Telephone Service

Whenever a person is communicating through a telephone they are unaware of the nonverbal communication cues throughout the whole conversation. Since the person is not relying on visual cues, problems are likely to arise. In Garth’s case, when he calls the Auto Dealer, he begins to become easily irritated and decides to stop doing business with the dealer. The reasons why Garth became easily irritated all began with the greetings of both the receptionist and the salesperson. Next Garth was placed on hold a total of 4 times and was cut off twice by two separate employers.

Some of the first problems that arose began when Garth decided to contact the dealer through a telephone line, where the auto dealer’s employees failed to answer the telephone with poor greetings. First it began with the receptionist, where she identified the name of the dealer and failed to mention her name. She also failed to correctly let the customer know when she was ready to converse with him. Her way of letting the caller know what he wanted sounded a bit unprofessional by saying “Can I help ya?” Instead she could have simply phrased “How may I help you” (Timm p. 71). The second similar problem that arose involved the salesperson’s greeting. His greeting failed to mention who he was or how he could help Garth. Instead he simply said “Hello?” Now instead of sounding like a concerned employer, he sounded like an uncaring person who is being rudely interrupted just by simply saying “Hello”. Both employers did not even bother to ask for his name. If they were to have asked “May I ask who’s calling?” they could have immediately established credibility for their business by communicating with Garth using courtesy titles (Timm p. 72). Whenever the employers begi...

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...st and the salesperson; he was also placed on hold 4 times and cut off twice. All of these four problems would have never risen if the employers who answered Garth’s call would have known how to effectively answer promptly with an introduction. The salesperson could have also limited the amount of times he put Garth on hold by keeping a constant flow of information rather than leaving him on the phone multiple times. Next he was cut off twice by two different employers who made it seem like the business was not interested in Garths concerns at all. All of these errors that Garth faced were minor errors that could be fixed if they were looked at starting from the prompt greeting to thanking the caller for his call.

Reference

Timm, P. R. (2008). Customer service: career success through customer satisfaction (A Custom ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.