As a company, Tooty has listened to over half a million customer conversations which includes both secret shopper calls and monitored real customer conversations. Regardless of the industry or the office location, CSRs will tell me how different and demanding their customers are in comparison to anyone else.  Some describe their customers as mean, long-winded or needy.  I recently told a CSR I was hoping she would get some of “those” customers while I was with her, not because I wanted her to be nervous or to be given a hard time but because I wanted to take notice of how she navigated the call.  The call that came in was a woman calling on behalf of her elderly mother.  Yard waste had not been picked up after a severe storm and she was fearful that if something happened an emergency vehicle would not be able to get through.  The CSR was sympathetic and let the customer share her story over and over and over and over again.  After the 5^th time of hearing the customer restate her concern and request I was wondering if the call would ever end.  7 minutes were spent talking in circles.  It became clear that the Customer Service representative didn’t know how to wrap up a conversation and created a long winded talker.

Here are some short and sweet suggestions to aid you in keeping your customer conversations short.

Wrap up phrases:

• I know you’re busy Mr. Jones. Is there anything else you need before I let you go?
• Once we hang up I am going to do ___ on your behalf. Is there anything else you need from me right now?
• I need to get going on your request. Is there anything else you need right now?
• Just to summarize, I am going to escalate this to ___as soon as we hang up. Is there anything else you need before I let you go?

Keeping yourself in-check:

• Your customer will give you a signal that you are taking too long in wrapping up the call or that you haven’t been clear in what will happen after the call is done. That signal is usually the repetition of the reason for the call.  When you aren’t clear or when you are silent for too long your customer will feel compelled to take over.
• You may think you are coming across as a good listener, but dead space can give the impression that you aren’t paying attention at all.
• How many times are you repeating yourself?  Use a script as a check sheet so that you will be able to see if you have already covered something.

Remember that you are not being rude by taking charge of closing the conversation.  There are times when call volume is low and you can enjoy your customer’s banter.  When things are hopping in your customer service department you need to shave minutes off your talk time using some of these easy tips.

If you need training for your sales or customer service team, we offer excellent webinars and classroom training.  Would you like to try a call monitoring or secret shopper program?  Let Tooty Inc. test your team, your process and provide some easy to apply tips to improve employee performance.