In this fast and furious age we live in, one of the more important issues being addressed in the workforce is a lack of effective and proper telephone skills and etiquette.

How many times have you been upset or put off by a call center or business representative who had no telephone etiquette? This professional deficiency will create a negative perception of your business and cause a loss of customers and revenue.

The following top 10 tips to improve telephone skills will help develop a positive and professional atmosphere with regard to your business:

1. Speak precisely – the caller cannot see you to discern your facial expressions and it is therefore important you talk in a clear manner that is slightly slow with a positive effort.
2. Do not shout – using a normal tone of voice is imperative in order to keep the level of stress at a minimum. Talking loudly will annoy the caller and create tension.
3. No drinking, no eating, and no gum – the person on the other end of the phone line has no desire to listen to your chewing or gulping. It is rude and very unprofessional.
4. Use proper language – do not swear or curse, stay away from slang words and improper language. It is offensive to many individuals and shows disrespect.
5. Use their proper name – never address the caller by their first name as this will impart a familiarity that does not exist. Always use their proper (last) name and title when addressing them.
6. Listen attentively – allow the caller to express their reasons for contacting you and listen to what they say. Restating what was said or repeating it back to them is a sign of a good listener. Plus it is always best to verify a message to ensure accuracy.
7. Patience is a virtue – allow the caller time to vent their frustrations. Do not engage your emotions and become rude or snappish. Remain calm and speak with a low and monotone voice in order to assuage the caller’s rage.
8. Incoming calls – always ask if you can place the caller on hold for a moment. Never set the phone down without asking or placing the call on hold. It is unprofessional and the caller may misunderstand something they overhear. Once you have placed the incoming call on hold as well, go back to the first caller and thank them for holding.
9. Focus on the call – do not allow any distractions as it is critical to give the caller your full attention. If you allow someone in the office to pull your attention away from the phone call, the caller will become upset and angered.
10. Properly Identify who you are – make sure you tell the caller your name and your company’s name so that they know who is on the phone with them and that they have called the desired place of business. When leaving a message, be brief, to the point, and clearly state your name, the company you work for, the call back telephone number and the date and time of your call.

Myron Curry is the President of Business Training Media, a leading provider of corporate training programs for employee development. For more management ideas, strategies and tips, subscribe to Myron’s free Online Management Tips eNewsletter today.

10 Proven Ways for Dealing With Angry Customers

By Myron Curry

One of the most difficult situations an employee will encounter is an angry customer. The human emotional response can and often tries to kick in resulting in an escalation of the customer’s ire coupled with the employee becoming enraged as well.

This is a no win scenario for both parties involved with devastating repercussions including loss of a customer, potential new business and possible quitting or termination of the employee.

The main goal of employee training to handle angry customers is to defuse or assuage their anger. Once the customer is in a calmer frame of mind, the issue causing the problem can be quickly and easily resolved. The following are 10 of the top employee training tips for dealing with angry customers:

1. Remember, the customer does have the right to be angry – take the path of least resistance. An employee’s first response is to defend their place of work rather and thus creates more friction with the customer. Instead, listen to their issue(s) with the thought that whatever has happened, they do have the right to be upset. The customer had certain expectations which were not met and this has caused their irate response. Place yourself in their shoes, would this upset you as well?

1. Remove the “E” word from your mind – As an employee being vented upon; you must remove your emotions from the situation. If you respond with emotions, you will only escalate their anger. The customer is not angry at you and even if they are personally attacking you, you must remain calm and free of emotions. If they are verbally attacking you, they are doing so to seek a desired response that you understand and acknowledge their distress. Do so by calmly and quietly recognizing their mood and reassure them you are there to help them and solve their problems.

1. Patience is a virtue – Be a good listener and let the customer get all their frustration and anger out. It will come rolling in like waves of emotion and you need to be attentive, do not interrupt and let your own compassion flow out to them. Explain your understanding and empathy towards their plight once it is your turn to speak.

1. Control Your Voice and Control the encounter – The softer and steady you speak, the calmer the customer will become. Not at first and maybe not right away but if you stick with the soft, steady tone of voice you will begin to soothe the customer. You cannot and should not try to shout at or louder than the customer. Wait to speak when the customer has paused after a rant and seize the opportunity to influence their mood with your voice.

1. Restate and Reiterate – Always repeat back to the customer what they are upset about and then restate it in the soft and steady tone of voice. This lets the customer know that you have a firm grasp on the problem. Ask the customer if you have correctly restated the situation and what their priorities are concerning the resolution.

1. Take Control of the Problem – Regardless of whose fault or what happened let the customer know that you will handle the problem for them, personally. You will take care of them and the issue yourself. Trying to pawn it off on another employee will only further the customer’s rage and bring you back to “square one” with them. You will have effectively ruined any good you accomplished previously. It is imperative to take charge and show the customer you can and will help them and resolve the issue.

1. Place the Customer’s Emotions first – Yes, it is imperative that you handle the problem causing their stress but first you must calm them and defuse their emotions. You need to make sure the customer has calmed down before you tend to the issue causing their outburst. Although it might seem that resolving the problem will resolve their tirade, there could be mitigating circumstances adding to their stress level and it is crucial you acknowledge their concerns before tending to the resolution of their problem.

1. Root Cause: Dig deep and wide – Finding the answer to the customer’s problem is not enough. You need to get to the root or basal cause of the concern in order to resolve all potential issues so as to avoid any duplication of the problem. Then explain to the customer how you plan to resolve their issue and prevent any future recurrences.

1. Fix It - Remedy the customer’s problem and detail what happened and why it happened. Explain that there is no excuse for the occurrence and apologize for the mishap and then explain in detail the steps taken to repair their problem.

1. Personally Contact the Customer – After the customer has left the establishment, send a card or letter immediately. It should arrive to them within a few days and this will again acknowledge your personal commitment to their satisfaction. At the 30 day interval, a quick phone call to the customer to verify their continued contentment will show your attention to their needs.

Myron Curry is the President of Business Training Media, a leading provider of corporate training programs for employee development. For more management ideas, strategies and tips, subscribe to Myron’s free Online Management Tips eNewsletter today.

Large-scale businesses, such as airlines or drug companies must constantly address their customers’ issues or answer their questions. Further, it is essential to solve their issues in an expedient manner to ensure customer satisfaction.

Companies have their customers call the contact center to get their questions answered or problems solved. Therefore, the role of a contact center is vital for retaining the customer base and developing the business.

If it is not managed well, the business will eventually lose customers and profits. Bigger businesses are seeking contact center outsourcing services, which offer specialized services to handle the task more efficiently. The reason for outsourcing and the ensuing implications are discussed below.

Outsourcing services enables businesses to save money spent on providing the same services in-house, and also focus on core business tasks, so as to retain its competitiveness in the market. Overseas outsourcing services are cheaper. Usually, the salary of the workforce in third world countries is less than half that in the first world nations.

In former years, bigger industrial nations with transnational companies sold their products to smaller nations worldwide; but today, globalization is a two-way notion, so as to favor third world economies as well. The information technology sector is evolving at a rapid rate, so that physical distance is no more a barrier for conducting business activities.

With continual advancements, offshore opportunities are increasing and contact center outsourcing is set to grow exponentially. Outsourcing also refers to sub-contracting business processes to companies located within the same country.

However, it has become synonymous with off-shoring, which refers to sub-contracting services to companies located in other countries. The process has gained momentum over the past several years because of lower operating costs.

Many third world-countries have an English-speaking workforce and a well-educated population that is willing to provide the required services for just a fraction of the cost, when compared to the domestic workforce. Lower operating costs have enabled companies to reap enormous profits.

Outsourcing contact center services removes the burden related to daily operations and enhances customer experience, while driving profits for the company.

Studies show that a business would perform well if it concentrates on its core activities and outsource other operational tasks. As the service providers are experts in customer relations, they generate the loyalty required to develop the business, and consequently boost the profits. It is an important journey geared up towards a real global economy.

Contact center outsourcing demonstrates the scope of the looming globalization, where worldwide economies are interwoven to unify the market. However, there is also the disadvantage that offshore outsourcing snatches away the jobs from IT (Information Technology) graduates within the country and gives it to those in the third world countries.

Turn your customer service costs into profit by choosing our excellent contact center services. With us, you’re not saving money, but making it!

I needed to use my leaf blower. I plugged it into an extension cord with multiple plugs. It didn’t work. I shook it, twisted the plugs and wires to no avail.

I decided I needed to take it apart and find the root cause of the problem. I found my electric drill. I wanted to use it to remove all the fasteners more quickly.

I plugged the drill into the same extension cord. It also didn’t work. I realized one of the extension cord plugs was defective and prevented the use of both the blower and the drill. Once I switched plugs everything worked fine. A hidden flaw in the extension cord stopped me. Sometimes we need to find the tool that doesn’t work and stop using it.

Many leaders work incredibly hard to improve employee engagement and yet they rarely achieve a significant improvement. The percentage of engaged employees continues to hover around 30% and has for years. Why? There are two major barriers that continue to prevent improvement.

They must be removed. Contingent pay for performance and the typical performance review policies are defective. These two stealth archenemies create hidden barriers to improving engagement. Sometimes we need to find the tool that doesn’t work and stop using it.

Employee engagement is the emotional connection employees have that causes them to want to exert extra discretionary effort. Because the effort is discretionary it doesn’t require extra pay. It naturally emerges from the quality of the work environment and the quality of the leadership.

To have sustainable employee engagement effective leaders must create an environment with five key characteristics.

There must be a clear and compelling purpose; a sufficient amount of the work must be challenging (the challenge must be balanced with the skills of the employee); it must provide frequent and meaningful feedback; it must allow for sufficient freedom for effective decision making; and it must provide a sense of progress. If any one of these five elements is missing, employee engagement suffers.

Both pay for performance and the typical performance review undermine some of these elements in stealth ways.

Pay for Performance

The most damaging pay for performance is the contingent type where the message is “do this and you will get that.” This type of pay for performance damages engagement because it converts intrinsic motivation into extrinsic control. It undermines the sense of purpose. It ignores why the goals are important to the organization and instead creates a focus on what extrinsic reward the accomplishment will give the employee (money or bonus or prizes etc.).

Risk taking and challenge are also damaged. Rewards connected to tasks will cause most employees to take the easy way toward the accomplishment.

Freedom of choice is damaged by contingent pay for performance because the policy limits the employees’ focus. The policy acts as a hidden barrier to unforeseen changes in the work environment that may require immediate attention and a shift in priority. These changes may require a shift in priority away from the specific employee accomplishment. An employee that rewarded to focus on the old priority will resist the shift. This resistance can often go unnoticed.

The Typical Performance Review

This policy damages at least two of the key elements of engagement. First, because it is a grade (or rating) on the employee performance it reduces the desire for risk taking and accepting challenging assignments. Any assignment too challenging will cause the typical employee fear of failure. This fear often goes unnoticed and therefore the damage is stealth.

Secondly, annual feedback is not enough to meet the “frequent and meaningful” criteria for feedback that creates engagement. A different process is needed. I often hear consultants and managers advise those who deliver performance reviews that the typical review must not be a surprise. In order to avoid surprises there must be a different more frequent process that provides that frequent meaningful feedback all year long. Why not just replace the typical review with that process?

Contingent pay for performance and the typical review both undermine a number of critical elements of employee engagement in hidden ways. Keeping those policies while trying to improve engagement will only cause frustration for both managers and employees. Sometimes we need to find the tool that doesn’t work and stop using it.

Learn how to improve employee engagement in your team: http://www.wallyhauck.com/

Learn to improve leadership skills: The Art of Leading: 3 Principles for Predictable Performance Improvement: http://www.wallyhauck.com/page.asp?PageID=10041

How a Solid Onboarding Process Can Help You Improve Employee Retention
By Dave Dart

From start to finish, the hiring process can be lengthy and complex with so many steps, people, negotiations, and costs involved. When a new hire is finally set up with a start date, you may think the hiring process has finally ended… and now on to the next one. Ideally your process should continue to another essential phase…onboarding.

Why Onboarding is Important for Employee Retention

Why should you be concerned about a solid onboarding process?

This is where you set the tone, positive or negative, for a new hire’s career with your organization. All of the time, energy, and costs that were expended during the hiring process are at risk if your company doesn’t have a proper onboarding process-especially when “top talent” is involved.

It doesn’t make business sense that a company would go through the expense to hire someone, pay them a salary, and then lose them because they didn’t start the relationship off on the right foot.

If a new hire doesn’t stay with your organization because his early impressions were less than stellar, your investment is gone-not to mention you now have to start all over again. The more advanced the position and its relative responsibilities and salary, the higher the cost in time, productivity, and revenue. Some experts say that it can cost an organization as much as up to three times a new hire’s salary for the first year if he or she resigns.

Retention statistics show that almost 50 percent of new hires resign from their jobs within the first year and experts within the talent management field believe that there is a direct correlation between poor new hire retention rates and weak or non-existent onboarding processes.

If this is the case, than implementing a solid onboarding process leads to improved employee retention.

Benefits and Goals of an Employee Onboarding Program

The traditional orientation and onboarding process has typically been about bringing a new hire in and focusing on the company’s identity and immersing the new hire in its culture and processes, while putting less emphasis on the new hire and what he brings to the table.

To gain long-term retention success, solid onboarding programs should instead be more about the new hire-customized to helping him or her succeed. The following are just some of the goals that should be targeted in onboarding:

- Gets the new hire familiar with the company, its culture, mission, goals, and processes

- Helps new hire establish a rapport with other colleagues, hiring managers, etc

- Makes the new hire feel comfortable in his/her role, a clearly defined picture of duties

- Learns what is expected of him/her

- Inspire the new hire to become productive faster

- Make the new hire confirm that he/she made the right decision by joining your organization; feels encouraged that he/she is in the right place

A solid onboarding program isn’t just beneficial for the hiring company in terms of making a good impression on the new hire. It is very instrumental in setting the new hire up for long-term success.

Once you’ve spent the time, effort, and money to find top talent, it only makes good business sense to continue with a solid onboarding process. It will help your new hire get acclimated and established within the company so that productivity can begin faster. Then you’ll start to see the return on your investment, both monetarily and through retention.

Dave Dart is the Managing Partner of the Morisey-Dart Group, an executive recruitment firm that specializes in recruiting for Managed Print Services, Managed IT Services, Document Management Solutions, Health Information Management (HIM), Health Information Systems (HIS), Banking and Financial Services, and Legal industries.

To learn more about how you can find your next impact player visit: http://www.morisey-dart.com

Performance evaluations, or performance appraisals, are an effective way of assessing an employees performance in the place of work.

Commonly assessed areas are competency at completing tasks, intellect, organisational skills, their relationship with others and their achievements, growth and future goals, as well as many other factors. Human resources and psychologists have developed a number of different systems for carrying out performance appraisals.

Often, a performance review is carried out by a member of management or someone in a position higher than the person being assessed. This can be done through a simple discussion, a graphic scale marking how well the employee feels they are completing each of their duties, a check list or a critical incident evaluation ongoing notes of an employees performance which are then discussed at the performance appraisal.

Self evaluation is another form of performance evaluation. The employee judges their own performance, filling in a survey of multiple choice answers or essay-type questions. A discussion with the manager about these answers will find out if there are any areas for improvement and conflicting perceptions.

Performance evaluations such as these are useful but have flaws. A management or self led performance appraisal inevitably leads to blind spots areas for improvement unnoticed by the assessor (and perhaps the employee being assessed too in the former).

These blind spots may be extremely important areas for improvement. Depending on the type of job, it is often colleagues, clients or shareholders who have more contact with an employee (and a more thorough understanding of their performance) than a manager does.

Performance appraisals which are management or self led tend to ignore these important opinions. The self assessed method of performance evaluation has fundamental flaws in that it is focused on the employees own perception of themselves, which can differ from the perception of others in the workplace.

The most thorough and revealing performance evaluation system is 360 degree feedback.

This gathers a comprehensive understanding of an employees personality and performance from a number of sources, perhaps including colleagues, clients, shareholders, leaders, management and often the person himself. 360o feedback is often confidential and anonymous, with open questions prompting written feedback and closed questions using a scoring system.

A 360 degree feedback performance evaluation will expose possible blind spots which other forms of performance appraisal cannot, and gives a more accurate representation of someones performance as data is collected from a range of sources.

Talent Innovations are psychological experts who specialise in performance appraisals using the 360o feedback method. Their customisable survey software gives an effective performance evaluation of leaders in any place of work.

Performance appraisal

Intelligent conversations create meaning and understanding for the people who take part. Conversations are an essential aspect of learning – with thoughts and ideas challenged, opinions exchanged and wisdom created.

For teams, this means examining the context within which they work, their stakeholders’ success criteria and expectations and the ways in which the team organises thinking, skills, processes and working methods to deliver on what they have promised.

The most useful intelligent conversations for teams have two broad dimensions. The outside and inside worlds. The outside world is where stakeholders’ expectations, opinions and decisions determine whether or not the team and its products and services are valued. This value equation – is the investment of time and money worth the effort? – establishes whether the team survives or not. The three areas for consideration and conversation in the team are:-

Success Criteria – What are stakeholders looking for when they purchase the product or service or make the investment in the team?

Stakeholder Management – How does the team keep people informed, engaged and connected to the team and its work?

Delivering on Promises – What is the team’s reputation and track record for meeting deadlines, budgets and fulfilling what their product promises?

These outside world dimensions describe the business strategy; how the team creates value, viability or a return on the investment. The inside world is, in reality, of secondary importance. How the team works together is only relevant to delivering the business strategy.

At the same time, these dimensions are like building fitness or stamina. Without them it is much more difficult to deliver the outputs required – and sooner or later the lack of fitness for purpose will show.

So to build resilience, maintain team health and become ready to deliver the business strategy the intelligent conversations for teams are about:-

Organisation and Structure – The way the team is arranged to be able to deliver the products or services and provide a reliable process for creating the value stakeholders want. Chaotic working can occasionally yield results but not in a reliable, sustainable way.

Working for Each Other – How team members work processes, routines and attitudes or mind-sets are focussed on supporting each other. In high performing team there is a sense of commitment team members feel toward each other and the way their work flows makes it an easy place to be around.

Continuous Learning – Unless the team is willing to keep track of what is happening in the marketplace and the world at large and make changes in the way it works and the products and services it delivers there will come a time when the work is irrelevant and the team will no longer be needed. It could be gradual or sudden – but it will come.

All commercial and business teams should know the importance of reviewing what they do and how they work. These six factors structure the review and make for intelligent conversations not unfocused and vague team meetings, team building events and away days.

Clive Hook is one of the founders of ClearWorth, a company dedicated to the design development and delivery of learning programmes for organisations, teams and leaders all over the world. http://bit.ly/ClearWorth.

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