If you have a brick and mortar store, chances are you have put a great deal of thought into the type of experience your customers have when they come in.  You might have scents wafting through the air if you are selling baked goods.  You may have purchased special lighting to enhance the mood of the store.  Music likely plays over hidden speakers.  By engaging as many of the five senses as you can, you will enhance your customer's shopping experience and make him want to come back for more. 

Contrast that with the experience your customers have with your company over the phone.  The only sense they can use during a phone interaction is their hearing, so you must strive to engage them by having a pleasant phone voice from the second you pick up the line.

Have you ever called a company or even a friend and wanted to hang up the minute someone answered the phone?  The person who answered may have given you the impression you were interrupting something important or he may have indicated just by the tone of his voice that he didn't want to be bothered at that particular moment.  Most of us don't realize the important indicators we are giving by the non-verbal cues conveyed in tone of voice.

On the phone, no one can see that you are in the middle of mopping up the water from the backed-up sewer in your office basement.  They don't know your newborn twins kept you up all night, or that you just received word from your banker that your request for a higher line of credit was declined.  All they know is that they called your company looking for a solution to their problems, and you sounded like it was too much bother.

One way to combat those negative verbal cues is to smile before you answer the phone.  The way you say hello can influence the whole phone call and possibly even the entire relationship you will have with the person on the other end of the line.  According to Karen Leland and Keith Bailey, co-founders of the Sterling Consulting Group and authors of Customer Service for Dummies [i], the reason why smiling before you answer the phone works is that smiling lifts the soft palate at the back of your mouth, making the sound waves more fluid.  This translates into making your voice sound friendly, warm, and receptive.

Non-verbal communication is king

Dr. Albert Meharabian, professor emeritus at UCLA and author of several books on nonverbal communications points out that when you speak, only 7% of what people comprehend comes from the actual words you use.  Tone of voice contributes to 38% of understanding, and a whopping 55% of what people infer when you are speaking comes from your facial expressions and body language.[ii]  What this means is that when you speak to someone on the phone, they have lost more than half of their ability to figure out the meaning you are trying to convey simply because they cannot see you.  It is imperative, therefore, that you utilize good phone skills to more fully engage them. 

Mehrabian’s research also points out that if there is any difference between your words and the tone of your voice, 86% of the time people will trust what they hear in your tone over your actual words.  There are numerous examples of the importance of tone of voice.  A dull monotone voice conveys the feeling that the speaker is bored and totally uninterested in helping the caller, while a more highly pitched voice might say that the speaker is enthusiastic about his job.  A person who speaks in a low pitch may appear depressed while a person who speaks loudly may insinuate that he is not open to input.