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    Telephone Handling Techniques: Hints and Helpful Information

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    Rajmani2501
    This document provides guidelines for proper telephone handling techniques. It discusses best practices for opening and closing calls, conducting conversations, taking messages, dealing with difficult callers, and terminating abusive calls. Key recommendations include answering promptly, speaking clearly, actively listening, taking responsibility for calls, explaining reasons for transfers or holds, and remaining calm yet urgent with challenging callers. The document aims to help handlers provide excellent customer service and safely manage all types of telephone interactions.

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    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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    Telephone Handling Techniques: Hints and Helpful Information

    Uploaded by

    Rajmani2501
    306 views4 pages
    This document provides guidelines for proper telephone handling techniques. It discusses best practices for opening and closing calls, conducting conversations, taking messages, dealing with difficult callers, and terminating abusive calls. Key recommendations include answering promptly, speaking clearly, actively listening, taking responsibility for calls, explaining reasons for transfers or holds, and remaining calm yet urgent with challenging callers. The document aims to help handlers provide excellent customer service and safely manage all types of telephone interactions.

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    Telephone Handling Techniques

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    This document provides guidelines for proper telephone handling techniques. It discusses best practices for opening and closing calls, conducting conversations, taking messages, dealing with difficult callers, and terminating abusive calls. Key recommendations include answering promptly, speaking clearly, actively listening, taking responsibility for calls, explaining reasons for transfers or holds, and remaining calm yet urgent with challenging callers. The document aims to help handlers provide excellent customer service and safely manage all types of telephone interactions.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    306 views4 pages

    Telephone Handling Techniques: Hints and Helpful Information

    Uploaded by

    Rajmani2501
    This document provides guidelines for proper telephone handling techniques. It discusses best practices for opening and closing calls, conducting conversations, taking messages, dealing with difficult callers, and terminating abusive calls. Key recommendations include answering promptly, speaking clearly, actively listening, taking responsibility for calls, explaining reasons for transfers or holds, and remaining calm yet urgent with challenging callers. The document aims to help handlers provide excellent customer service and safely manage all types of telephone interactions.

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    Telephone Handling Techniques

    Hints and Helpful Information:

    Please note that these are examples which you may choose to adapt to suit your own practice, not
    ‘givens’ which you must follow:

     General Points of Good Practice


     Opening the Call
     The Conversation
     Closing the Call
     Transferring calls and putting the caller on hold
     Taking messages - full message every time
     Challenging Calls
     Terminating an abusive call

    General Points of Good Practice

     If possible, answer promptly - a prompt reply helps get the call of to a good start
     Smile when you pick up the phone - the caller can hear it in you voice
     Be aware of the pace of your speech - speak at a reading pace, use punctuation and speak
    clearly
     Use courteous words and phrases: "may I ask you to write and confirm?" sounds much
    better than "you’ll have to put that in writing"
     Be positive! Say what you can do, not what you can’t’
     Avoid using jargon
     Accept responsibility for dealing with the call and carry it through
     Use closed questions (questions which can be answered simply ‘yes’ or ‘no’) to slow a
    caller down or check your understanding of information given
     Avoid irritants (e.g. calling people ‘love’)

    Opening the Call

    ‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression’

     Pause before you pick up the receiver, to give yourself time to adopt a positive attitude
     Use the right phrase: 
    o "Good Morning / Good Afternoon
    o Devon Social Services, location
    o XXXX speaking (where appropriate, see Standards below)

    The Conversation

    Take control of directing the call by:

     Identifying the caller’s needs using questioning skills - open questions to speed up the
    flow and closed questions to slow it down - don’t leave the caller to do all the work.
     Actively listening - giving ‘verbal nods’ (e.g. ‘I see’) and repeating information back to
    the caller to test your understanding and gain their agreement
     Avoid making assumptions
     Take responsibility for the call and any action - say ‘I can’ and ‘I will’ and do it!
     If you have to go and get some information, do not leave your caller in the dark. Let
    him/her know why you are going away from the phone and for how long.
     Don't leave an "open" telephone lying on a desk where the conversations of yourself or
    your colleagues may be overhead.
     Do your best to ignore colleagues who try to attract your attention or to interrupt you
    while you are in conversation with a caller. If you are unable to ignore them, excuse
    yourself to the caller and put them on hold while you deal very quickly with the
    interruption….and try not to interrupt your colleagues during their calls.

    Closing the Call

    ‘The last thing you hear is the first thing you remember’

     Summarise the action to be taken


     Gain the customer’s agreement with a closed question
     Give your name and telephone details to the caller (where appropriate)
     End of call signal and final offer of help e.g. ‘so is that everything Mrs Bailey?’
     Then the ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’
     And finally let the caller replace the hand set first - just in case they remember something
    at the last minute.

    Transferring calls and putting the caller on hold


     Explain why you need to do this
     Ask permission from the caller
     Give accurate time scales
     Let the caller know what to expect
     On returning to the call thank the caller for waiting
     If there is any chance that the call will be ‘lost’ make sure you have the caller’s name and
    telephone number
     Only transfer a call when you are certain you know the right person to deal with it. Do
    not subject your caller to the "merry-go-round" of repeated transfers. Tell them you will
    find out who deals with it and let the caller know.
     If you cannot answer an enquiry quickly, give the caller the option of your calling back.
    Tell him/her when you will call back and then stick to that promise. If you have not got
    all the information you need by then, phone anyway to say what progress you have made
    and when you will call again with a full answer.

    Taking messages - full message every time

     Always note the caller's name and number, the date and time of the call, the important
    points of the conversation, what action is required and when you have promised to take
    that action.
     If you have to take a message for an absent colleague, repeat the message back to make
    sure you have got it right; make a note of the message including checking the caller's
    name (spelling where necessary), date and time of the call. Determine when your
    colleague is likely to return to his/her desk before leaving the message.
     Whenever possible, leave a voicemail or email message for your colleague, as this will
    form part of an ‘audit trail’, showing that a message was taken and passed on.

    Challenging Calls

    When dealing with difficult and distressing calls:

     Allow the caller to vent their emotions - don’t interrupt


     Actively listen
     Make sure you know what the problem really is - don’t assume
     Show empathy - let the caller know that you recognise their feelings
     Stay calm and don’t take it personally
     Have a sense of urgency as you speak to the caller
     Take responsibility for the call, and effecting a solution (where you can).

    Terminating an abusive call

    If the above strategies fail, then staff are not required to expose themselves to abusive callers. If
    you are dealing with a caller who becomes abusive whilst on the telephone you may do the
    following:

    Inform the caller that you are going to terminate the call now as they are being abusive, that you
    will record that you have done this and report it to your line manager.

    You must ensure you record this action and report it to your line manager.

    You should also complete form PO20 - Report of Violent, Aggressive or Threatening Behaviour
    and pass this to your line manager also.

    If there is a particular problem with a specific caller please speak to your line manager who will
    decide whether an individual procedure needs to be drawn up.

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