One of the key elements that many businesses are failing in is the level of service and sales that are given over the phone. Many times, a potential customer will call before making a visit to the business to ask a few questions to determine if they are going to take the time to go to “Your store or your competitor’s store”. How they are served during that call will make the difference in their decision as to which store to go to for their needs.

If the person answering the phone is friendly, professional, knowledgeable and welcoming, the potential customer is more likely to come in than if they receive either poor service or conclude their call without receiving all the information they called about.

With this in mind, it is vital to the sales and growth of a company to be aware of the impact the person answering the phone has on their business as a potential customer’s first impression often begins on the telephone, rather than when they walk in the door. Therefore, it is important to know how the calls are being handled, and to train the staff to treat each customer calling their business as if they were standing in front of them, rather than just another annoying call.

As one of our services, we offer telephone “Mystery Shopping” to help our customers determine the level of telephone service that is currently being offered. The approach is the same as that of an “Onsite” visit to the stores. We first determine what our clients’ expectations are for the associates answering the phone, and then look for opportunities to help them improve those expectations by creating an audit form to capture the actual customer experience.

After all the calls have been completed, we create a graphical report to outline all the findings. This information will help the clients to gain an even better understanding of all the areas they are excelling in as well as areas of deficiency. And by monitoring these service levels on a consistent basis, the client is able to coach their staff to bring up low scores as well as reward them for the times that they are found providing excellent service.