Call Me!
By Emily Rupe
February 16, 2015
As a small business, you’re always on the eternal quest for the next golden stash of new clients, and with it, the track record of being the best groomer far and wide. In a service based industry such as ours, image and track record can be the difference between a full client book and moping around listening to crickets chirping. one of the first and a lot of often forms of communication that the potential treasure trove of new clients has is through that telephone handset. These crucial initial seconds of greeting and engaging set the tone of what your grooming represents. growing up with a daddy in service and sales, even at a small age, phone etiquette and its value were drilled into my head. While he was selling bulldozers and cranes, and with grooming we’re selling our talents and experience, there genuinely isn’t much difference in how to interact with your clients in a manner that makes sure the premier, professional service that pet parents demand.
Much like an award winning play, a great phone greeting need to have a well oiled script and performance. Of course there are some crucial acts your scripts need to include. Upon answer, acknowledge the caller and thank them for calling your business. While this only takes about a sentence or two, you’ve already well established a friendly tone, bestowed how much you appreciate them taking time to call your establishment over another and reiterated the name of the business. The next act is to identify yourself and ask how you might assist them. By letting the caller know whom they are speaking with, you’ve made the employee accountable for the conversation and information imparted onto the client. This becomes invaluable when there is a discrepancy over a quote, appointment time or to give accolades for great customer service. The second aspect of asking how to assist is to once again reinforce that your service is here to deal with the client. A full example phone script may go like this,” Hello, thank you for calling As the Tail Wags Grooming. Emily speaking, how may I help you?” Simple, concise and much a lot more professional than a mere hey there or shouting out the service name. once you’ve drafted the script, type it up and place it by the phone and in employee manuals so that the entire shop can answer the phone in the same manner.
A great script is worthless with a lackluster performance. Of course not every day is sunshine, unicorns and rainbows, but clients calling the establishment must be none the wiser. My family chides that my telephone voice sounds like I’ve been gorging out of the Xanax cookie jar. However, to the person on the other end of the line, who was not privy to the 5 minutes prior when I was yelling to the children about garbage duty, it sounds calm and cheerful. A potential client can be put off by a hurried, rushed, brash tone. Whether or not justified, it can give the impression that you run an unorganized, assembly line type ship without the focus on the a lot more day spa experience. volume is another nuance to the phone persona. Ideally, it must be in medium volume and well annunciated. speak too quietly and you’ll not only make the client struggle to absorb the information, but bestow a meek, unconfident image as well. Of course on the other side of the coin; loud, shouting tones and volume, not only are painful to hear, but give the impression of aggression. balance and natural flow are what separate the blah from the wow performances.
Once the greeting script and identity are devised, translate these methods into all aspects of phone usage within your business. often messages are left for clients letting them know their family pets are completed, make sure to take the professionalism and promotion you learned and employ them. A message script can be nearly identical to the greeting and requires only a few changes. The appreciation moving to the end of the script, acknowledgment of pet and supplying a contact number are the only differences. For example, “Hello, this is Emily from As the Tail Wags Grooming. I’m just letting you know fluffy is all finished and available for pickup. If you have any questions or worries feel complimentary to call us at _______, otherwise we’ll see you in a little while. thank you and have a great day!” With those basic revisions, we’ve covered all our bases and given a uniform professional way for our service to leave voicemails. We want to impart that our service is going to be supplying a great, consistent service whenever and this does that without having to raise a single shear.
Also, create a proper message dictation procedure as well. A poorly passed on bit of information can put the caller already at a downside ideal off the bat. It’s tough to maintain a sense of professionalism and buy if you aren’t able to return calls in an efficient and concise manner. Oral story telling is great, but not with service matters, always write the inull