We spend a lot of time on training at our company. We want our people to operate safely at all times, properly care for our equipment and follow manufacturing and on-site protocols to the letter; all for a pre-prescribed outcome.

With the exception of safety, however, nothing is more important that the training our telephone staff receives. In my view, the people that answer the phones are our “managers of first impressions.” You see, your prospects and customers have lots of choices. If callers are not appreciated and respected – from the first point of contact and forever thereafter, they will likely go elsewhere.

In today’s business environment, everyone has tasks that keep them busy from one end of the day to the other. When the phone rings, whether you are primarily responsible for reception or are a secondary back-up, your attention and demeanor can easily determine the outcome of the call or even a project award.

The process is fairly simple. It starts with the law of reciprocal action. That is, treat everyone as you would like to be treated. The details include stop what you are doing, pause, put a genuine smile on your face and follow the scripted greeting.

The rest is common courtesy; don’t give the caller the third degree. For some in the organization who need to know the granular details regarding the caller and the intent, retraining might be in order.

A word about automated telephone attendants: they are OK and sometimes necessary, provided the system is not a maze of prompts and recorded messages.  It’s what happens once a live person is on the line, see above.

We took to heart what a marketing consultant friend of mine is always saying about engineering the customer experience. Understanding what our customers expect of us, and keeping it front and center in all our business activities, has made a big difference in satisfying our constituents and their customers.

In our company, it’s more than a quality piece of glass, metal or stone to us and to our professional clients; it’s a relationship-building, information exchange process that requires a certain esprit de corps, that includes: communication of new ideas, rapport building, specification development, communication of progress reports, trust checks, more collaboration and more information exchange, sampling and a host of additional steps concluding well after our work on that project is done. The point is that our relationships with the trade, their clients and our private customers are never over.

Your company has to earn its way to being more vital to the firms you wish to serve. To start the process strategize about what it is they really need from you. The people that buy from us choose to do so because they get something here they cannot get elsewhere. Sure, they have a need for something like what we make, but they also have an expectation for fulfilling the emotional vision that rounds out and fulfills our professional relationship with them. Find a way to meet that elusive need and the market will “beat a path…”

On a side note, thank you for your interest in my blog, I am eager for your feedback as well as the opportunity to build new business relationships. Please contact me at  polishededges@galaxycustom.comwith comments or questions.