• Listen to the manager talking to staff about the way they answer the telephone

So, if everyone is here, I’ll make a start. Now as you might know, a few months ago we asked some consultants to take a look at the way we answer the telephone across the group. They telephoned our offices and made enquiries as customers normally would. They recorded information such as how quickly the call was answered, how friendly people were and how efficiently they dealt with the enquiry.
     So I’ll begin with what they found out. Right, now first of all, they found out that on average we answer the phone after four rings, which isn’t bad, but we can still improve on it. Secondly, friendliness. Now although some offices scored as high as 8 out of 10 for friendliness, the consultants only gave the company as a whole 6 out of 10. Once more. This wasn’t as good as it should be.  The consultants said that 7.5 is the minimum we should be aiming for throughout the group.  And finally, efficiency.  Now here, we did quite well.  It deals with themselves or puts the caller through to the right person.  However, there were one or two negative points which we still have to work on, such as always remembering to ask the caller’s name before putting them through. So as you can see, we need to do a lot of work.
     Going back to the first point, about the phone ringing four times, everyone will now be responsible for answering the phone after the third ring.  This way there is no excuse for keeping a caller waiting.  The point about friendliness, however, is the most important. People want to hear a cheerful voice when they call the company and feel good when they do business with, so we’re going to choose some new hold music and the consultants have given us some good phrases to use on the phone. They’re on the handout I gave you so, moving on to efficiency ...