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Use a Script To Train Your Telephone Person
A Script Is Your Most Effective Tool For Excellent Results When Receiving or Making Phone Calls.
WHY USE A SCRIPT ??
- Scripts ease training. New employees have a planned,
repeatable sequence whether answering questions or dealing with objections.
- Scripts insure even performance by all telephone persons,
new or old timers.
- Scripts offer consistency in all areas of your business
- Scripts eliminate the need for the "expert" to answer questions.
It's a fact that most consumers object too quickly, because they are anticipating that they won't like the answer they are about to receive. It's also a fact that most of us answer these objections too soon, and allow ourselves to become sidetracked from the real consumer issue. Experience shows that a full 80% of your gross sales will come after an objection has been answered!
The main areas where you benefit from using scripts are:
[1] answering questions, and [2] answering objections.
The major objections a professional cleaning service deals with will fall into one of the following categories:
- Your price is too high.
- I called your competitor.
- I don't need all of that.
- I'm really not interested.
- I don't need that much.
The major questions asked by a consumer when calling are:
- Do you clean
"-------------?" [ carpet, rugs, furniture, etc. ]
- What do you charge to clean
"----------------?"
- How long does it take ?
- Do you dry clean carpets ?
- Do you steam clean carpets ?
- How long will it take to dry
?
- Etc, etc, etc
There are no new questions or objections, just new ways to state them. Since this is the case, your job is really not too complicated. All you have to do is collect all the questions and all the objections and set up your grouping similar to the ideas listed previously and you are ready to develop your own easy to use scripts.
With out a script each person begins to develop his own answers to the most common questions that they receive, and the answers they develop may not be in the best interests of your business! Probably the best example would be the most often asked question... Do you clean carpets? Face it, after hearing this question multiple times daily, your telephone person soon becomes tempted to say something like... Nah, we just put the name Quality Carpet Cleaning on our trucks and in our ads to confuse people, we really run a shoe shine service here!
Nuff said? Believe me, even if they don't say it, the voice inflection makes the person calling really wish they had called someone else. A structured response that is in black & white as a standard company procedure makes all the difference in the world for your employee.
Here is my suggestion :
Make a trip to the office supply store and locate several loose leaf notebooks that are constructed with the bottom made so the notebook can sit erect on a slant that makes it very convenient to read from at a glance. While you are at it pick up some 8 1/2 x 11 plain paper pre-punched for the binder and a package of dividers with tabs that you can customize as you need them.
Divide the book into two main sections, one for questions and one for objections.
Make a tab for each question, then outline the answer you would prefer that your telephone person use when asked that question. Make the print large enough to be easily read and use a highlighter to draw the eye quickly. Repeat the procedure for the objection section.
Next, carefully explain to all concerned the importance of using this tool, and ask for suggestions from them to improve the script book.
Don't wait until you can do this perfectly or it will never get done! If you have to, use a yellow legal pad and handwrite the scripts to get started.
You will notice an immediate improvement in customer and prospect handling. If your company is to survive and grow in today's market place, positive customer contact is crucial. Periodic out calls to these valuable customers will also pay additional dividends, using well thought out scripts as a positive employee assistance program.
