By the time someone gives you a call, he or she has probably seen your advertising, has a specific service in mind, and wants to make a booking. But if you’re making it difficult for them with bad phone etiquette, you can easily lose new clients before they even meet you.
1. Set up your voice mail
A bad voice mail greeting will make potential clients change their minds fast. Worst of all is leaving your phone’s greeting set to the default robo-voice that just drones “The number you have reached is not available.” You MUST have a real, helpful, pleasant message set up on your phone if you expect to do business!
When you record your greeting, speak slowly and clearly with no distracting background noise. Nancy Friedman, founder of the customer service training company Telephone Doctor (www.telephonedoctor.com), says there are four phrases to avoid in your voice mail greeting:
- “I’m not here right now.” This is obvious!
- “Your call is very important to me.” Being told this by a recorded message will drive some clients crazy. Do you ever believe this cliché when you’re on hold?
- “I’m sorry I missed your call.” This only draws attention to the fact that you didn’t pick up the call personally.
- “I’ll call you back as soon as it’s convenient.” This sounds very rude to some people.
Here’s a good voice mail greeting you can use as a starting point, replacing the details with your own information:
“Hi, this is Karla Jones at Karla’s Skin Care. We’re open every day from 9 to 6, with late nights on Thursdays until 8 p.m. I’m with a client now, so please leave your number and I will call you back. You can also visit [website] to make an online booking and see this month’s specials. Thank you for calling, and have a beautiful day!”
2. Practice your professional “hello”
Ideally, you should have a separate phone line for your business. If you take both business and personal calls on the same phone, always use your professional greeting, just in case. It’s far better to accidentally give your mom a business greeting than to accidentally pick up a new client’s call and say, “Hey.”
Before you answer, take a deep breath (this steadies and lowers your voice slightly, making it sound more pleasant on the phone). Smile! Even though the caller can’t see your face, a smile will come through subtlely in your voice. Answer by saying the name of the business and your name. Some sample greetings:
- “Hello, Midtown Skin Salon, this is Trina speaking. How can I help you?”
- “Hi, this is John Sherman of Deluxe Wax Studio.”
- “Good morning, this is Becky at Beautiful You.”
If you work from home, have rules about who can answer your phone if you’re busy. Never bring your phone into the treatment room, or use it while you’re with another client. Write out a short script and keep it near the phone so others can answer properly and get the information you need.
Check your messages between clients and return calls promptly. By paying attention to making a good first impression on the phone, you’ll start out right with every client.