Telephone Abuse

Telephone Abuse

Are you abusing your customers with your telephone messages?

Too many business owners forget how important the telephone is as a marketing tool. Maybe that is because the telephone is not normally listed in your marketing budget. Yet it can be so powerful and so cost effective. It only takes a little thinking and training. How you use your telephone determines the message you send and feelings you create for your customers.

I agree with the following advice from, the "Master of Influence with Ease", Jeff Mowat. Go ahead check your telephone hold-message and follow this good advice from Jeff Mowatt. And find one additional piece of advice from me.


Common Blunders with 'Please-hold' Messages

If your company's in-bound calls are routed to a call-centre, check to see if your 'please-hold' recording includes any of these blunders:

"Due to overwhelming demand all our agents are busy..." This company is overwhelmed. Sounds like they're out of control and don't know what to do.

"Due to high call volumes..." I guess management wasn't expecting many customers to call. Or they're just incompetent at handling high demand.

"Your call is important to us..." They start the interaction by insulting our intelligence and lying. If our call was that important to them, they'd find a way to have someone pick up the phone.

Better to simply state, "Thank you for calling ABC Corp. Please remain on the line and you will be served faster than by redialing. Waiting time for the next available agent is approximately x minutes." It's to-the-point, informative and unlike the others, doesn't add insult to the injury of being on-hold.

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Jeff Mowat always offers good practical advice when it comes to selecting and using the right words at the right time. That’s why I follow his advice.

The above is an excerpt from Jeff Mowatt’s weekly ezine, Influence with Ease. You can register here.


If you are guilty of telephone abuse please stop it because your customers might stop calling you.


Addtional Telephone Advice
And if you are sending a caller to hold, send them directly. Don’t make them wait for several rings before putting them on hold.


George Torok
Marketing Specialist
Motivational Business Speaker