How do you teach phone etiquette to your staff?

1 Identify your goals and standards

Before you start teaching phone etiquette to your staff, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and what expectations you have for your team. Do you want to improve customer satisfaction, increase sales, reduce complaints, or enhance your brand image? What are the specific rules and guidelines that you want your staff to follow when they answer, transfer, or end a phone call? How do you want them to greet, introduce, and address the callers? How do you want them to handle difficult or angry callers? Having a clear and consistent vision of your goals and standards will help you design and deliver effective phone etiquette training.

2 Provide examples and feedback

One of the best ways to teach phone etiquette to your staff is to show them examples of good and bad phone manners, and explain why they matter. You can use recorded calls, role plays, or scenarios to demonstrate the dos and don'ts of phone etiquette, and highlight the impact of tone, voice, language, and listening skills on the caller's perception and response. You can also provide constructive feedback to your staff on their phone performance, and praise them for their strengths and improvements. Feedback should be specific, timely, and respectful, and focus on the behavior, not the person.

3 Teach empathy and emotional intelligence

Another key aspect of phone etiquette is empathy and emotional intelligence, which are the abilities to understand and manage one's own and others' emotions. Empathy and emotional intelligence can help your staff to build rapport, trust, and loyalty with the callers, and to handle challenging situations with grace and professionalism. You can teach empathy and emotional intelligence to your staff by encouraging them to put themselves in the caller's shoes, to express genuine interest and concern, to acknowledge and validate the caller's feelings, and to offer solutions and apologies when appropriate.

4 Reinforce positive habits and behaviors

Teaching phone etiquette to your staff is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process that requires reinforcement and practice. You can reinforce positive habits and behaviors by creating a culture of phone etiquette in your organization, and by rewarding and recognizing your staff for their phone skills. You can also monitor and evaluate your staff's phone performance regularly, and provide them with coaching and support when needed. You can also encourage your staff to seek feedback from their peers, mentors, or managers, and to learn from their mistakes and successes.

5 Update and adapt your phone etiquette training

Finally, you should update and adapt your phone etiquette training according to the changing needs and preferences of your callers, your staff, and your business. You should keep up with the latest trends and best practices in phone etiquette, and incorporate new tools and technologies that can enhance your phone communication. You should also solicit feedback from your callers, your staff, and your stakeholders on how to improve your phone etiquette training, and make adjustments accordingly. By updating and adapting your phone etiquette training, you can ensure that your staff are always prepared and confident to handle any phone call with professionalism and courtesy.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?