This document provides guidance on developing strong telephone skills for customer service roles. It discusses important communication concepts like active listening, avoiding common customer service problems, and telephone etiquette. The document also outlines best practices for calming upset customers, such as accurately identifying problems, confirming the customer's value, summarizing discussions, and concluding by affirming the customer. Throughout, it emphasizes speaking clearly, listening fully to understand customers, and maintaining a polite, professional tone.

1. Telephone Skills

2. Telephonic Skills
• Course Review:
– Oral communication skills
– Interpersonal skills - talking with colleagues &
management
– Team-work
– Internal communication
– Dealing with customers
– Barriers to effective oral communication
– Body Language
– Importance of good telephone skills
– Listening skills and use of silence
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3. 3

4. 4
Theory of Communication
• Two-way Process / Feedback
• Role of Sender and Receiver
• Common Frame of Mind
• Appropriate medium and method / Verbal and
Non-verbal

5. 5
Aspects of Communication
• Written Communication: Language/Symbol –
Social Construct
• Face to Face Communication: Voice, Poise, Eye-
contact, Body-language and Gestures
• Non-Verbal Communication: Kinesics &
Proxemics, Facial Expressions, Touch, Silence,
Appearance & Dress
• Visual Communication: Signs & Signals, Charts &
Maps

6. Avoiding Customer Service Problems
1. The “So what” response
2. Dominating the conversation
3. Passing the buck
4. Being negative
5. Sending negative non-verbal cues
6. Blaming the customers
7. Bad-mouthing others
8. Hiding behind rules
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7. 7
10 bad habits of listeners
• Declaring the subject uninteresting
• Criticizing the speaker
• Getting over-stimulated
• Listening only for facts
• Making an outline of everything – missing
facial expressions & gestures

8. 8
Bad habits…
• Making a show of paying attention
• Creating distractions
• Evading difficult & technical words
• Over-reacting to emotional words
• Thought speed vs. speech speed

9. Listening Skills
• They often hear selectively by noticing the things that
support their view and not perceiving the things that
contradict their view.
• If you can start to be an excellent listener, you will
become a better person, worker or manager.
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10. Listening Skills
Active listeners:
• Concentrate on giving full attention to the person
speaking. This must be a conscious and sustained effort
to hear and understand what is being said.
• Do not plan what you will say next. When you are
planning your next sentence you are not listening to the
speaker’s next sentence
• Good listeners focus on and soak up every word
• Avoid being distracted by outside events
• Do not jump into the conversation. Allow the speaker to
finish and then pause one…two…three…then speak.
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11. Listening Skills
• Do not respond to the speaker immediately; let their
words sink in. Think about what they have said. Think
about what the words mean.
• Do not be afraid of silence in conversations. Silence is
the point when people are thinking.
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12. Listening Skills
• Make a brief review of the conversation so far before
extending the discussion, for example:
– ‘If we accept Khalid’s point about using the money as effectively
as possible and agree with Salma’s position about investing in
the staff skills...’ …then… make your point.
This serves several purposes:
• It shows you were listening.
• It confirms the main points and allows challenges to
those points.
• It creates legitimacy for the point you wish to make.
• Ask questions of what has been said. These can clarify
the point or extend the point.
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13. Listening Skills
• Give feedback to let the speaker know the effect their
words are having. Nodding the head is a form of
feedback supporting the points the speaker is making.
• Shaking the head (culturally specific) gives feedback that
you agree/disagree with the points being made. You can
also give verbal feedback of support/disagreement.
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14. Listening Skills
• Record what is being said. Writing is a reflective and
thought-provoking activity.
• Speak less, think more and remain relaxed.
• Display empathy for the speaker. By understanding the
feelings behind the words, you will better understand the
words.
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15. Listening Skills
• Concentrate on non-verbal cues. Maintaining eye
contact is the most effective way to indicate you are
listening. It also allows you to understand the emotion of
what is being said.
• Allow other people to shine.
• Moderate the quantity of their spoken contribution.
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16. Telephonic Customer Service
– Professional Greeting
– Active Listening
– Putting Callers on Hold
– Recommendations
– Transferring a Call
– Taking a Message
– Voice Mail
– Closing the Call
Calming Upset Customers
• What makes Customers
Upset?
• Avoiding Upsets
• Steps in Calming Upset
Customers
– Accurately Identify the
Problem
– Confirm the Customer’s
Value
– Synchronize & Summarize
– Conclude by Affirming
Customer’s Value Again

17. Telephone Etiquette: Tips for Better Customer Service
• Use formal greetings. When answering calls always use a formal
greeting. It is considered best practice to use sir or ma’am to
address customers if names are unknown.
• Speak clearly. Take the time to speak clearly and in a positive,
professional tone. Doing so will put the caller at ease and diffuse an
upset customer.
• Listen & learn. Train your representatives to listen carefully to
customers. Always allow customers time to finish his/her thoughts
without interruption and ask questions that clarify information. Be
sure to confirm understanding with the caller before moving
forward.
• No food or beverages. This may seem like common sense, -but
stress the importance of this one. Representatives must refrain
from consuming food or drink while taking a call. Customers do not
want to hear gulping and chewing.
mathew@cbfs.edu.om Communication Skills - I CBFS 17
Telephonic communication =
18% content and 82% tone

18. Team Task
• List some of the
problems you faced in
Telephonic
Conversation

19. Telephone Etiquette Tips for Better Service to Patients
1. Make sure you speak clearly and are smiling as you answer the
phone; also identify yourself.
2. Before placing a caller on hold, ask their permission first and
thank them.
3. It is better to return a call than to keep someone on hold too
long. If the phone rings back to you, you've kept them on hold too
long.
4. Do not forget to return the call as you promised.

20. 5. Do not permit the phone to ring into the office more than
three times.
6. Always use a pleasant, congenial and friendly tone.
7. Never interrupt the person while he/she is talking to you.
8. Never engage in an argument with a caller.
9. Do not handle an unhappy patient’s/caller's concern openly at
the check-in /checkout desk.

21. 10. Do not make it a habit of receiving personal calls at work.
11. Do not answer the phone if you are eating or chewing gum.
12. Do not give the impression that you are rushed. It is better to
return the call when you can give the person the time they need
to handle the reason for their call.
13. Learn how to handle several callers simultaneously with ease
and grace.
14. Return calls promptly that have been left on voice mail and
ansafones.

22. 15. Always get the best number (and an alternate) and the best time to
have a call returned to the caller, especially if a manager or another team
member must return the call.
16. When forwarding a call, make sure the other staff picks up the phone;
and make sure you give the customer the extension number of
forwarding call.
17. Do not call a customer or client's home before 8:00AM or after
9:00PM, unless they've given you permission to do so.
18. When hanging up the phone, make sure the caller or person called
hangs up first if the phone is slammed on the receiver. Otherwise, always
hang up the phone, gently.

23. – Bowlby J. (1998) A Secure Base. Basic Books. New York.
– Lesikar & Flatley (2002). Basic Business Communication – Skills for
Empowering the Internet Generation, 9th Ed.Tata McGraw Hill, New
Delhi.
– Sharma & Mohan (2002). Business Correspondence and Report
Writing – A practical approach to business and technical
communication. 3rd Ed. Tata McGraw Hill. New Delhi.
– Images: Google & other online sources
References
Communication Skills - I CBFS
mathew@cbfs.edu.om 23