Telephone and E-mail Skills

This program teaches you mechanics of providing professional customer service in all of its touch points, including telephone and e-mail transactions. In this program, you will learn how to:

• Sound professional in all of your interactions with customers
• Understand the mechanics of effective telephone  and e-mail transactions
• Know how to take care of yourself in dealing with the public

Outline:

Sounding professional: the basics

• Greeting and closing: the mechanics
• First response: tone of voice and first reactions
• Understanding the “spectrum of ownership”

Basic telephone skills

• Sounding like a winner
• Training your voice
• Pacing and timing
• Avoiding “filler” words

Telephone communications skills: The H-E-L-P U-S approach

• Say Hello
• Show Empathy for the caller
• Listen to the caller’s statements
• Paraphrase what the caller says
• Use the customer’s name
• Summarize the action items

Using e-mail effectively

• Opening and closing
• The elements of professional e-mail style: paragraph length, tone, sentence structure
• The “spectrum of professionalism”

Taking care of yourself

• Using triage to manage your call workflow
• Self-care: recovering from a difficult transaction
• Stress management tips for customer contact professionals