The concept of voice—your voice, the voice of those we care about, the degree to which we ARE our voice—is not something most people think about much.
It is taken for granted because voice, is something we experience all the time.
Yet our voice largely defines how others perceive us—both in certain circumstances where our emotion comes through, and also in the natural tone, quality and pitch of our normal speaking voice. Have you ever thought you could tell what someone looked like from just speaking to them on the phone? Or wondered what people think you look like from just hearing your voice? You will be interested to know, your voice can tell quite a bit about you—even if just speaking to someone briefly, such as a sales person who calls your office phone line, or the supplier you have never met.
Studies show that a listener who hears the voice of someone else, having never met them and never seen a picture of them, can infer their social class, various personality traits, emotional and mental state, and attributes related to deception.
The Department of Psychology at Columbia University published research finding that subjects who listen to voice samples are just as capable of correctly estimating the height, weight, and age of the speakers as those who examined their photographs. Bizarrely, they both estimated these traits correctly 75 per cent of the time.
This bodes the obvious conclusion: We should all pay more attention to how we speak, bearing in mind that the way we sound can impact everything from our personal relationships to our professional success.
Many businesses, particularly those where phone conversations are critical, opt for training. There are customer service speech classes and training for executives—all centred around making voice work to achieve more.
Until you can get your training booked however, these tips may help you and your team use voice to your advantage:
1. Consistency is key. Everyone should answer the office phone line consistently. If it’s an in-bound call, all the customer wants to know is that they got the right number and they are speaking to someone that can help them. “Hello, VTSL, this is Lilly,” is sufficient.
2. Never interrupt. Don’t interrupt a complaining customer – no matter how much you want to.
3. Get to know the hold button. Does everyone know how to use your office phone system? The hold button is your friend. It is never a good idea to put the phone to your chest to muffle the mouthpiece.
4. Then get to know the transfer button. If you transfer someone to another member of the team, know how to do it. And then say to the client, “The best person to handle this is David, so I’m going to transfer you.” If it’s going to take time for you to locate David or explain the problem to him, tell the client you’ll be a while. For instance, say, “It will take me about three to four minutes to get David up to speed, so can I please put you on hold?” Watch user-training videos for hold and transfer here.
5. Keep customers informed. It is really important to give the client a list of what you are going to do, and a time frame that is longer than necessary. Then follow through and do it quicker than you told them. At VTSL for example, if we are installing a new office phone line for a client, we give them a step by step plan of what actions we will be taking and a clear timeline of delivery.
6. Smile when you talk to customers. We all know you can hear a smile.
7. Learn how to handle angry and abusive people. Don’t tell someone to calm down, acknowledge and empathise with their problem, “How awful!”.
VTSL provides business phone systems and office phone lines for companies across the UK and Ireland. For more information on a VoIP system that delivers crystal clear voice quality – give us a call on 0207 078 3200.
