The Telephoning Skills,Communication Skills

10.1    Introduction

The telephone is such an obvious, ordinary and totally familiar instrument for communication that we scarcely give it a second glance or thought. The person who answers the phone is very often at the sharpest end of the company or organization. His or her voice, manner and style will be crucial in determining whether or not the person calling will have a favourable or unfavourable impression of that organization. We have placed it immediately after listening and interviewing since many of the ideas contained in that last section will certainly apply to our use of the telephone.

10.2   Factors in successful telephoning

Research into interpersonal skills suggests that between 55–85% of communication comes through the non-verbal and paralinguistic aspects. We cannot see much of the non-verbal communication-the facial expression, stance and gestures, that is until video phones become more common, but we can pick up the paralinguistic features of the caller or receiver, these are concerned with:

·         Warmth of tone: welcoming and friendly to cool, cold and abrupt.

·         Pace: fluent and assured to hesitant, slow and halting.

·         Inflexion: rise and fall of vocal tune, interestingly varied to flat, dull and monotonous.

·         Volume: assertive and reasonable to over strong and uncomfortably loud, or by contrast, inaudible and fading to a whisper.

These paralinguistic features are important in carrying the message. The words may be forgotten but the impression lingers and it is the impression that we take away as callers or receivers. This impression can be crucial when it comes to preliminary interviews or when we are trying to sell to or influence that other person.

You will probably remember the coldness of a particular voice on the phone and perhaps your associations and impressions about the organization behind that voice-a hotel, an airline, a travel shop, etc. will be coloured by that poor aural experience. Likewise when you have been received by a warm, friendly and lively voice, more positive impressions will remain. We should therefore give some time to thinking about our telephone technique-our manner, our style. Here are a few suggestions for you to think about. If you do not think that they apply to you then there may well to a colleague who would appreciate some tactful support in his or her telephone manner.

10.3   Timing the call

We need to ensure that when we phone it is an appropriate time for the call. We do not want to break into the other’s concentration, intrude into their thinking, acting, preparing or interviewing unless the matter is very urgent. If we are selling then we have to be particularly careful about our choice of time. We need to make use of our negotiation skills. As callers, we may need to negotiate an appropriate time for our call on the lines of:

Hello, this X calling. Is this a convenient time to call? I could phone back...

If we negotiate a time when the other party is free we are more likely to get focused, attentive and active listening from them. The danger is, unless we do this, that when the call comes their mind is half on something else and we get pretend listening since they are too polite (and not assertive enough) to say.

I’m sorry this doesn’t appear to be a convenient time. Could I phone you back later?

A little give and take-just that little negotiation-between the two parties can make all the difference to the quality of the eventual telephone call. How many times have you wished you had negotiated and had been more assertive with the caller as in:

I wonder if I could you call later, say after 11.00

How much better to do this than to have half of your attention on the call and the other half thinking of that meeting, which is coming up in 10 minutes time. It is vital that if you do agree to call back at 11.00 you do in fact do this and don’t forget all about it. This can appear as a negative move to the other party.

10.4   Factors to Improve the Telephoning Skills

There are several other things we can do to improve our telephoning:

• Planning the call

Have a list of topics you want to go through. This is a kind of agenda and again allows you to do some negotiating, i.e. what is important for you and what is for the other party.

• Summarize the key points at the end of the call

This can help you remember the key ideas and forms a similar purpose to the summarizing that should take place at the close a meeting. It clarifies what both parties understand has been concluded and those points which will need to be taken forward. This summary helps to demonstrate that you are taking the call seriously. We strongly recommend that you make use of a template such as the one in Table 10.1 for recording your calls. If you make use of something like this you stand a much better chance of keeping good records of calls-essential for your sales/marketing activities, than if you rely on scraps of paper or post-its stuck to the phone-these have a nasty habit of falling off and getting lost.

• Send a fax/e-mail confirmation of these key points

 Use the summary of the telephone call. Such confirmation will impress the other party that you are serious and committed.

Table 7.1

Telephone Call Out/In Name                                                 Date                                     Time of call Position                                                                         Organization Points arising from call Action                                                                            To be taken by Name of receiver/caller                                                 Passed to

2.4   Time management and telephoning

It may help you to make your calls in blocks. There is some evidence from time management studies that by doing this you get more fluent and generally sharper if you take a run at your calls, rather than spreading them over a longer period. Obviously it is not always possible or even desirable to do this. If you haven’t tried this approach we would seriously recommend that you do.

2.5   Feedback on your telephone skills

It is important that you receive some feedback on your telephone manner. It would be very useful if one of your colleagues could be in the same office when you are making the call to provide you with some feedback as to how your telephone manner comes across to him or her. Better still phone up that person on an internal office line and ask for some feedback as to how your voice actually sounds down the line.

Taking some time to think about our telephone manner and giving it a polish may prove to be time very well spent. Table 7.2 shows some of the key features about your telephone manner which will influence how others perceive you. Telephoning is such a very basic taken-for granted skill and yet how many people do you know who do it well, who appear confident and competent on the phone and help make the other party more at ease during the call?

It is through the telephone that professionals will often make their first impressions on their clients; it is essential therefore that you do have to compromise on your telephone skills and approach; this may help you eliminate faults and improve your effectiveness as a communicator.

Table 10.2

Feature                                                          Comments Audibility - can you be heard ? Clarity. is it easy for the listener to understand you? Pace. Is it varied or tending to the monotonous? Tune. Does your voice show interest, or is it tending to the flat & dull Stress. Do you stress the important words and phrases-so showing commitment/ enthusiasm? Other aspects of vocal manner Introduction/opening Does it clarify who you are and what you are calling about Probing/questioning. Is this done politely yet assertively? Clarifying. Is this done tactfully and convincingly? Summarising. Is it done well, do you include the most important facts etc.? Closing. Do you close politely? Other aspects of telephone style Overall pace Evidence of attentive listening, etc.