While doing my job today, I have had to source for people’s contact, pick up their numbers and put a call through.
Trust me when I say I had to drink very cold water before putting this down to avoid using vague words.
It’s just funny to me when I find out what people charge for putting up contents on their blog especially because I know exactly how to measure your reach on any social media you claim to have large followings on. Anyways, this should be a topic for another day.
I called 5 people today!
5 supposed business owners.
I did not get their numbers from a friend…I did not get their numbers from a colleague…
I got their numbers from their profiles. The profiles they put up on their social media platforms – 3 on their blogs and the other 2 from their Instagram page.
I want to believe you are ready to entertain calls from clients and even insanely non clients when you decided to put up your digits. And this is the very reason why I expect you to pick your calls professionally!
I dial a number, the phone rings, someone from the other end picks up. He or she says ‘Hello’ and I respond with ‘Hello, Good afternoon’ and the next thing I get as a response is ‘Please who is this?’
You see the way their “please who is this?” sounded ehn, you will think they all have my number stored on their phone as YAHOO YAHOO SCAMMER.
The level of unprofessionalism I have to deal with daily drives me crazy sometimes.
What happened to responding to my greeting before asking who I am? At least I greeted first. Why do people always come out as defensive? I am still trying to understand what they are defending though…
I say this and I will keep saying it, most business owners in this country, whether large scale or medium scale should attend training! It is too important.
However, before you decide you are going to spend a few thousands to attend training on how to be a professional in your field, here are a few tips for answering telephone calls professionally.
- Take a deep breath and answer the phone with a smile. It might sound a bit weird but it works.
- As long as the person is not calling your personal line, try to mention your company name.
- Be kind enough to return greetings or greet the client first before responding to whatever questions he or she might be asking.
- Speak clearly and use professional language.
- Make the caller feel comfortable explaining his or her concerns.
Whatever you do, strive to do them professionally and as far as I am concerned, being professionally entails being friendly and knowledgeable.
