How to interact with

customers on the phone

Inform the customer if they’re being
recorded. If calls are recorded by your system, you
most likely are required to inform the caller of this. If
your incoming call message does not do this for you,
you’ll need to do it yourself. You might have to do this
yourself for outgoing calls as well.

Repeat to clarify. If your connection is poor, or if

you otherwise need clarification, repeat back what you
think you heard, to get confirmation. Summarize.
After the customer has given you their story, repeat it
back to them in a succinct fashion to make sure you’ve
understood it correctly. If your connection is really
bad, you may want to ask the customer to spell out
critical information (better than asking them to repeat
it multiple times).

Communicate hold time. Before you put someone

on hold (to look something up or ask a question, for
example), get confirmation that it’s OK to do so.
General rule: don’t leave a customer on hold more
than 2 minutes without checking back, even if it’s to
say it may take longer. If you know it will be an
extended hold, tell them ahead of time. Offer to call
back, if that’s preferable, or consider giving them the
option to hang up and continue the conversation in a
ticket if waiting will be inconvenient for them.

Mirror your customer’s tone. Try to match their

tone and emotion. Mirroring doesn’t mean to yell if a
customer is yelling at you. However, an initial increase
in volume or intensity might help the interaction at
the start. Then it’s important to quickly bring the
intensity down. Be yourself, and mirror in the best
way you can to create quick rapport.

Smile, literally. A smile can “translate” through the

phone, causing your voice to sound friendly and
warm. But be careful not to “smile” at a very angry
customer. Wait until the time is right.

Reflect and validate. When a customer is upset or

frustrated, they might not be able to take in what you
say—even when it’s the right answer. First, really
listen to help them calm down. After saying all they
need to say, they’re more likely to be receptive to
hearing the solution you offer—even when it’s not
what they’d like to hear. You can find some practical
advice for how to say no to customers in Tough talk:
when “No” is the right thing to say to a customer .

Acknowledge the problem. Tell customers you

understand their problem and the reason for their call.
Make sure they feel heard. This demonstrates that
you’re taking ownership of the issue that has caused
the customer an inconvenience or some frustration.

Be patient, give the customer time.Give the

customer the time they need when asking them to
provide you with more information. Being patient also
is useful when a customer is calling to complain. Allow
them get their story out; interrupting them will only
make them more upset. Let customers vent if they
need to, even if you understand the issue right away.
People often need to finish expressing themselves in
their own way before they are ready to proceed.

Prepare an escalation plan. Know who you can

escalate calls to if the caller asks to speak to a
manager. If you’re a support manager, expect that
you’ll need to do this sometimes, and at inopportune
times. If no manager is available, apologize and
escalate the ticket to a superior with a summary of the
issue. Most importantly, don't take it personally if the
customer wishes to speak to a manager.

Take notes as you go. This will help you capture the
details of the customer’s issue (you might forget some
details otherwise) and it will help to decrease the
amount of time you spend in wrapping-up after the
call has ended.

Use the phone to get unstuck.Sometimes text-

based support interactions such as email and chat can
stall because of too much back-and-forth (e.g., you’re
asking the customer for some information and they’re
not giving it to you), or things are getting heated in a
ticket. Getting the customer on the phone can help by
allowing you to clarify the information you need and
ask follow-up questions. This also reminds the
customer that you’re a real person and are there to
help them.

Ask if it's a follow-up call. If the customer is

calling to check on an existing issue that they've
reported previously, merge the call ticket into the
previous one, to keep the records together.

Check to see if the caller is already in your

system. Calls from previously-unknown numbers
might turn out to be from customers you already have
a record with. Check to see if this customer already
has another user record in your system (e.g. from an
ticket created via email), and if so, merge the phone
and email-based user records together, so that the
user's tickets can be found in one place, and future
calls will be attributed to them.

Ensure optimal voice quality. If you're using a

VoiP provider such as Zendesk Voice, follow their
recommendations for optimal voice quality. For
example, wired connections and headsets tend to
provide better voice quality than wifi-connected
computer or Bluetooth-connected headsets.