We’ve all had this experience. You call a business, a harried voice asks you to hold, and before you have a chance to say “no!” you’re listening to some prerecorded music, trapped in the purgatory of “on hold.” Or you call to ask a simple question, such as how late the store stays open, and the person on the other end responds as if you had asked him to push a Mack truck across the country with his big toe.
Or perhaps the person on the other end of the line uses the right words, but his tone of voice says, “You are an idiot and I don’t have time for this.”
If you haven’t yet learned to think of your singing work as a business, it’s time to start! How do people feel when they call your business?
Start with your answering machine or voice mail message, often your first point of contact. Imagine the Met calling you for a job but reaching your machine. Would this prestigious potential hirer hang up in disgust?
The messages on some singers’ answering machines could lose them jobs—and usually, it isn’t anything the singers said.
Are the nonverbal messages you give out over the phone conveying a good first impression about you? Are you energetic, respectful and professional on the phone? If you are, you can bet that people notice it, appreciate it, and value you and your business as a result.
Whether you are recording a message or speaking on the telephone, the verbal and nonverbal messages you convey are an important part of your business. In the caller’s mind (whether he is a hirer, manager or fellow singer), the nonverbal message is as important, or more important, than the words. If the nonverbal message is different from the verbal message, callers rely on the nuances of the voice, rather than the words, to tell them the truth.
These nuances, known as paralanguage, include accents, pauses, volume, emphasis, tone and tempo. On the telephone, callers interpret much of the emotional impact and true meaning of the message from these nuances and other nonverbal cues, such as duration and background sounds.
Positive Impressions
Here are some techniques you can use to improve your effectiveness on the telephone and create a positive impression:
1. Answer your phone promptly. Time is a powerful nonverbal communicator. Waiting on the phone, when there may be little or no stimulation or distractions to help the time pass, affects a caller’s perception, so the time they wait seems even longer. If someone is calling with a question, a concern, or to hire you, the longer your phone rings, the more the reason they’re calling seems less important to you than it should. It also allows time for the caller’s concern to grow—and a job to evaporate.
Answering quickly stops these feelings from getting out of control, and it portrays you nonverbally as quick and efficient in your business.
Avoid letting the telephone ring more than three or four times. Research shows that after three rings, each additional ring makes the caller an average of 10 percent more likely to hang up and 15 percent more likely to be irritated when you finally answer. Answering promptly conveys a strong nonverbal message that you and your business are efficient, and helps ensure you have a happier person to deal with.
2. Use a warm, sincere voice in your greeting. Make sure you deliver the first words, such as “good morning” or “good afternoon,” with warmth and sincerity. The most important aspects we look for in a first impression are qualities that make us feel safe, such as friendliness and genuineness. If you use a plastic or automatic greeting, you give an impression of insincerity and unfriendliness. On the phone, it takes a mere fortieth of a second to form a first impression, so the voice you use is critical. We don’t form these impressions only with strangers, we also form a first impression in interactions with people we already know.
3. Give your caller adjustment time. Our ears are very sensitive to sound. It takes 10 to 30 seconds to adjust to voices. Make a habit of saying, “good morning,” or “good afternoon.” This gives the caller time to adjust to your voice before going on to the most important part of your greeting, such as your name or the name or your business, if your singing is using a name, such as “Heritage Carolers.” Say it clearly and don’t rush it. If you don’t give the caller this adjustment period, he or she may not retain the information you provide. The caller may hear it, but won’t absorb it.
4. Identify yourself and/or your company name immediately, but slowly. Don’t rush through your business name. It’s a habit everyone gets into. After all, you’ve heard it before, you know what the name is. Your rushed voice, however, creates a perception in the mind of the caller. It can make callers think that the business is not important to you, that you’re busy or stressed, or that you want to rush them.
Take a deep relaxing breath before you pick up the phone, and focus on using a normal, conversational speed in your delivery.
5. Be understandable in your communication. Take precautions to ensure that you speak clearly. That means not just slowly, but articulately.
You can test clarity of your voice: Tape yourself reading a paragraph, then bite down on a tooth prop, such as a large marker, and tape a few more paragraphs. (The tooth prop makes your lips and tongue work harder.) Remove the tooth prop and immediately tape the first paragraph again. If your voice sounds crisper, with harder t’s, c’s, k’s and d’s, you need to use the tooth prop regularly to have a clear sounding voice. If you have a significant accent, accent-reduction classes might help not just your phone voice, but your career as well.
6. Match your caller’s voice tone, volume and rate of speech. You may have heard about the value of matching or mirroring body language to establish rapport and make someone feel safer and more comfortable—but did you know that matching the voice on the phone has the same ability? Remember, callers do not have face-to-face cues to help them read you and make them feel safe. Matching the nuances of the person’s voice in the first few minutes of the call puts the caller at ease.
7. Avoid background noise. Ever hear someone on the other end of the line clicking on computer keys or watching television? It makes you wonder if you have the person’s full attention. In today’s multi-tasking world, we may think it’s all right to do more than one thing, but to the person who expects your attention, it can seem rude and unprofessional. Rustling papers, sending out e-mail, or talking to other people in the room takes attention away from the person who is on the line. It’s disrespectful and bad for business.
8. Don’t interrupt your caller. When you are face-to-face with another person, you use body language cues—such as leaning forward, or eye contact—to indicate whose turn it is to speak. When these are absent, be careful to avoid interrupting your caller; interruptions come across more severely over the phone and can appear rude. Wait until it is clear that your caller has finished speaking before you respond.
Consistently practicing these tips is crucial to establishing and maintaining a good first impression on the phone. Your tone, energy, even the speed at which you speak, need to be the same for everyone at all times of the day, no matter how you are feeling, to make sure your caller feels appreciated and satisfied.
