Answer the phone!
9 October 2023
If your work phone rings now, you’ll answer it immediately. Well, won’t you?
An earlier blog post discussed the phenomenon of 'phone anxiety' experienced by people from younger generations who are unfamiliar with making and taking calls. They typically use their mobile devices to send texts and emails. As a result, at work they avoid dealing with customers and colleagues over the phone.
That story (read it here) certainly struck a chord with Diane Banister, MD of the Intelligent Dialogue training and personnel development consultancy.
“We get requests from companies in sectors like IT help desk services with new recruits who aren’t comfortable using the phone. They think that sorting it will just take 30 minutes of training as a quick fix but it’s not as simple as that.
“First, there is a whole generation that have grown up as ‘digital natives’ whose communications revolve around social media. They prefer texting to telephoning.
“And secondly, many had their lives and education disrupted by Covid-19, being told to stay at home and keep their distance from others. They are now entering the workforce and have hardly ever spoken to anyone on a phone.”
To people like me, whose working life depends on phone calls and direct conversations, this sounds astonishing. But it’s yet another by-product of the pandemic, at least in part.
“They’re used to buying things online and getting questions answered by website chat boxes, but in the hire industry which is all about proactive services and, in many cases, specialist products, other communication methods are essential," said Diane..
“We can do audits [mentioned earlier on the blog here] for companies in which we analyse phone conversations and email threads to assess their effectiveness and the quality of the customer experience,” said Diane. “We also explore opportunities that might have been missed by not dealing with issues properly or making suggestions.”
The wider issue is that such phone anxiety could have negative consequences.
“It means that phones go unanswered, email trails get longer and, in hire, it reduces products to a commodity because customers know that they can just fire out emails to several hire companies at once and then buy purely based on price. The conversational skills aren’t there to set you apart.”
While more hirers are adopting online ordering and digital platforms, these surely complement traditional methods rather than being a wholesale replacement.
With so many hire requests revolving around finding solutions for unexpected issues, emergency responses and trusted advice, immediately two-way contact such as via a phone conversation is vital. And those companies that stress the element of personal care and attention they can provide will reap the benefits, provided they have personnel with the right skills.
“I wonder if it will come full circle,” added Diane. “I can’t see people moving away from digital working completely but it’s a two-pronged attack. Doing some pro-active telephone work can make a real difference to the quality of service offered to customers.
“We’ve had instances of people answering the phone but asking the customer to make their request again in an email: there was no appreciation of the customer’s obvious preference for sorting it over the phone immediately.
“They have to be prepared to deal with it, get the caller’s name and contact details and so on, to sort it and get back to them. By then, of course, the caller might have gone elsewhere.”
So take the call, deal with it and sort things first time.
Photo: Photo Mix
