If you ask a group of customer service representatives to talk about problems they encounter on the job, the agency telephone always ranks at the top of the list.
The telephone accounts for about 70 percent of the CSR's workload in the agency. That's why the receiver may seem glued to your ear at quitting time! Let's take the first steps toward telephone excellence.
Introduction
Your telephone job responsibilities will be one of the most important parts of your work assignments. The telephone is the agency's lifeline to its customers. No other tool in the office can do as much to generate good will and sales for your agency.
As with other tools, its effectiveness depends on the people who use it. Most of us have never received formal training in telephone techniques. After all, we grew up using the phone. However, using the phone as an office machine is very different form using it for socializing at home. There are established guidelines and procedures which, if practiced regularly, will separate 'users' from 'professionals.'
On any given day, we witness many abuses and misuses of the telephone. We have all been victims of someone else's careless telephone techniques. Poor telephone skill is employers' No. 1 complaint about their employees. When job opening are posted, telephone skills usually are at the top of the list of requirements.
In studying this material you'll find many step-by-step suggestions. They may seem stiff and formal at first, as do all new routines. With patience and practice you'll develop a telephone success strategy which will boost your self-confidence and build strong, lasting and professional relationships with the customers your agency serves.
What Is the Telephone?
The agency telephone is many things to many people, and your use of it probably depends to a great extent on your job description. Perhaps you talk mostly to insurance companies or to clients. Maybe your job is answering and transferring calls. Whatever the situation, the telephone is a vital component of any job assignment. Although there are days we wish it would stop ringing, consider what would happen if it did. A day without the telephone would give you a chance to catch up on your workload without interruption and without adding new work to do. It would allow you some peace and quiet from the ever-demanding customers your agency serves, your boss would be more available to answer your questions, and you could actually drink your coffee while it's hot. But consider what would happen if that telephone didn't ring for the next day, and the next. No call means no sales, and no sales means no money. Where would we go from there?
Imagine also how much more complicated our jobs would be without the telephone. No more calling to get a vehicle identification number of the name of the mortgage company for that homeowners policy. You'd have to write a letter for every single thing you needed to say to or hear from others. You'd have to wait for the letter to be delivered, answered and for the reply to arrive. If there were no telephones, think of the huge volumes of mail which we'd have to deal with each and every day! So I guess we can safely say that the telephone is a very valuable and effective job aid. Our challenge is to use it effectively and efficiently.
Every telephone call presents a new opportunity to help your agency achieve its goals and objectives. Each call will be different from the one before it. The telephone constantly challenges our flexibility, creativity and stamina.
First Impressions
Whether you answer the telephone for the entire agency or just your department or work station, it allows you to control the image the customer will have of your office. What we say, or do not say, gives an impression. The impression we should strive to give first and foremost is one of efficiency. When you answer the phone you need to let the caller know you're ready and willing to help. If you are a new employee, your supervisor will explain what to say when you answer, how to announce the agency name and what greeting to give the caller. It is important to convey that greeting with a positive attitude. Never let the caller think that he or she was in interruption of your work. Customers are the purpose of our work! Be professional. People expect a high level of performance from business in general. Consumers are sophisticated, and they know what to expect. Don't let them, or your agency, down.
Answering the Telephone
The impression you give should be:
- efficient
- positive
- professional
Be prepared to explain to your supervisor what these concepts mean to you and how you would convey these attributes to customers.
There are many different qualities necessary to good telephone technique. Some are more difficult to master than others. All of these qualities are based on a common-sense approach to customer service. Let's examine some of the most important.
Patience is extremely important. Patience means explaining something to a customer and then, when they still don't understand, explaining it again a little differently. It means coming up with ways to tie the coverage information to things they know and understand to help them remember. Insurance work requires a large dose of patience.
Enthusiasm is important, too. Your attitude reflects on the agency as a whole. If you can't be excited and enthusiastic about the products and services the agency provides, how can you expect customers to feel that way? It is wrong to depend on others to keep you motivated and enthusiastic about your work. That is a job best done by you on a daily basis. Learn to maintain enthusiasm even on those 'rough' days.
Efficiency is vital to telephone work. Everyone today is concerned about time management. You will need to contact the customer, get the information you need and let them get on with other things so you can, too. The cost of doing business is very high, and once an issue is resolved, get on to the next task. Get complete information and handle each service item only once to maximize efficiency.
Tact is a quality everyone in the insurance business must develop. We can't always place insurance coverage for all the people who contact us. We need to develop the ability to say, 'No,' graciously and in a way that it will not destroy good will or future sales for the agency. Tact means softly saying, 'No,' always explaining why, and at the same time offering another alternatives or options available to the insured or prospect.
Courtesy never goes out of style. The old fashioned please-and-thank-you style of communication goes a long way to ease a tense situation. The key is to treat customers as you would treat good friends. When you have kept someone on hold, come back on the line with, 'Thanks for holding.' Courtesy is the best prevention against angry customers. Courtesy is difficult to define, but customers know when it's missing!
Tolerance is vital to our job performance. As agency employees it is often necessary for us to take the blame for what others do or fail to do. We are held accountable for company errors, adjusters' missed appointments and computer delays. Tolerance means holding back the tendency to say, 'That's not my job.' By virtue of the agency contract, it is part of your job. Tolerance means understanding that the customer is probably angry with the situation and not with you. Learn not to take criticism personally, but look at it objectively. If the same problems occur time after time, alert your agency principals so that corrective measures can be taken.
The six basic qualities of telephone service work are listed below. Please review them and identify those at which you feel especially competent and those you need to work on. Put a circle around 'problem areas' and discuss your answer with your supervisor.
- Patience
- Enthusiasm
- Efficiency
- Tact
- Courtesy
- Tolerance