T for Tango U for Uniform V for victor W for Whisky X for X-ray Y for Yankee Z for Zulu Remember that 5 and 9 sound similar. Spell them.

23. Speak more slowly • When you are talking on the telephone it is a good idea to slow your speech down. • When your voice is being mechanically transmitted, the word seem to move together faster. • That is the reason TV announcers often speak at a slower than is normal in everyday conversation

24. Remember too that someone may be trying to take notes as you talk • This is particularly important when talking to an answering machine. • Don’t rattle off your phone number at a rate of knots- remember the poor person on the end trying to write it down.

25. Building a positive telephone personality • Don’t worry what you look like when you’re on the phone; use as much as little body language as you wish • Focus your concentration on what you’re saying and what is being said to you • Mirror positive feelings in your facial expressions; if you smile while you speak, you’ll put a smile in your voice

26. Try to relax; stretch to loosen your muscles and breathe evenly- tension can feed straight into your voice and create a negative image • Don’t use specialized language (company or professional jargon): what’s jargon to you may be a foreign language to the other person

27. Avoid clichés that say one thing and clearly mean something else • Remember, when you tell a lie your voice rises involuntarily; on the phone this easily detected

28. Punctuate your conversation with ‘you’, ‘your’ and the person’s name • Replace some of your body language (head nods, quizzical expressions) with verbal equivalents: ‘yes’, ‘of course’, I’m not sure I understand that last point. Could you…

29. Switch board operators • Although telephone operator training was at one time standard practice in business some organizations seem to put their least able employee on the switch board. • The operator is typically regarded by callers as the representative of the whole organization.

30. Qualities of the switch board operator • Verbal intelligibility • Speed • Courtesy • Accuracy • Discretion • Resourcefulness These qualities are just as essential in anyone who is allowed near a business telephone

31. Help the operator • The good switchboard operator is indeed an organization’s ambassador: they welcome your callers, introduce you, apologize for your absence or try to get you on another line, often take messages- and are frequently blamed for your shortcomings. • Seven points can help the operator

32. Making your system work • Understanding how the telephone system used in your organization works. • Giving the number you want( including the STD) • Not disappearing immediately you have asked her to ring a number for you

33. Answering the phone after the first ring( when they call you back) • Acting upon the messages without delay • Telling them in advance when you are likely to be absent • Providing your potential callers with your direct line number so that they don’t have to go through the operator

34. Making a call • Before • Answer the six questions of effective communication- Why? Who? Where? When? What? How? • Make notes of what you want to achieve, the main points/ queries you must include and any dates, facts, etc. you may need to refer to.

35. 3. Have ready any files, correspondence, etc. which you may need in the course of the conversation; don’t keep your receiver waiting while you ferret around for the relevant papers or turn your computer on and find the right screen 4. Have ready a plain piece of paper for your own notes

36. 6. Know the name of the person to whom you need to speak; sometimes this may be impossible but, atleast, keep a personal telephone directory of names and numbers you ring regularly. 7. Dial the number carefully( or tell the operator clearly); wrong numbers are the most common cause of frustration and time- wasting, but are usually the fault of the caller.

37. During • Give a greeting (‘good morning’, etc.); state your name (and organization) and the name of the person to whom you want to speak • Wait patiently to be put through; you may be put through to a secretary or the department telephone, in which case you will have to go through step 1 again

38. If you are cut off, replace the telephone receiver, wait for a few seconds and ring again • Keep it short: most calls can achieve their purpose in 20 seconds- 20 seconds… time to run 200 yards! Time for a jet to fly 4 miles! • State your subject/ query clearly- enough to put the recipient in the picture

39. Refer periodically to your notes • Pause occasionally to get feedback that your message is understood • Spell names and addresses; repeat numbers • Take notes, especially the name and number of the person to whom you are speaking

40. Summarize main points of a long conversation at the end and always conclude by confirming any action required or date to be met • If you have to leave a message for someone else, help the person who answered the phone to take the right message; don’t just ramble on making them to get the gist of it; tell them which are the main points to write down

41. Be polite: thank the receiver for their help, even if you haven’t got the information you wanted- fostering goodwill is not just a part of being courteous, but will help future relations. • Telephone etiquette officially requires that if you are the caller you decide when the call ends but, since not every knows this, use your judgment.

42. After Immediately, before you forget: • Fill in your notes so that they will be comprehensible at a later date. • Date the note and file it • Put any relevant dates for future action or follow- up in your diary • Pass on the results of your call to any one concerned with he matter

43. Controlling the flow of conversation • Be sure you understand exactly what you want the call to achieve. • Take the initiative; this gives the right to take the lead and choose when to the end the call • Begin every call with a verbal ‘handshake’ by telling who you are and why you are calling

44. Mirror the conversational style and vocabulary of the other person to generate rapport • Keep your line of argument simple: state your case and persist until the message gets through • Keep the conversation flowing by asking plenty of questions, but also be generous with information of your own

45. Search for the areas of agreement rather than points of difference • Use silence for emphasis and to prompt the person to respond • Use alternatives when seeking agreement

46. Gathering information by telephone • In gathering information for the preparation of a report, or merely as a part of your day to job, you may need to contact original or primary sources of information, or someone else who has access to secondary information you need. Telephone calls are widely used by business and industrial firms who may need certain information very quickly, and made correctly these calls can be very effective.

47. Before • Work out exactly what information you need • Frame a series of increasingly specific questions which will give you what you want to know, e.g. ‘do you have the unemployment figures for the Bristol area over the last six months”? ‘does this include a breakdown by age groups and sex”? ‘

48. ‘can you tell me the unemployment figures for girls aged 16 to 25 for each month since June?’ …..and so on, to the level of details you need. 3. Decide which firm, individual, office, government agency, organization or business might possibly have at hand the information you need.

49. During • When you get through, be polite but specific. Don’t say: I wonder if you happen to have anyone there who knows something about unemployment…’ etc. instead say: ‘I need some information concerning the unemployment figures for the Bristol area over the last six months. Can you help me?’ (Remember politeness and courtesy can be conveyed in your tone of voice.)

50. Then, depending on the response, go on to ask more specific question. If they can’t help say: ‘could you please give me the name of someone who can?’ • Don’t be discouraged if the first place you try can’t help you; try another place- you will eventually get what you want if you keep trying (providing that it is not your telephone technique which is putting them off!)