What are the best practices for assessing phone etiquette in a professional setting?

1 Define phone etiquette

Phone etiquette is the set of rules and norms that govern how to behave and communicate over the phone in a respectful, courteous, and efficient manner. Phone etiquette can vary depending on the context, purpose, and culture of the call, but some general principles include: greeting and introducing yourself properly, using a clear and polite tone of voice, listening actively and empathetically, asking for permission before putting someone on hold or transferring the call, confirming and summarizing the main points, and ending the call with a thank you and a farewell.

2 Identify phone etiquette criteria

To assess phone etiquette, you need to have a clear and consistent set of criteria that reflect the expectations and goals of your organization and your callers. Depending on the nature and scope of your phone interactions, you may want to consider different aspects of phone etiquette, such as: opening and closing the call, rapport building, problem solving, information sharing, conflict resolution, customer satisfaction, and compliance with policies and procedures. You can use a rating scale or a checklist to evaluate each criterion and provide feedback.

3 Use phone etiquette assessment tools

Assessing phone etiquette in a professional setting requires the use of various tools and methods. Call recording and monitoring is one of the most popular, as it allows you to listen to and review phone conversations, either live or later, and analyze them based on your phone etiquette criteria. Call scoring and reporting also involves assigning numerical values or scores to each phone etiquette criterion and calculating the overall performance. Additionally, mystery shopping is a technique where you hire a third-party company or individual to pose as a customer or a caller and evaluate the phone etiquette of your staff. All of these tools and methods can help you compare your own criteria and standards with the results of the assessments.

5 Evaluate phone etiquette outcomes

The final step in assessing phone etiquette is to evaluate the outcomes and impacts of your phone etiquette assessment, training, and coaching initiatives. You can use various metrics and indicators to measure and monitor the results of your phone etiquette efforts, such as: customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty; call quality, efficiency, and resolution; employee engagement, motivation, and retention; and revenue, profit, and growth. You can also use surveys, interviews, or focus groups to collect qualitative data and feedback from your staff and your callers.

6 Update phone etiquette practices

Phone etiquette is not a static or fixed skill; it is a dynamic and evolving one that requires constant adaptation and improvement. As your organization and your callers change, so should your phone etiquette practices. You can use the data and feedback from your phone etiquette evaluation to identify the new trends, challenges, and opportunities in your phone communication, and update your phone etiquette criteria, tools, training, and coaching accordingly. You can also benchmark your phone etiquette practices against your competitors, industry standards, or best practices, and learn from their successes and failures.