Using telephones, company-assigned smartphones, or calling apps empowers a business to become more strategic in several aspects. Using a calling device enables employees to increase business outreach and profitability. However, apart form the benefits, one may often make mistakes during a call that might hamper their reputation and that of the business. Therefore, avoiding these errors and learning about ways to improve them may help one sail through business calls smoothly.

Ignoring calling scripts
Most cold calls follow a directional and well-structured script. And while one does not need to follow it to a T, winging the call might be tedious and could quickly turn into a blunder. Therefore, one should ensure they stick to the calling script as far as possible to avoid hiccups and make a positive impact on the client.

Not profiling
An individual might make direct calls after generating their leads in a race to complete a set target on time. However, this will result in a relatively cold call that lacks connection with the other person on the line. Therefore, before making a call, one should profile one’s client with the help of professional tools approved by the business. Through this, they could create a direct dialogue with the client and increase conversation opportunities, making a successful business call.

Passing on the caller
Many loyal and potential clients often spend several minutes on the automated system before being informed by an agent that they’ve connected to the wrong department. What’s worse is that these agents ask the customer to call another department, which could reflect terribly on the employee and even more on the business. So if an individual comes across this situation, they should collect the caller’s details and assure them of a callback by the respective department as soon as possible.

Getting the wrong information
An employee who isn’t trained to take notes may remember incorrect information about a caller. And feeding in inaccurate data could be drastic to a business. To ensure that the business call sails smoothly, one should ask the customer for a few moments so that they can type in the necessary details appropriately. Moreover, one should also consider using phonetics to confirm whether the information is accurate.

Excessive hold times
Placing a customer on hold for too long is one of the worst errors to make on a business call. This may happen when the employee looks for ways to address a query. As a workaround, one should be more proactive about why they need to place the call on hold. If the problem is taking longer to solve, they should inform the client about the hold-up and arrange a suitable callback within a tentative time frame. Moreover, one should also avoid placing calls on mute for too long.

Apart from these factors, one should avoid using low-quality and glitchy software for communications as these may result in dropped calls, glitches, and longer downtimes, affecting the business. Instead, they could look at popular options from companies like 8×8. The brand offers the 8×8 eXperience Communications Platform™ that has features including an integrated contact center, video, chat, voice, and embeddable communications. Business owners can find the pricing for various versions of the software on the 8×8 website.