Go Ahead

Eight Tips for Great Phone Impressions

Two statements that pack a lot of profitable power are ‘You never get a second chance at a first impression’ and ‘Last impressions linger’ and probably the most important time to remember them is when you and your team are dealing with people over the phone. You see, because people can’t see you and your body language, you have to employ extra special tactics to create the right impression.

So here are 8 key points to remember when people call your business:

1. Always answer the phone on the third or fourth ring (decide which and then everyone sticks to it religiously).

2. Make sure all team members always smile when they pick up the phone and speak with real, genuine enthusiasm.

3. Ensure that everybody in your organisation answers the phone the same way, using the same greeting preferably with something a little different to the dull stereotype answer most companies give. We’ve found that “Welcome to Ajax Accounting, this is Tammy” works really well.

4. When talking to someone new the first time it’s preferable to address them by their courtesy title… Mr. or Ms… unless otherwise specified. Although it may be perceived as an old fashioned notion, it’s over-familiar to refer to a new caller by their first name if you’ve never spoken to them before.

5. Decide what’s going to happen when you place a caller on hold. Are they going to hear music they may find disagreeable, a radio station which may be advertising your competitors, self serving information about your products and services or information of real interest, value and assistance to them? For an example, call 03 9569 1100 or 613 9887 5511 and ask Margaret to put you on hold.

6. Make sure that the phone is answered after hours in a manner that encourages the caller to leave a message and creates the right impression about you. That means no hard-to-hear, scratchy answering machine messages, disembodied information bank recordings or bored, couldn’t care less answering services.

7. Return calls promptly and guarantee calls will be returned within a certain time period (and give them some recompense, like dinner for two on you, if you fail to deliver on that guarantee). This is not only good business but it also makes them say “Wow!”

8. Ensure that your practice has enough phone lines to handle the volume of phone calls. Assess this by monitoring the number of phone calls your system is handling to see that there always at least one or two lines free. In a small business a good rule is that no one should ring out if it means that it won’t leave an inward line free.

These rules are pretty simple and they make sense. Make sure your business creates the right phone impression every time! If you want to hear great phone answering, call the National College of Business on 07 5538 1905 or 617 5538 1905.

How to KISS and Keep Your Customers and Kick the Competition

My mate Doug Malouf has made over 2000 keynote presentations worldwide and is described by his peers as one of the most innovative, inventive and interactive presenters. In the eight books he has written he gives simple practical advice that really works and this book is no exception.

This book bursts with 94 super tips to make your business number one in customer service and customer satisfaction. They are all sound like common sense and once you know them they are simple and straightforward to implement.

As Doug says customer service is not about impressing people with gadgets and wizardry, it is about the relationships you form and the way you leave your customers feeling – a timely message in an era of global networks and flashy marketing.

Your investment is $33.00 (Incl. GST) + $7.70 postage,( Overseas A$30.00 (Excl. GST) + $ A10 postage)

You can purchase the book here.

By the way, there's an excellent CD program on Customer Service by Doug and Winston, and this is where you'll find details here.

Be an Ambassador for Your Boss!

You know there is an opportunity for you to generate new customers for the boss. And how do you do that? Well, it’s very simple. You become a walking, talking ambassador for the business.

And that’s pretty easy to do. You see everyday you meet people in social situations who ask you “Where do you work?” The tendency is to answer that question automatically by just saying, “Oh, I work for Smith & Jones.” And if it is said pretty matter-of-factly it really doesn’t excite or interest the person who asked. They don’t jump up and down and say, “That’s fantastic” or “Golly, tell me more” so the conversation doesn’t go anywhere and they start talking about the football.

If you want to become an ambassador for the bosses business here’s what you should say with real excitement and loads of enthusiasm in your voice “I work for the best (whatever) business in town”.

Almost invariably people will respond by saying, “Who’s that?”

Now isn’t that a whole lot different to the response you currently get? You’ve got them interested and wanting to know more.

Your answer should be “Its Smith & Jones at Smithtown, let me tell you why” and then you tell them about the great reasons that your business is the best. Of course you’ve got to tell them the truth--- you can’t make it up--- but with the great job you and the team do it should be easy to give some specific examples of the team has delighted customers.

If you do that with enthusiasm they’ll be infected too.

Now the wonderful thing about all this is that many people you meet could be a prospect for business and would be great customers if only they knew what you can do for them. So when you give them that burst of enthusiasm about the business you’ll more often than not have them really interested.

You’ll be amazed at how often this will bring a new customer to the business--- it may not happen straightaway but it will happen. When you help your business increase its customer base it will put a big smile on the face of your boss. And happy bosses often reward team members who make profits happen!

When you become a great ambassador the customer, your boss and little old you will always win!

Afterthoughts

1. Terry Brock is a brilliant American Business guru, and it's worthwhile visiting http://www.terrybrock.com/coaching/hacp-successsystems.htm to see the great ideas he provides.

2. If you play golf, my business partner Peter Gosden reckons the information on the golf CD you can get here is fantastic! http://www.kitgrant.com/products.html

Learn from experience

It’s very important that you learn something from all your experiences. In his short autobiography renowned American speaker Dr Herb True sums up learning from experience.

Chapter 1 – I walk down a street, there’s a huge hole in the sidewalk. I fall in; it’s not my fault. It takes forever to get out.

Chapter 2 – I walk down the same street, there’s a huge hole in the sidewalk, I pretend not to see it. I fall in again. I can’t believe it’s the same hole. But it’s still not my fault. It takes a long time to get out.

Chapter 3 – I walk down the same street, there’s a huge hole in the sidewalk, I see it, I fall in – it’s a habit. But my eyes are open. I know where I am, I admit it’s my fault, I get out immediately.

Chapter 4 – I walk down the same street, there’s a deep hole in the sidewalk, and I walk around it.

Chapter 5 – I walk down a different street.

The story depicts an eventual change of behaviour that avoids the same mistake being consistently repeated. This same learning pattern applies to your experiences in business. Don’t make the same mistake twice. There are a whole lot of new mistakes out there just waiting to be made… mistakes you can learn from!

The Ultimate Earth Mover

This is largest earth mover in the world. Built by German company Krupp, and seen here crossing a federal highway in Germany en route to an open-pit coal mine.

The mover requires 5 people to operate, cost $100 million, took 5 years to build, is 311 feet tall, 705 feet long and weighs over 45,500 tons. A 6-foot man can stand up inside one of the buckets. It has a maximum speed of one mile in three hours (1/3 mile per hour) and can remove 100,000 large dump trucks of coal a day.

Super Attention Grabbers

A picture like this grabs your attention, but when we don't have a picture, we need to find some other "grabber".

Quotations have great value in getting a letter started. They usually make their point with humour – and it’s always good to have a client smiling! Here are a few quotations I’ve used in the past with great success:

‘Money isn’t everything. Usually, it isn’t enough’. (Anon.)

‘It’s hard for me to get used to these changing times: I can remember when the air was clean and sex was dirty’. (George Burns)

‘Money is better than poverty if only for financial reasons’. (Woody Allen)

‘For heaven’s sake don’t say 'yes' until I’ve finished talking’. (Winston)

You’ll find it well worth while to invest in a Dictionary of Quotations or to bookmark quotation web sites like Quotations Central so that you can add zing to your letters, e-mails and the rare faxes you send. And, by the way, a quotation isn’t a bad way of finishing a letter too, particularly if it is pithy and sums up what you are trying to say.

Just do it! (Nike)

Great Movie

Wimbledon

Not a well known movie, but a beauty if you want to discover the value of persistence!