Professional Telephone Skills



By Kathy Sisk

When you make or receive a call, your telephone skills reflect you and your company. It’s important to project professionalism in handling calls because it affects the image of your company, product or service, and you. The key is to put customers first. Make them feel good by practicing professional telephone skills: be courteous, helpful, and genuine.

Use Your Voice to Make a Difference: Start by taking a breath; you’d be surprised at how better you sound when you’re relaxed and not out of breath. Sounding in a rush gives a negative impression. Consider these scenarios:

  • Answering or making a call: State your full name in a friendly tone, and avoid using wordy expressions. By simply stating your first and last name, you save time. The success of each call depends on the tone of your voice; make sure you always sound welcoming and willing to help.
  • Answering someone else’s telephone: State the person’s name before you identify yourself. For example, “Hello, Mr. Jim Smith’s office, this is Janice Gold.” And never use your title such as, “Mr. Smith’s office, Ms. Gold.”
  • Answering a departmental phone: Always identify yourself after stating the department, “Hello. Bookkeeping, this is Janice Gold.”

Answer Quickly: Taking too long to answer projects a negative impression. Callers will wonder if anyone is there, which gives your conversation a difficult start.

Find Out Who’s Calling: A critical telephone skill for inbound calls is to ask the caller’s name; then use it to build rapport. Also, confirm the spelling; ask if you’re not sure.

Transfer Calls Professionally: If you can’t help the caller, let him or her know you will connect them to the right department. Customers get frustrated when their call is transferred, so stay with them until they’re connected to the right department. You may also take the caller’s name and number so the appropriate person may return the call. Taking these extra steps shows respect to callers.

Take Messages: A complete message should include:

  • the caller’s name
  • the company
  • the date and time of call
  • preferred callback number and extension
  • the best time to return the call, and
  • all other relevant information.

Kathy Sisk Enterprises Inc. has forty years of experience providing call center set up, reengineering, assessments, training, script development, and project management services to centers globally. 

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