Things Your Customers Never Want to Hear

By Nancy Friedman, The Telephone Doctor

Customer service plays such an important role in business today. No one will ever argue that.

What they will argue about though, is how companies treat customers — and how their staff communicates with them. Believe me, some of the horror stories that I hear — let alone what happens to me personally — are beyond anyone’s imagination!

Over the years, Telephone Doctor has created a list of things that your customers never ever want to hear. We’ve put them into our best-selling DVD program, "Five Forbidden Phrases."

These phrases (along with many others I'm sure) are guaranteed to turn customers off and rush them to the competition. And yet, customers hear these words day after day, time and again.

Here’s a sneak preview of one of them — the worst one:

"I don’t know."

That’s it. Looks harmless, doesn’t it? Yet, it drives customers up the wall and will drive them away from your company. To ask a simple question about your company or product and get a bland, "I don’t know" is inexcusable. I know what you’re thinking; "I’m new and I really don’t know. What do I say instead?"

Being new does not give you carte blanche to be bland. Use our positive alternatives instead. "I don’t know" sounds like "I don’t care" and rejection to the customer. Positive alternatives are readily available and in this case, it’s a simple one.

Let’s say you’ve been asked something about a product and you have no idea what the customer is talking about. The problem is someone has asked you something you don’t have the answer to. It will happen to everyone at one time or another. It’s not an age thing; we simply blank out or lose the information.

The key is to stop before you answer. Think. Then pick up the Telephone Doctor’s positive alternative:

"Gee, Mr. Customer, that’s a very good question, let me check and find out for you."

You can find out. There’s very little about your company that you aren’t able to find for someone. It may not be right away; but we also have found that most questions don’t need an answer as soon as we ask it.

So, be sure to also ask "and, Mr. Customer, when did you need that information?"

I did have one lady come up to me and tell me she always tells the customer "I don’t know, but I’ll find out." You can use that, but those of us in the training area know that "BUT" is the big eraser word. It erases everything you say afterwards. Besides, at Telephone Doctor, we prefer to start our sentences in the positive, rather than the negative. Simply put, Telephone Doctor is a language of positive statements at the top of the conversation.

So... "I don’t know" is now a forbidden phase if you’ve read this article. Catch yourself when you say it and use the Telephone Doctor’s positive alternative.

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Nancy Friedman is president of Telephone Doctor®, an international customer service training company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, specializing in customer service and telephone skills. She is a KEYNOTE speaker at association conferences and corporate gatherings and is the author of four best selling books. Call 314-291-1012 for more information or visit the website at www.telephonedoctor.com.

Published in Networking Today, December, 2006