Evolving a Policy for your Telephone System

Business can’t be run properly without planning. In micro businesses the plan may be in someone’s head. Which is partially justifiable whilst things are emerging because formalising stuff can be too time hungry. Many small entrepreneurs conceive an idea and then make it successful through true grit and determination but this does restrict their growth. It’s not the way we are taught to do it by the various support agencies, which are correct in highlighting the importance of formal plans. Despite all of this proven wisdom, many choose to steer their companies minus written projections.

The life blood of most is new orders and in almost all cases the conduit is the telephone system. We live or die by how we answer the telephone system and it is the shop window. We might physically visit the likes of car showrooms but we phone first to check availability or price. When you mention marketing and telephones folk assume that you mean tele-canvassing but you can turn inbound calls into greater opportunities by setting out an ordered strategy. So we are talking about squeezing the most out of those you contact you.

So where do you begin? There are all sorts of issues to consider when penning telephone system policies. There’s the obvious such as ringtime. Should it be 3 rings or 4. Then there is the uniform personalisation of the greeting used. Should you or shouldn’t you state your name and how do you close off? Should you end with “how can I help you”?

What degree of preparation is critical prior to taking an enquiry that arrives via your telephone system? Should you actually have a pen in hand and should your PC be running and ready?

Then there are the traditional guidelines; having a rule that insists that you are not eating or chewing gum, ensuring that your mouth to handset distance is ideal, recording accurate messages and re-checking the spelling of names. The eradication of external sounds like keyboards is crucial. Awareness of the feature set of your telephone system is imperative to being smooth. Speaking clearly and having well inflated lungs, even standing up if necessary. Additionally, manners go far in making a positive difference.

Rapport is developed through a concatenation of facets being “just so” in the eyes of the customer. There are guiding points galore on sparking interest with remote party on WhoIsThis.co.uk and there’s also some coverage of outbound calling and how to do it successfully. So if you are giving thought to how you deal with your telephone system be sure to research www.WhoIsThis.co.uk .

Sandra Brown is the author of this article on Telephone Systems.
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