15 biggest sins of customer service
employees today:

1. Your employees are having a bad day,
   and their foul mood carries over in
   conversations with customers.
   
   Everyone has bad days, but customer
   service employees need to keep
   theirs to themselves.
   
   
   
   
   
   


2. Your employees hang up on angry
   customers.
   
   Ironclad rule: Never hang up on a
   customer.
   
   
   
   


3. Your company doesn't return phone calls
   or voice-mail messages, despite listing
   your phone number on your Web site
   and/or in ads and directories.
   
   
   Call customers back as soon as you can,
   or have calls returned on your behalf.
   
   
   
   


4. Your employees put callers on hold
   without asking them first, as a
   courtesy.
   
   Ask customers politely if you can put
   them on hold; very few will complain or
   say "No way!"
   
   
   
   


5. Your employees put callers on a speaker
   phone without asking them first if it is
   OK.
   
   Again: Ask first, as a courtesy.
   
   
   
   


6. Your employees eat, drink or chew gum
   while talking with customers on the
   phone.
   
   A telephone mouthpiece is like a
   microphone; noises can easily be picked
   up. Employees need to eat their meals
   away from the phone. And save that stick
   of gum for break time.
   
   
   
   


7. You have call-waiting on your business
   lines, and your employees frequently
   interrupt existing calls to take new
   calls.
   
   One interruption in a call might be
   excusable; beyond that, you are crossing
   the "rude" threshold. Do your best to be
   prepared with enough staff for peak
   calling times.
   
   
   
   


8. Your employees refuse or forget to use
   the words "please," "thank you" or
   "you're welcome."
   
   Please use these words generously, thank
   you.
   
   
   
   


9. Your employees hold side conversations
   with friends or each other while talking
   to customers on the phone, or they make
   personal calls on cell phones in your
   call center.
   
   Don't do either of these.
   
   
   
   


10. Your employees seem incapable of
    offering more than one-word answers.
    
    
    One-word answers come across as rude and
    uncaring.
    
    
    
    


11. Your employees do provide more than
    one-word answers, but a lot of the words
    are grounded in company or industry
    jargon that many customers don't
    understand.
    
    If you sell tech products, for example,
    don’t casually drop in abbreviations
    that laymen don’t understand.
    
    
    
    


12. Your employees request that customers
    call them back when the employees aren't
    so busy.
    
    Customers should never be told to call
    back. Request the customer's number
    instead.
    
    
    
    


13. Your employees rush through calls,
    forcing customers off the phone at the
    earliest opportunity.
    
    Be a
    little more discreet. Politely
    suggest that you've got the information
    you need and you must move on to other
    calls.
    
    
    
    


14. Your employees obnoxiously bellow
    "What's this in reference to?"
    effectively humbling customers and
    belittling their requests.
    
    Screening techniques can be used with a
    little more warmth and finesse. If a
    caller has mistakenly come your way, do
    your best to point him or her in the
    right direction.
    
    
    
    


15. Your employees freely admit to
    customers that they hate their jobs.
    
    
    This
    simply makes the entire company look
    bad. And don't think such a moment
    of candor or lapse in judgment won't
    get back to the boss.
    
    
    

There are times
when you get rude customers, but life is not
always fair for customer service employees.
Customers can be rude and get away with it.
Employees cannot – if they want to help
their companies to succeed and keep their
jobs as well.