I received some interesting feedback from a TUANZ member a while back about why contact centre staff say ‘Hello, how are you today?’ when making an outbound call.
This member believes nobody making a genuine call ever uses those words. Since I am a hard customer to please when I receive these types of calls and we are talking about the full scripted ‘How are you today?’ (pause, next paragraph on script), I am going to agree with this comment.
I tend to tense up, as soon as I answer my phone and I receive the first sentence of ‘hi, you are speaking with Jo Bloggs from xyz company’, then the ‘how are you today Mrs Lacy?’ (Ouch! Mrs Lacy - that hurts my young ego). These calls get a short sharp ‘fine’ as I feel it’s not a genuine question but part of a call script that they cannot or will not deviate from. It makes me cringe.
It would be interesting to see if we surveyed customers about that question whether it created a barrier and whether the first word said after that statement from the customer is ‘fine’ or 'Ok'. To me it doesn’t build any relationships in those first 20-30 seconds that are so very important.
The member's solution is for the outbound caller to be upfront from the start with a sentence along the lines ‘Hello, I am calling about a new idea that may be of assistance to you. May I have a couple of minutes of you time please?’. Which I agree is a bit more inviting and I have no doubt many outbound centres are using.
Again, it’s down to the next 20 seconds after that statement which are the key for me, as to whether I build a barrier or actively listen. If you don’t tell me why ‘I’ need it and engage me, then the call will end without a good result for the caller.
Outbound calling is a skill in itself and I accept I would be really bad at it, so I respect the many employees out there making outbound calls every day for their company.
All I ask, is that the opening sentence sounds genuine and makes me want to listen. Just because that scripting worked for the last five years, doesn’t mean it will work for the next five and one size doens't fit all these days.