1.4. Telephone Etiquette

1.4.1. Work in small groups. Discuss these questions.

1) What does it mean to use telephone effectively?

2) Suppose you have to use the phone a lot, how can you manage that?

1.4.2. Read the text and say what two main recommendations it contains.

Cell Phone Etiquette and Manners

In today's fast-paced business world telephone communication is more important than ever. Correspondingly it is more important than ever to be aware of cell phone etiquette and manners. By learning how to practice them, both in your personal life and in business, you will find that people treat you with more respect.

Here are some tips for practicing telephone etiquette and manners to ensure success:

Plan the call. Always jot down key objectives before making a call. What are you trying to accomplish? What outcome are you expecting? How will you deal with objections? By setting an agenda, you are showing respect to the person you are calling and acknowledging his or her busy schedule.

Appropriate greetings and endings to calls help build a good rapport and avoid misunderstandings and wasting time. The three elements of an appropriate greeting are:

·identifying your company

·giving your name and job title/department

·asking how you can help the caller. When you close the call you should:

·make sure that the caller has no more queries

·thank the caller

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·let the caller put down the receiver first so they don't feel you have cut them off.

Get to the point. Once you are successful in reaching your party and have introduced yourself, get to the point. One of the main phone etiquette tips is not to waste another's time. Idle chit-chat will only indicate that you do not respect your party's time. Let the person know why you are calling and use your notes to keep your agenda clear.

Gathering information. Let's assume your caller has a complaint about a product your company has sold them. You need to:

·ascertain the nature of the problem

·verify that the product is one of yours and that warranty cover still applies

·discover how the caller has been using the product and what steps they have taken to rectify the problem.

Listening skills. Another skill in receiving telephone calls is the ability to listen properly. Passive listening is simply allowing the caller to talk and not taking any action to ensure we have the right message. By actively listening we mean first indicating to the caller that we are listening by interrupting in an encouraging manner—interruptions could be 'yes', 'I see', 'Okay', ‘right,’ ‘I know what you mean’, or they could be prompts to encourage the caller to say more: 'is that true?', 'are you sure?', etc. And secondly we mean asking questions or using prompts to ensure that the caller gives precise information so that the message we receive is accurate. This can be done by the use of whquestions:

·What color?/How many?/When will you arrive?/Where shall we meet?

·and by techniques such as echoing and reformulating.

Suggesting and verifying a course of action. Once you have an accurate picture

of the situation, you are in a position to propose a course of action to your caller. You

should:

·outline the proposal and check that it is acceptable to the caller

·confirm that they understand what is to be done.

Take notes. If you handle a lot of calls each day, then it is essential to log each one

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under date and time. For all calls you should make a note of who rang, for what reason, and the action you agreed with times and details of address, telephone number etc.

Dealing with difficult callers. Sometimes a caller is very difficult, especially if complaining. First remember that this caller is a client, or potential client, so your handling of the call could result either in more business for your company or in the caller going to a competitor. Whatever the nature of the problem, don't try to fob the caller off by disclaiming personal responsibility or by trying to pass the buck. What you should do is:

·listen without interrupting

·gather the facts and make a note of them

·take their details so you can get back to them

·sympathize with them and offer to act as fast as you can

·apologize if you have made the mistake

·stay calm even thought the caller is angry and possibly abusive.

Be polite. Just because you can't see the caller, it doesn't mean you have the right to suspend the normal rules of politeness. Be helpful to the caller even if the subject of the call is not strictly speaking your field of responsibility. This means trying to find someone who can help now, or someone who can ring them back later. Don't put the caller on hold and then leave them suspended there indefinitely.

Remember too that you give out subliminal signals by the tone of your voice, the clarity with which you speak, how fast you speak, the pitch of your voice. You should always devote your full attention to the call; mistakes and misunderstandings will arise if you are doing something else at the same time. Even if the call is a difficult or heated one, stay calm; try to be helpful and never slam the phone down.

Things to avoid when on the phone. It's easy to fall into the trap of believing that because your caller can't see you, they won't be affected by what you are doing and what's going on around you. Remember not to:

·let it ring more than four times

·eat and drink while talking on the phone

·be too familiar

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·talk to someone else in your office

·have too much background noise

·speak too quietly or too loudly

·speak too quickly.

1.4.3.Answer the questions to the text.

1) Why should you plan your telephone call?

2) What should the structure of a call be?

3) What does active listening mean?

4) How can you deal with difficult callers?

5) What should you do and what shouldn’t when on the phone?

1.4.4.Read the telephone conversations, define the type of the calls. Say in which one the supplier was more helpful, prove your point.

1)

CSR2	Good afternoon. Electrical Goods Department.
CUSTOMER	Hello. This is Sally Morgan. I'm calling about the DVD player I
	bought from you a few weeks ago. Unfortunately there's a problem
	with it.
CSR	I'm sorry to hear that. What seems to be the problem?
CUSTOMER	It doesn't work.
CSR	Could you give me some details, please?
CUSTOMER	Well, the eject mechanism's not reliable. Sometimes it works, and
	sometimes it doesn't.
CSR	Can you bring it in? Then we can look into the matter and we'll
	probably send the machine back to the manufacturer.
CUSTOMER	I'm sorry but I'd prefer to exchange it.
CSR	I'm afraid it's not our policy to replace items. We'll send it back to the
	manufacturer for repair.

2 Customer service representative

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CUSTOMER	Well, that's not really good enough. I'd like a different make and I
	don't mind paying a little more for a better model.
CSR	All right then. Bring the machine in and we'll see what we can do for
	you.
2)
CSR	Good morning, Andy Thomson speaking.
CUSTOMER	Andy, hello. Jack Smith from Mega deals here. I've got a problem
	with that last order…
CSR	A problem, did you say?
CUSTOMER	Yes, well the order was incomplete. We ordered 600 but when we
	checked the consignment, it was obvious that we hadn't got them all.
CSR	So how many were you short?
CUSTOMER	Well, they came in boxes of 50 and we only had 8 boxes so we're missing
	200. The thing is, it wouldn't normally be a hassle but you see…
CSR	When do you need the remainder?
CUSTOMER	By Monday; we must have them by Monday.
CSR	Immediately after the weekend, you say?
CUSTOMER	Well, we could just stretch to Tuesday but no later because…
CSR	Okay, leave it with me. I'll get on to dispatch and make sure you get
	another 200 by Tuesday at the latest.
CUSTOMER	Thank you, I’ll call you back if there’s a further problem.

1.4.5. Fill in the chart with the expressions from the dialogues.

Greetings

Getting to the point

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Listening

Suggesting the course of action

Accepting / declining an offer

1.4.6. Read the complaint. Fill in the gaps with the expressions in the box.

a) on the twelfth of this month b) call it up c) you'll be hearing from me again d) calling about an order e) did you say f) can I help you

CSR	Hello, Order Processing, (1)……..?
CUSTOMER	Good morning. My name's Field. I have a bookshop in York.
CSR	Yes. What can I do for you, Mr. Field?
CUSTOMER	I'm (2)…….. that I've been waiting for since the end of March.
CSR	The end of March! Can you give me the order number, please?
CUSTOMER	Yes, the order number was one two two seven.
CSR	I'll just (3)…….. on the computer. One two double-seven, (4)……..?
CUSTOMER	No, one double-two seven.
CSR	Oh sorry, one double-two seven. Yes, I've got it. Well, it was
	dispatched to you (5)………....., so it should arrive any time now.
	Can you give it another couple of days?
CUSTOMER	Well, all right, as long as it has been sent. But if it doesn't arrive in the
	next forty-eight hours (6)……………...
CSR	Yes, do please contact me again if it hasn't arrived by then, Mr Field.
	Thank you! Good bye!
CUSTOMER	Good bye.
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1.4.7. Put the phrases in the correct order to get a telephone complaint.

CSR

a)Oh dear! Was the packaging damaged in any way?

b)Yes, we do appreciate the inconvenience to your customers, and I assure you we'll do everything we possibly can to help.

Thank you, Mr. Field. Good bye.

c)Hello, Order Processing, can I help you?

d)Oh good!

e)I can't understand how that could have happened. Every parcel is supposed to be machine-banded before it leaves the warehouse. Look, can you return the books to us, carriage forward of course,

f)and is you could possibly fax us a list of what's damaged, we'll get replacements sent off as soon as we can, provided of course we still have the titles in stock.

g)Well if you can send us the fax by, say, three o'clock this afternoon, I’ll get back to you before you close tonight.

h)Oh, good morning, Mr. Field. Did the books reach you all right?

CUSTOMER

i)And how long will that take?

j)Hello, this is Field Booksellers, in York.

k)They were finally delivered a few minutes ago.

l)I'm calling about my order, number one duble-two seven…

m)Yes. The boxes weren't banded, so they just split open.

n)Well if you could. You’ll appreciate that I’ve got customers who’ve been waiting a long time for these books.

o)But most of them were damaged, and it's due to bad packaging.

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1.4.8. Work in pairs. Role play the following telephone complaints. Use the expressions from the lesson and additional vocabulary in the chart below.

1. One of you is the Purchasing Manager for a power tools manufacturer. The other is

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a supplier of components. Purchasing Manager rings the supplier to complain about some electric motors (order No. PV205) which have a number of defects (don't fit, not up to usual standard, etc.).

2.One of you is the Purchasing Manager at a Russian company producing canned foodstuffs. The other is the supplier of tinplate sheets, JFE Steel Corporation (Japan). Purchasing Manager rings the supplier to complain that the tinplate sheets he had ordered arrived in a wrong size (Order No. ….). Consult their site for details www.jfe-steel.co.jp.

3.One of you is the Purchasing Manager at a Russian clothes making plant. The other is the supplier of sewing equipment, Bernina Holding AG (Switzerland). Purchasing Manager rings the supplier to complain that the order arrived incomplete (Order No. ….). Consult their site for details www.bernina.com/naviinfo-n1-sEN.html.

4.One of you is the Purchasing Manager at a Russian clothes making plant. The other is the supplier of special fabrics produced by Fabric Warehouse Inc. (USA). Purchasing Manager rings the supplier to complain that some of the fabrics he had ordered arrived in wrong colours (Order No. ….). Consult their site for details www.fabricwarehouseinc.net.

5.One of you is the Purchasing Manager at a chemical plant in Russia. According to the new industrial safety standards it is necessary to install additional climate control devices at the shop floor and the laboratories. The other is the supplier of thereof, All Seasons Hire Ltd. (UK). Purchasing Manager rings the supplier to complain about some electric motors (order No. PV205) which have a number of defects. Consult their site for details www.allseasonshire.eu.

Tips for the supplier:

·Deal tactfully with the complaint.

·Show understanding.

·Get the facts.

·Promise action.

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COMPLAINING	DEALING WITH COMPLAINTS
Making the complaint	Showing understanding
I'm ringing to complain about...	Oh dear! Sorry to hear that.
I'm sorry, but I'm not satisfied with ...	Mmm, I see what you mean.
Unfortunately, there's a problem with ...	I'm sorry about the problem/delay.

Explaining the problem	Getting the facts
The CD player doesn't work.	Could you give me some details, please?
There seems to be a problem with ...	What happened exactly?
We haven't received the ...	What's the problem exactly?

Insisting	Making excuses / denying
It really isn't good enough.	responsibility
I'd like to know why...	It's not our policy to replace items.
	It's not our fault that it hasn't arrived.
	I'm afraid that's not quite right.
Threatening

If you don't replace the product, I'll complain to the manager.

If you can't deliver on time, we'll have to contact other suppliers.

Promising action

OK, I'll look into it right away.

I'll check the details and get back to you.

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