How do you train your staff to handle different types of phone calls?

1 Assess your current situation

Before you start training your staff, you need to evaluate your current phone etiquette standards and performance. You can do this by conducting surveys, interviews, or audits of your staff and customers. You can also use phone analytics tools or software to measure metrics such as call duration, hold time, transfer rate, and customer feedback. This will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your phone etiquette, as well as the areas that need improvement.

2 Define your objectives and expectations

Once you have assessed your current situation, you need to set clear and realistic goals for your phone etiquette training program. You need to define what you want your staff to achieve and how you will measure their progress and success. You also need to communicate your expectations and standards to your staff, such as how to greet callers, how to handle complaints, how to transfer calls, and how to end calls. You can use a phone etiquette policy or guideline document to outline these expectations and share them with your staff.

3 Choose your training methods and materials

There are different ways to train your staff on phone etiquette, depending on your budget, time, and resources. You can use online courses, webinars, videos, podcasts, or books to provide your staff with the basic knowledge and skills of phone etiquette. You can also use role-playing, simulations, scenarios, or games to practice and reinforce the phone etiquette skills in a realistic and interactive way. You can also use feedback, coaching, mentoring, or peer review to help your staff improve and learn from their mistakes.

4 Customize your training for different types of calls

Not all phone calls are the same, and your staff need to be able to adapt their phone etiquette to different situations and callers. You need to customize your training for different types of calls, such as sales calls, customer service calls, technical support calls, or emergency calls. You need to teach your staff how to use different tones, styles, and techniques for different types of calls, such as how to persuade, how to empathize, how to troubleshoot, or how to calm down. You also need to teach your staff how to deal with difficult callers, such as angry, rude, impatient, or abusive callers.

5 Monitor and evaluate your training results

The last step of your phone etiquette training program is to monitor and evaluate your results. You need to track and measure the performance and outcomes of your staff after the training, such as how they improved their call quality, customer satisfaction, sales conversion, or problem resolution. You also need to collect and analyze the feedback and suggestions from your staff and customers, such as how they felt about the training, what they learned, what they liked, or what they disliked. You can use surveys, quizzes, tests, or audits to do this.

6 Update and refresh your training regularly

Phone etiquette is not a one-time skill that you can learn and forget. It is a continuous and dynamic skill that you need to update and refresh regularly. You need to keep your staff updated on the latest trends, best practices, and customer expectations of phone etiquette. You also need to refresh your staff's skills and knowledge by providing them with refresher courses, workshops, or newsletters. You also need to reward and recognize your staff for their phone etiquette achievements and improvements, such as by giving them certificates, bonuses, or incentives.

7 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?