Call Control Management Tips

Name: Call Control Management Tips
Author: KnowledgeCity

Learn how to assess customer needs and respond accordingly.

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 6 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

(upbeat music) Welcome to call control management tips. Every step of a phone call is important and it's necessary to remain professional throughout the call. In these lessons, we'll discuss how to manage a call with a customer from the second you say hello to the moment you hang up. First, let's talk about what a customer-oriented tone is and how to maintain it throughout the course of a call. A customer-oriented tone is a way of speaking to the customer that is friendly, polite, professional, and focused on empathizing with the customer and solving their problem. Here's some points to consider when establishing a positive customer-oriented tone. It's best to be friendly, polite, and professional. It's important to be mindful of your tone when talking to customers, especially the more difficult ones. Even if a customer gets aggressive or rude, try your best to sound friendly despite their attitude. It's your responsibility to be the bigger person and to remain professional even in the most trying of circumstances. Remember to identify the customer's complaint or need as efficiently as possible. This is your main priority as a customer service representative. It's important to narrow in on and locate a problem before you can move on to solving it. Try to identify what the customer wants as early in the call as possible. You can facilitate this by asking questions and redirecting the conversation to the purpose of the call. Using your listening skills. Try listening to the tone the customer is using with you and try to identify what emotion they're feeling. If a customer is positive or neutral, maintain your friendly, polite, and professional tone. If a customer is frustrated, upset, or angry, perhaps dial down the friendliness a bit and instead switch to a tone of polite empathy and concern. Mirroring the customer. It's key to position yourself as the customer's ally during a call. And one way to achieve this is by mirroring the customer statements. To do this, you can paraphrase the customer's words or identify the emotion they're feeling. Keep in mind, mirroring has limits. It's best to never match the tone of an angry customer or echo any disparaging statements about your company. Using empathy and understanding. Tap into your emotions and try to empathize with difficult customers even if it's hard. You can think about times when you were in a tough situation yourself and use that knowledge to help yourself better understand the customer's predicament and emotions. Let's look at an example between a customer and a call representative. The customer complains, "I still haven't received my order. I needed everything here in time for my daughter's birthday party and now I have to figure out something else at the last minute." The call representative answers, "I'm sorry that there was a mix-up with your order and that it won't arrive in time for your event. That sounds like a really frustrating situation to be in. How can I help you fix this?" echoed back the customer's problem, identified their emotions, empathized with them, and then offered to help. If you keep these steps in mind when speaking to difficult customers, it will be easier for you to maintain a customer-oriented tone throughout the course of a call no matter what surprises a customer might throw at you.

Intermediate Provider : KnowledgeCity 6 Lessons · 20m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Chinese

Course Description

Do you ever forget how to remain centered during difficult calls, or are unsure of how to salvage awkward phone interactions? These lessons provide methods to help you stay grounded and connected. You’ll learn how to assess the customer’s needs and respond accordingly. You’ll also learn how to mirror their emotions and display empathy. These lessons will demonstrate the importance of active listening to troubleshoot and resolve conflict with relevant examples. You will learn how to incorporate skills like active listening and how to ask reflective questions to keep the call customer focused. We’ll also address ways to manage lengthy calls with strategies like asking short-response and closed-ended questions. You will also discover proper phone etiquette techniques and understand how to best redirect and end calls with difficult customers.

What You'll Learn

Maintain a professional, customer-oriented tone during calls
Echo and mirror customers and display empathy to assess and respond to their needs
Apply active listening and ask reflective questions to keep calls customer focused
Use short-response and closed-ended questions to manage lengthy calls
Redirect and assert yourself when necessary to stay in control of calls
End calls effectively, including with difficult customers

Key Takeaways

Staying grounded and connected helps you remain centered during difficult or awkward phone interactions.
Mirroring a customer's emotions and displaying empathy supports better call outcomes.
Active listening is important for troubleshooting and resolving conflict.
Reflective questions help keep a call focused on the customer.
Short-response and closed-ended questions are strategies for managing lengthy calls.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in this course?

You will learn how to maintain a professional tone, effectively echo and mirror customers, ask short-response or closed-ended questions, stay in control of calls, and effectively end calls.

Does this course cover handling difficult or awkward calls?

Yes. It provides methods to stay grounded and connected during difficult calls, and covers how to best redirect and end calls with difficult customers.

What skills does this course help build?

It supports skills including telephone skills, call center experience, customer communications management, customer interaction management, customer service training, and dialer management.

How does the course teach conflict resolution?

It demonstrates the importance of active listening to troubleshoot and resolve conflict, using relevant examples.

What topics do the lessons cover?

The lessons cover maintaining a customer-oriented tone, keeping a customer-oriented focus, using short responses and closed-ended questions, redirecting and asserting when necessary, and wrapping up the call, along with a knowledge test.