World-Class Service: The Greeting

QAQNA: Whether you are an anonymous cog in the gears of a giant call center or you are self-employed working in your home office, it's important to answer your phone well. By the time you finish greeting the customer, he or she has already made a judgment about you, what kind of mood you're in, and how easy you'll be to work with.

If you want to up the level and quality of your interactions with people on the telephone then you need to check out what Tom Vamder Well wrote. This simple bit of advice is so full of common since it is easy to forget.

Thanks Tom for referencing this post in your blog this week. This kind of advice goes along well with the other simple bit of advice I gained from a friend here at work... always greet people with a smile. Until she took the time to explain why smiling was important (similar to this post about the reason for the same ol' greeting) and encouraging me to do it (since I wasn't), I didn't know any better. Now I do my best to always smile when meeting people (even in stores). It makes a huge difference like the simple things in life typically do.

About Tom: I now read all posts from Tom Vander Well's blog QAQNA. Tom is partner and Vice-President of c wenger group, a consulting firm in Des Moines, Iowa that specializes in helping clients measure and improve customer service in their contact centers. I think he is pretty smart.