What to do when the phone rings

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When the telephone rings in-store and you are busy with a customer, who gets preference?

Here’s the scenario we all know too well. You are with a customer at the POS and the phoe rings. Do you let it keep ringing and finish assisting the customer you are wit or do you answer the phone? It’s a typical service dilemma.

Your objective is to answer the phone within three rings—but that means inconveniencing the customer you are with, especially if the call takes a while. So, what are the priorities and who gets preference?

Clearly, the customer you are with deserves to be given priority. This person was there first so why should the telephone customer be able to jump the queue?

However, this doesn’t mean that you can ignore the phone. The call could be important. Failure to answer could mean a lost order or, worse still, a lost customer. If you take eight rings or more the caller gets a very bad impression of your service. And anyway, the customer you are serving is probably finding it hard to focus on what you are saying while the phone continues to ring.

So, here is a procedure to help you make the best of a difficult, but typical, situation.

When the phone rings and there is no one else to answer it, politely excuse yourself from the customer you are with. Answer the phone with your normal greeting, then say something like “I’m with a customer right now, would you care to hold for a couple of minutes or would you prefer me to call you back?’

This gives the caller a choice between two options. If they choose to wait, don’t leave them on hold for more than three minutes. Excuse yourself again and say something like, ‘this is taking longer than expected; I think it would be better if I called you back’.

،some people will respond with ‘but this will only
take a minute’ and then go on take up
three or four minutes of your time.,

Avoid saying ‘would you mind waiting for a minute? I’m with a customer’. Some people will respond with ‘but this will only take a minute’ and then go on to takeup three or four minutes of your time. Meanwhile the customer you were wit is getting very impatient.

When you say you’ll call someone back, get their details; let them know when you will be able to phone back and check that this time is conveninent for them.

Don’t set yourself unrealistic deadlines. There is no point in saying you will ring back within five minutes if it is peak time and there is a queue of customers. If you think it will be at least 20 munutes before you can return their call, say you will phone back within 30 minutes.

Initially, the caller ma be disappointed at having to wait so long—but if you do phone back in 20 minutes you have done better than promised. And if, due to hold-ups, it does take half an hour, you have still kept your promise.

Make a promise that you can keep—it may help you keep a customer.

By Jurek Leon, a speaker, trainer and autor of Terrific Telephone Techniques
the ultimate guide to excellent service over the phone.

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