The average business call lasts two minutes longer than it should. One of the top reasons calls get beyond employees’ control is they struggle to get a rambling or upset customer to cut to the point at the beginning of the conversation. If you’re like most of my clients, you have more pots now than you have burners. The last thing you need to be doing is worrying about your work from home employees’ ability to move swiftly from one call to the next.
So, here’s a tip to help your team control conversations politely.
Reframe
Sometimes unhappy customers will ramble, making themselves more upset and making it harder for you to cut to the business of fixing the issue.
So, try these reframing statements to help customers move on.
“We want to get to the bottom of this a much as you do.”
“I certainly understand your concern. Let’s take a look and see what’s going on.”
“While the warranty doesn’t cover this, we do have a couple of options for you today..”
Reframing statements are fantastic for getting customers past excessive venting about the problem.
If you find you need more help with politely controlling conversations with customers, take my Call Control 23-minute online course on LinkedIn Learning. Right now, this training is FREE!
To access my no-cost courses for your team, go to Opportunity.LinkedIn.com and select Customer Service Specialist Learning Path, then select “Call Control Strategies.”
