Excellent telephone customer service requires dedication, skill and enthusiasm. It does not just happen.

When dealing with a customer over the phone, you are limited to product knowledge, responsiveness and your voice as tools to give the right impression and build customer loyalty.

This video features our comedian host who pokes fun at the topic. However, the message that is delivered is a serious one. Telephone customer service has to be done well and the job is an important one. Once a customer hangs up, you do not get a chance to try again. You have to leave the customer feeling good about the conversation or he/she will no longer be your customer.

Telephone customer service—The “customer”

Telephone customer service—The "service"

In settings that range from a corporate admin to a warehouse supervisor and from a mail order company to a medical setting, this new release portrays both traditional and nontraditional customer service roles. Even if they are only your “internal customer” or coworkers, everyone in the organization has customers as these different scenes demonstrate.

The finer points of customer service are also demonstrated by our host narrator such as upselling and cross-selling. Cross selling is when an additional service or product better suits a customer’s needs. The scenarios demonstrate how to handle irate or unsatisfied customers in a way that strengthens the relationship.

It takes skill and finesse to be a telephone, customer service representative. A positive attitude is a necessity, one that projects warmth in your voice on every call.