Small Business Phone Etiquette Part 2
We talked a couple of weeks ago about using a proper phone greeting when answering phone calls for your small business. Today I thought we could go over some other important aspects of small business phone etiquette. In case you are wondering, today’s blog was inspired by actual events!
Yesterday I called a small business in my area - okay, it was the local pizza place. They said the name of their business and then said “please hold” and click they were gone. Needless to say, I didn’t feel like a valued customer: there was no greeting and no asking for my permission to put me on hold. I hung up and called Hungry Howie’s instead. Granted the local pizza place has much better pizza, but I am not going to give my business to a place that isn’t treating me like a valued customer.
So, always remember to use a proper greeting when answering the phone and always, always ask a customer’s permission before placing them on hold. Sometimes a customer may have a quick question that you can answer before putting them on hold and sometimes they don’t have time to wait. It really is only a matter of a couple of extra seconds to ask “Do you mind if I put you on hold for a minute?” and it makes a world of difference to your customers!
