It’s almost overwhelming to imagine how much hinges on a first impression.
Everything from the success of a first date to a job interview relies on making a positive and lasting impact on another person in the span of half an hour, maybe even less. It’s weighed so importantly in social and business situations that people have come up with many rules for a proper introduction – and a good, strong grip is just the start of it!
But when you’re communicating through a medium that strictly relies on voice and nothing else, as in the case when a customer phones into your contact center, they can’t really appreciate your nice attire or the strong grip you use to hold your phone.
Instead, your call center agents have to make a good first impression entirely with a phone greeting script that lasts the initial four to five seconds of the call. If that thought makes you feel pressured to perfect it, here’s a quick tip right off the bat: you should probably start with “hello.”
Why should you aim for positive customer experience?
These days, it’s easier than ever for bad reviews to follow and affect a company’s reputation. Notwithstanding 1-star e-commerce reviews for their products, customers can always take to Twitter to directly confront the poor service a company’s providing. Not only do you risk losing that particular customer, considering how word of mouth and negative reviews remain a crucial part in the consumers’ buying process, you stand to lose even more prospects and severely affect your bottom line.
On the other hand, a good customer experience overall can only provide added value to your service. Various statistics prove this. Everything from their willingness to spend more, in terms of both volume and price, to their continued loyalty to a specific brand is dictated by a positive experience with the call center agent on the other line.
In the same way that flashing someone with a bright smile and a cheery “good morning” sets the tone for your conversation and even your interaction for the rest of the day, so too does your call center greeting set the tone for the entire customer experience. A welcoming but still professional opening salvo can brighten a customer’s mood and influence him to think more positively of your exchange.
That said, here are twelve phone greeting ideas to start your call center interactions off on the right foot and help you build the perfect call center script.
Call Center Phone Greeting Ideas
- “Hi! This is Bruce from Company Y speaking. How can I help you?”
Our first suggestion is a basic business phone greeting. Customers are known to respond well to friendly agents. Your greeting should be personable and personal, in terms of both prioritizing the customer in the conversation and in terms of letting a customer know that they’re speaking to a real person. This can easily be achieved by saying “hi” instead of the slightly more formal “hello” and by having your agents introduce themselves first before continuing the call.
- “Hello. Thank you for calling Company X. To continue in English, please press 1; for Mandarin, press 2; and for Spanish, press 3.”
While they’re more impersonal than being greeted by an actual agent, there are ways to utilize conversational bots and pre-recorded messages to your advantage. While certainly pricier, you can set up a multilingual recording to greet your customers and let them choose which language they’re more comfortable with.
This accomplishes two things. First, it establishes you as a multinational brand which sends the message that you’re a trustworthy company with quality products and services. Second, though to a lesser degree, including different language options also signals that you’re inclusive, an important aspect for millennials when considering brands to purchase from.
- “Good day! You’ve reached Company Z. To speak with an operator or customer service specialist, please press 1.”
Of course, even the most intuitive and well-structured conversational bot or menu can’t answer every customer query out there. Some might still prefer to speak to an agent for the ease of it or simply to get in-depth information on their inquiry. In those cases, it might benefit you and your customers if the option for an agent is presented right at the start of the call.
- “Thank you for calling Company B. Our offices are closed right now and will resume from Monday to Friday, 9AM to 5PM.”
Perhaps worse than hold times and a bot is when a customer calls your contact center and only hears the endless ringing of the phone. In these cases, you’ll need an automated after hours greeting. While it’s understandably difficult to provide 24/7 service as an SME, it’s important to assure customers that the number is active or will be active when they call again. You can even provide them with options to leave a message or alternative avenues to contact you immediately after the greeting.
- “Thank you for calling Company C. Our offices are currently closed. We’ll get back to you shortly. In the meantime, you can check our website at www.companyc.com for information on our latest promotions and products.”
Have a well structured website on hand? Then you already have a tool to provide consumers all the information they need even when the call center is unavailable. It might seem counterproductive but directing your potential customers to your website with this after hours phone greeting idea can at least keep their interest until the next working day.
- “You’re through to [Company D]’s [credit card] division. My name is [Robin] and I’m happy to be of assistance.”
It’s a hard task to expect one group of contact center agents to memorize and understand all the products, services, and nuances under one large company umbrella, like a national bank for example. Not only is it ineffective, it also has the tendency to overwhelm your staff. Make sure either your website or your menu bot provides hotline extensions for each division or has the ability to redirect calls to the relevant experts.
- “[Company E]. Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line while we connect you to our next available agent.”
Even when your lines are busy, it’s never a good look to direct a customer call to your hold music with no warning. Remember to leave a phone greeting to warn callers of the situation, even if it’s just a short message that gets straight to the heart of things.
- “You’ve reached [Company F]. Did you know we’re rolling out a new collection of products for the spring? To learn more about this line, press 0. For other inquiries, press 1.”
Once you’ve established a reasonable customer base, you might want to consider a call center greeting that highlights your products from the get-go. This is because it’s far easier to sell new products to repeat customers than new ones, especially when they’ve had a good experience with your brand, so a greeting strategy that acknowledges and prioritizes them can be a worthwhile endeavor.
- “Good afternoon. This is [Alfred] from [Bank F]. How can I help you achieve financial freedom today?”
In addition to letting your customers know what division of the company they’re calling, it’s also a good idea to have a greeting that’s a hundred percent on-brand. It helps with retention when your greeting includes the company name, the motto, and a gentle reminder of what services the company can offer the callers.
- “[Company G]! Fun fact: Sea otters sleep afloat and on their backs. They also hold hands while they sleep so they don’t drift away from each other. Please hold for an agent to become available. Don’t drift away now!”
Depending on your brand, you can opt to have a bit more fun with your greeting too. Insert a piece of trivia, a pun, a pop culture reference, and even a full joke if you can get away with it. This is especially useful to keep customers entertained while they wait to be served, and can help lead your agents into a friendly opening spiel. You can match it with catchy hold music to really keep their attention.
- “You’ve reached the offices of [Company H]. We’re [tech] experts rated among the Global 2000 list of companies. How can I help you?”
If someone’s calling your center, there’s a good chance that it’s the first time they’re considering your services and need additional information on certain products or processes. The fastest way to establish reliability and expertise is to state achievements, specializations, and awarded titles of your company. This might be as grand as being part of the Global 2000 or simply ranking high in customer satisfaction surveys.
- “This is [Company I]. We appreciate your call. Please know that you’re currently number two in the queue and we’ll get to you as soon as we can.”
If you have the right technology to keep track, it would also be beneficial to include a real-time queue tracker for your calls. There are few things as demotivating or frustrating as being left on hold for fifteen straight minutes, with no idea if the line’s just busy or completely dead. This is mostly beneficial for your customers though, who can approximate their place in line and focus their attention on other things in the meantime.
We hope you found our collection of phone greeting ideas helpful. Remember that the customer is the most important part of this discussion and your primary goal should be providing them with a pleasant and informative experience. Any greeting can be the “best” as long as it integrates well with what your company is, how the rest of your customer service script is structured, and the reason a customer might be calling in the first place. Once you’ve decided on your greeting, make sure you have staff to cover your call center hours and consider outsourcing as an option if your resources are limited.