Accountants must work on their telephone manner…

I saw an interesting article in my Institute magazine entitled 'Accountants must work on their telephone manner'.

Basically it says that just 22% of clients are happy with how their accountant talks to them on the telephone.

This means that as a profession we only just rank above printers (18%) and motor traders (21%).

What a very sorry state of affairs!

Apparently dentists rank much higher - 52% of customers are happy with their telephone manner.

However accountants are far from being unique.

Across businesses generally, only 23% of customers are happy with the way businesses talk to them.

And we all know how miserable it is when the person on the other end of the phone doesn't seem interested in our issue or sounds like they're having a worse day than us!

And yet having your staff answer the phone with a 'smile' in their voice is such an easy change to implement. It costs nothing. And yet can differentiate you in an instant from your competitors.

We try very hard to ensure all our team answer the phone with a 'smile' in their voice. And we also work very hard to make sure we speak to our clients in plain English - rather than accountant speak!

And phone manner is another example of Moments of Truth (covered in detail in the Business Growth System).

So if you're interested in finding out more simple, no-cost ideas to improve your business, why not get in touch.

Give us a ring on 01202 048696 and put our phone manner to the test - like Simon you may just find us a breath of fresh air!!