Telephone Skills from A to Z

Your company’s reputation is on the line–literally. Make proper exceptional phone skills a standard throughout your
organization with this practical guide. This self-paced book walks through how to adopt a professional, friendly tone
from the initial greeting to the final good-bye–and how to handle whatever arises in between.

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Attitude: It’s Your Choice

• Be Friendly Before You Know Who It Is
• Buffer Words
• Bureaucratic Bounce
• Call Centers
• Cellular Phones
• Cliff-Hangers
• Company Jargon

Don’t Be Too Busy to Be Nice

• Eight Great Hates
• Email
• Emotional Leakage
• Fast Talkers
• Five Forbidden Phrases
• Foreign Accents
• Front-Line Operators
• Getting a Phone Number
• Gum Chewing
• Hold
• How Can I Help You?
• I Don’t Know
• Internal Calls
• Internet
• Irate Callers
• Q. Test
• I’m Sorry
• “Just a Second”
• I.S.S. Method trolling the Conversation

Leave a Good Last Impression

• Message Mangling
• Message Taking 1
• Message Taking 2
• Mirror on Your Desk
• Music (or Announcements) on Hold
• “No” at the Start of a Sentence
• Obscene Phone Calls
• People Before Paperwork!
• “Please…Thank You…You’re Welcome”
• Public Sector

Quality Is a Four-Letter Word

• Receptionist
• Returning Phone Calls
• Rushing Callers
• Screening Calls
• Six Cardinal Rules of Customer Service
• Slow Talkers
• Smile
• Speakerphones
• Swear-Stoppers
• Three-Part Greeting
• Tone of Voice
• Transferring Calls
• Unavoidable Delays in Answering
• Voicemail–Curse or Cure?
• Voicemail General Tips