When the phone rings at your job, it is someone calling for help. There is a person on the other end of the phone line who has a problem and they are reaching out for help.
It matters not, what industry you are in. When the phone rings, generally it is someone who is wanting to bring you their business. They want your help and are willing to pay you for it. Yes, there are phone calls from people wanting help for free, but this is the minority of the calls most businesses get.
This is important to understand and appreciate, because the ringing phone it vital to your business and your income. The ringing phone is not an interruption. The ringing phone is not an inconvenience. The ringing phone is your income life source.
Have you ever called a business only to have your call answered, the greeting given by the employee who answered… and you had no idea what they said? A number of things can happen, all to commonly, that create this initial unwelcoming greeting. Maybe the person began speaking before the line connected, or they spoke really fast, or them mumbled, or they spoke with food in their mouth, or they bluntly, barked out a short announcement. Most likely, this did not make you feel good about the person to whom you were going to speak.
Since this in our first contact with our potential customer we want this to be a pleasant and helpful introduction to our business and to ourselves. We want the caller to feel appreciated for giving us the privilege of earning their business. After all, they could call any other of the dozens of our competitors. But, they chose to call us and we should be grateful they did.
So our first lesson to learn is right at the beginning. When we hear the phone ring, we need to pause what we are doing and mentally shift gears to bring our focus on the person whom is calling. One of the best ways to get ourselves to mentally shift from the task at hand to the new task of speaking with the caller is to take a deep breath.
After you hear the first ring, pause what you are doing, hesitate before grabbing the handset and take a slow deep breath. Hold that breath for a second and then exhale.
A few things are accomplished by taking this deep breath. First of all, it gives your mind the time it needs to refocus it’s attention from what you were doing to the incoming phone call. When we are fully engaged in a project or a thought, often a slight delay is necessary to make the transmission to a new project. By taking the deep breath, your mind has the time to adjust.
When you take a deep breath, you bring in a full load of oxygen to increase your mind’s activity. We refer to this as clearing our mind. By breathing in a full lung capacity of air, you are filling the blood going to your brain with energizing oxygen. This helps us to focus on our new task.
A third thing that happens when you take a deep breath is that it slows you down. Taking a deep breath physically calms our body. This will help us give the new customer a pleasant and helpful greeting. Often we are revved up or agitated by our current task. Taking the deep breath and calming ourselves will keep us from bringing this agitation to our new potential customer.
This one, simple tip will help you to improve the way you answer the phone. You will be equipped to greet your caller with a calmer and pleasant demeanor. They will sense your interest in providing them with great service.