In the first of a two part blog, Sarah Brocklebank of The Move Exchange invites you to consider how effective your firm’s call handling is.
Do you have different call routes for existing customers and new customers? How do you ensure your call handling is positively affecting your client’s and prospect’s behaviours? And do you have a measure of success that you can continue to benchmark your business and staff against?
Do you routinely call your own office? Are your staff polite and courteous? Do you have a measure of how effective your staff are when answering the phone?
Call handling is a dying art, with businesses increasingly reliant on email for communications.
But effective call handling is as important as your website, office frontage, social media presence and any other on and offline marketing presence.
It’s a window into your business and as such important that you invest time into your staff who are required to answer the phone, helping them to understand the importance of their role in the business.
It’s human nature to want more direct contact rather than a faceless email. Yes, email serves a purpose but when it comes to important life decision, health, money, property, advice etc people still like to feel like they are speaking with someone who knows what they are talking about and can help them.
Like them or loathe them, there is a reason call centers still exist!
So how can you measure the effectiveness of your call handling?
Answering the phone politely and redirecting calls to relevant people is one thing, but being able to communicate the benefits of your business over another is quite a different skill set. And something that very few businesses understand effectively.
So in the first instance it’s important your staff are well drilled;
- you might set an expectation as a business of answering all calls within a certain time frame, or a certain number of rings
- research shows that using professional words like “Hello” instead of “Hi” has a more positive effect on consumer behaviour
- You might wish for all staff to answer the call in a certain way, ending “how may I help?” or “how may I direct your call?”
In any call handling role it’s important to be positive, helpful and most importantly, polite!
For an independent review of your call handling, have you considered undertaking a Mystery Shopper exercise? If you are interested in learning more about how we can help with this please get in touch.
In part 2 of our series we’ll consider the differences between call handling, and enquiry handling and how we might effectively train staff and measure success when it comes to new customers.
As Client Relationship Manager, Sarah plays a key role in helping our customers maximise their investment in The Move Exchange. Sarah and her strong, business-minded team are committed to helping firms win and nurture new business leads and improve conversion rates.
Speak to her today to find out how The Move Exchange could work for you.
Email: Sarah.Brocklebank@PracticalVision.co.uk
Telephone: 0330 223 2913.
The Move Exchange is a quote and conversion service which helps law firms convert more business from existing enquirers, either as an entirely outsourced partner or as an overflow service. As a dedicated conversion specialist we have a strong track record of delivering significant increases in conversions rates for law firms and panel managers.
The Move Exchange is part of The Practical Vision Network, which include the award-winning cyber security suite Lawyer Checker, Solve Legal marketing solutions for law firms, and the Today’s publications.
This article was submitted to be published by The Move Exchange as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.
