The top phone skills you need for stellar customer service.

Providing top-notch customer service at all times is never easy. But when visual communication is absent – phone skills are more important than ever.

While digital communication is growing more popular, many businesses still rely heavily on phone calls. Specific industries – like home services, healthcare, and law firms – find phone communication an optimal way to provide instant communication, convey complex messages, and build client trust.

And it’s not just businesses that prefer phone conversations – customers often do, too. According to Hiya’s State of the Call report, customers still favor traditional phone conversations over other methods like email or text. Although people over the age of 56 rank phone calls as their preferred communication channel, they aren’t the only ones to pick up the phone. Statista found that 29 percent of millennials and 31 percent of Generation Z also use the phone to contact businesses.

Clearly, traditional phone calls aren’t going away anytime soon. Fortunately, there are many ways you can improve your telephone communication skills and provide excellent customer service. Below, we outline some of the best phone skills you can start using today.

Understanding the importance of phone skills

Phone skills are used in personal and professional settings, forming how you communicate with others on the phone. Interactions that require phone skills include call handling, call answering, call closing, and call follow-up. We often use phone skills when an in-person conversation isn’t an option.

In professional settings, phone skills are necessary when speaking with team members or customers over the phone. They shape the interaction and help ensure it’s as productive and profitable as possible.

To ensure a positive experience, suitable phone skills are necessary to create a first-class customer experience.

Building rapport over the phone

Without a customer in front of you who can see your facial reactions, your voice plays the lead role in phone conversations. By using an optimistic tone, you can help build a positive customer interaction – one that creates trust between you and your company.

The tone you use can calm down a frustrated caller, too. When you’re composed and use a genuine, sincere tone, you’re helping a customer feel comfortable, which can diffuse a situation. While doing so, keep your tone natural rather than generic or scripted.

Take time to understand the caller’s perspective during the call and remain patient. If you don’t have a satisfactory answer to a customer’s question, ask if you can transfer them to someone who can better assist with their needs.

The pitch and pace at which you speak are equally important. Avoid talking too quickly, as this can make it challenging for the customer to understand what you’re saying. A slow pace can create the impression you’re lazy and unhelpful.

Keep the pitch in mind as well. If it’s too high, you may fail to appear authoritative, whereas too low may sound harsh. Try to adopt a middle ground where your pitch indicates interest.

Clear and concise communication

Handle each call similarly, starting with your greeting. Be genuine when saying hello, and include your name, your company’s name, and that you’re here to offer assistance.

Once the conversations begin, allow the caller to explain their reason for calling. When answering, outline what you can do to help – not what you cannot. If you know the customer’s name, use it during the call to make the interaction more personalized.

Choose words that are positive while offering truthful answers. Your responses should avoid jargon and slang since this language can be unprofessional, confusing, and easily misunderstood.

Handling difficult conversations

Difficult conversations will eventually happen whether you handle a customer inquiry in person or over the phone. And when they do, you need to be confident in effectively handling this type of interaction.

When dealing with an angry phone customer, remain calm, empathetic, and transparent. Remind yourself that their frustration has nothing to do with you personally; instead, it’s often because of some other interaction with your company. Listen actively and communicate your understanding of their problem.

If the customer continues to express upset, don’t hesitate to escalate the call to a leadership team member. They often have access to additional resources to help turn around a bad customer experience.

Techniques for effective follow-up

At the end of each call, your priority should be to satisfy the customer.

Before hanging up, ensure the caller understands the information you communicated. Include the next steps – like when they can expect a call to set up a warranty service or how they’ll receive a replacement part.

Provide any additional information that can help the caller if they require further assistance, like optimal contact times and extensions. Then, finish the call in a friendly manner.
 
The role of technology in phone skills.

Not all the best phone skills come from the person answering the call. Technology can also help deliver an exceptional customer service experience over the phone.

With call management systems, clear processes and systems are in place to efficiently handle your company’s incoming and outgoing calls. By streamlining phone calls, these technological processes can enhance customer service phone skills and create better overall communication.

Answering services are another great way to integrate technology at your company. Through their 24/7 availability, the answering service’s live agents meet customers’ expectations for immediate assistance. By showing you’re customer-centric at all hours, you ensure no call is missed, which helps grow your business.

Cross-cultural communication

Each time the phone rings at your company, you never know who may be on the other end of the line. Depending on the customer’s background, they may have different communication styles and preferences.

While you may not be an expert on all cultures, you can still create a respectful cultural experience. Avoid judging or stereotyping, and never interrupt or rush the caller.

Most importantly, be flexible and adaptable when completing cross-cultural communication. Different customer service phone skills may be necessary depending on the cultural context. For example, you may need to adapt your style and behavior to meet customer expectations or reactions.

Continuous improvement

Requesting and valuing customer feedback can help you create new policies and procedures to improve the customer experience. Distribute surveys, monitor online review sites and forums, and investigate complaints to identify underlying customer service phone skill issues.

Partner structured communications that allow continual improvement with ongoing training for customer-facing staff. Like most everything else in life, practice makes perfect when it comes to phone skills. Organize role-playing exercises amongst team members that simulate various scenarios and incorporate the most up-to-date communication strategies.

If you encounter a situation unlike any other you’ve had on past calls, use it as an opportunity to learn. If that situation arises again, you’ll be able to handle it better.

Managing multi-line phones

Busy companies often have multi-line phone systems, requiring even more extensive phone skills.

If you’re working on the switchboard or are answering a transferred call, advise the caller of the department you’re a part of. When the customer receives the appropriate information about who you are and knows you’re ready to help, they become more comfortable.

To prioritize calls, get an overview of the caller’s situation to understand call importance. Provide urgent calls with immediate attention and offer quicker responses to high-value customers or clients with ongoing issues.

If you cannot assist the caller, explain how you can transfer them to someone who can better address their inquiry. Ensure the person you’re transferring them to is the most suitable agent. Callers can quickly become frustrated when there are additional transfers during the same call.

Be sure to get the callers to agree that you put them on hold, then provide an estimated wait time. Offer periodic updates to callers if hold times are extended. Automated systems can create efficient call routing and reduce time spent waiting.

Voice modulation and control

Clarity and voice modulation help the caller easily understand your words.

Pause before speaking, giving yourself time to choose your words thoughtfully. Avoid using filler words and maintain a steady pace for optimal understanding. Keep your voice pleasant throughout the call to build a better rapport with the customer.

Tone and inflection are helpful when conveying messages, too. A firm tone lets you lead the conversation and ensure the call stays focused, whereas inflection can help you express authentic emotions.

The right inflection can make you sound more confident, friendly, empathetic, and persuasive. The wrong one can make you appear bored, rude, or aggressive.

How strong are your customer service phone skills? Take our quiz!

Top 3 communication skills over the phone

Although there’s plenty to keep in mind during each call, the top three communication skills over the phone are:

1. Clear enunciation,
2. Active listening, and
3. Empathy and sincerity.

Call information can become difficult to understand without clear pronunciation, leading to customer frustration. And if you’re not listening intently to each caller, providing the information callers seek is difficult.

No matter what the caller requires, answering with empathy and sincerity creates a positive impression you care about them.

Together, these top three communication skills over the phone result in more productive customer relationships, better customer service, and increased business.

Phone skills for good customer service

In addition to the phone skills above, the following tips can help optimize your customer service experience:

• Greet customers professionally,
• Answer calls promptly,
• Maintain a quiet environment, and
• Be sincere and empathetic.

Remember that each caller is only human. Treat them the way you want to be treated. By going above the bare minimum in customer service, you can easily set yourself apart from the competition and build a loyal customer base.

Frequently asked questions.