CHAPTER 3

THERE’S A RINGING IN MY EARS!

You know what it feels like. You place a call and the telephone rings once, twice, three times, four times, six times, eight times. You wonder if you’ve dialed the wrong number or whether you’ve accidentally called Mars—and no one is home. Or, maybe the person you’re calling is suffering an elbow malady that prevents him or her from picking up the phone. Or perhaps today is a new federal holiday and your company is the only one open for business.

Finally, you give up, abandon your attempt. You become yet another customer lost to an unanswered telephone.

It’s precisely because of this all too frequent scenario that many companies have instituted a policy of “answer by the third ring.” By setting a standard and measuring performance against it, companies hope they can eliminate a lot of customer frustration—and gain increased customer satisfaction.

Is there something magical about three rings? No. In fact, studies show that customers care more that their call is eventually answered by someone who can assist them than about the number of rings. At the same time, no caller has ever said, “Don’t answer yet. I haven’t waited long enough.” So, three rings provides a convenient starting place when working to serve customers better via the telephone.

Whether or not your company has a standard for answering phone calls, you will want to have your own personal standard. It’s a helpful way to track and improve your own performance—and to identify times when you need some assistance to make certain your telephone works for, and not against, you and your customers.

How fast should you answer the phone? Here are some things to consider:

• Industry standards. A customer’s expectation of what is prompt may vary depending on whom he or she is calling. For example, a person may expect that a hotel’s switchboard phone operator should answer on the second or third ring. That same person, however, may be prepared—and satisfied—to wait for five to eight rings when calling a government agency or a friend’s home. What do customers in your industry expect? Three rings? Five rings if a human finally answers? You should meet or, better yet, exceed the standard answer time used in your industry. After all, your customer will compare you to your competition.

• Consistency. If your company sets a standard for answering customer phone calls, avoid the temptation of using a different standard when answering calls from other employees. If your phone system differentiates between internal and external calls, it’s easy to think “that call can wait, it’s just another employee.” In reality, the way you answer calls from fellow employees—your internal customers—will affect the way you answer calls from external customers. If you are a manager, this is even more critical. Your behavior provides a model and sets the informal standard for the employees you supervise.

• Voice messaging. Many “three-ring” voice messaging systems are actually designed to take a phone call if it is not answered after 2½ rings. That’s why when you try to pick up the call after the third ring, the caller isn’t there—he or she is talking to your voice mail. If your company has such a system, make your personal standard to “answer on the first ring.”

• Rollover systems. If your phone is part of a large system, you can probably set it to roll over to another line if the call is not answered by the third ring. This can be a terrific way to ensure that calls are answered. But be careful.

If you set your phone to roll over after three rings and the person at the rollover number isn’t able to answer quickly, the customer may have to wait for six rings. Worse yet, the call may roll again to a third line. Some customers refer to this as being “trapped in the VOX from hell!”