The telephone is often the first human contact someone has with your business. They’ve checked out your website, and they’re ready for more information. We’re living in a society where the world is literally at our fingertips, and we can “audition” a hundred businesses for the simplest of tasks. How likely would you be to choose a company whose employees can’t even use the phone? Would you call back if they hung up on you? Would the reason matter?
This is where training comes in. Even the simplest feature set (Hold, Transfer, Conference, Park) likely uses a completely different set of steps than your previous phone system, and your customers see these features as basic too. A single training class can provide your employees with guidance and practice to help the use of these features become second nature in no time.
Training on something as seemingly easy as answering the phones can seem unnecessary. Have you ever experienced these common reasons to skip training?
- “We have too much going on right now; they’ll figure it out.”
- “No one will show up, and then we’ve wasted our time and money setting it up.”
- “This project costs enough already; we don’t need to add expense for someone to tell us how to pick up the phone.”
Cost is the number one objection to the purchase of end-user training classes. Dollars for services are easy to measure, but what about the cost of not training your employees? Inefficiency and lost time when an employee must reference a piece of paper for every call? Lost customers when someone calls in and gets disconnected by multiple operators who are all new to the technology? Paying to install a different system next year when your teams can’t use the features you purchased this one for?
Your customers expect courtesy, confidence, and focus when they call your place of business; all three are difficult to come by when the person who answers the phone is racking his or her brain to try and remember how to transfer calls on a new phone system.
On the flip side, it says a lot for your company’s level of competence and commitment to customer care when your employees answer phones on day one and provide the same excellent service they did before with no one the wiser about the major overhaul your office has just gone through.
Your workforce has expectations too. Organizations with the highest employee satisfaction and retention rates are known for caring about their employees and supporting their workers’ success. It says a lot for your company’s level of commitment to employee care when workers are provided with the tools they need to be productive and excel in their jobs.
A little training goes a long way. Hug a trainer today!
