How great is your firm at answering in-bound calls? Do you even know?!

Recently I rang 6 accountancy firms during normal business hours. The results were ‘interesting’:

• 3 went straight to answerphone (and these firms did have several people working for them, they weren’t sole practitioners).
• 1 receptionist refused to give me the surname of the person she had told me to call the following week.
• Another receptionist gave me the wrong email address for the partner.
• Only 1 person handled the call professionally and created a good impression of their firm.

Your receptionist (or whoever answers the phone in your firm) is usually the first point of contact for clients, prospects, business associates and suppliers. In the case of prospective clients, this call can often be their first and lasting impression of your firm, so 5 of the above 6 firms failed to create a good impression!

To be fair, from my experience this was an usual situation, as most accountants that I ring answer the phone quickly and professionally. However, it raised the question….. how often do you make mystery calls into your firm to see how well you handle calls?

A ‘Mystery Shopper’ exercise can be useful to test the first impressions your firm gives out. However, it can also highlight if any additional training is required, not just in telephone etiquette but also in how they handle the call, knowledge of the firm and the services you provide. So why don’t you make some ‘secret calls’ to your own office, or get a friend or family member to make them, and ‘test’ the following:

• How many rings does it take before the phone is answered, or does it go to answerphone?
• Does the person answering the phone sound cheerful and professional, or do you get the impression that you’ve just interrupted them?
• Do they say the name of your firm and their name?
• Do they ask how they can help you?
• Tell them you’re calling about one of their services (choose one service, e.g. payroll, accounts preparation, starting a new business etc.) and see what they say:
  1. Can they give you some background information in the first instance?
  2. Do they take down your details and say they will transfer you to the relevant person, or get that person to call you back?
  3. Do they say that you don’t offer such a service (and yes I’ve seen that happen in accountancy firms!)
• How do they finish the call? E.g. transferring you to the correct person; assuring you that the contact person will call as advised, or are they abrupt and tell you to ring back later?

The above questions are relevant for accountancy firms, but any business owners could adopt the same line of questioning for products/services which are relevant to your firm.

Depending on how well your staff answer the phone, you may want to consider training on either telephone handling skills, or perhaps internal training on your products and services. By doing the latter you make sure that all your staff are aware of what you do and more importantly, they know who to transfer the call to if they are not the person to speak to.