You should train the people who answer your phones. This is the real front line of marketing.
Most companies hire lots and lots of people with fancy degrees and pay them big salaries and let them sit around far away from the battle. Meanwhile, they pay other people with far less education very little money to deal more or less non-stop with the company’s customers.
So how hard would it be to train the folks who answer your phone? Or pay them a little better so that you got the very best people for the job? Well, most marketing people never ask that question, but they should.
Training the phone folks need not be all that hard. When these people are first hired, there should be a training program aimed at introducing them to your company, your products, your markets, and the sort of inquiries they are most likely to get by phone. They should get an organizational chart and a thorough understanding of what departments exist, what they do, and what kinds of questions or calls are likely to come for which groups.
You have to assume that the person you just hired to spend all day with your customers does not know your industry. This introductory training should be very basic and ramp up to cover the nuances. In other words, if your company makes ablation catheters for atrial fibrillation, you may have to go over the very basics of atrial fibrillation, explain what a catheter is, talk about what ablations are, and then move on from there.
But introductory training is just that–the beginning. Your phone people should get regular training “booster shots” by getting information about new products, new services, new departments, new hires, and the momentary issues that your company is dealing with.
Include your phone staff in your launch memos–you can even give them launch kits or maybe abbreviated mini-launch kits to help introduce them to new products and services. (I know some marketing types are thinking this is a big waste of time but remember, most of the phone people spend more time in one day chatting with your customers than you do–so why should you deny them information on your latest launch?)
Your phone people are the ones who are the “voice” of the company. You may think that your executives are the voice of the company, but it’s the phone people that most of your customers interact with. You want them to be informed and high-energy and enthusiastic. So how do you drum up enthusiasm? I think one good way is to include them in certain marketing meetings (particularly ones about big changes and rah-rah ones) and to be sure that they regularly get marketing goodies like the new T-shirts or coffee mugs or logo pens. Again, I know marketing types who would say this is a waste of time, but shouldn’t your front line people be happy to be at work and excited about your latest product?
I once worked at a company that had just launched a major product. We were testing our phone service at that time and when one of my shills called the main number and asked about the new product, the person answering the phone had never heard of it.
That was not her fault. Her job kept her in a cubicle off the main floor, far away from the marketing and other departments and nobody ever thought to give her information or include her even on email distributions. Furthermore, I would imagine that it was embarrassing and disconcerting to her not to know what was being asked and that made her answer seem curt and even hostile.
If you have marketing guys in your company who resist including phone people in the information loop, you need to start asking yourself: are those the right guys to be in marketing? It costs so little to take your phone front-line people from mediocre to outstanding–and why would you want to keep anybody (especially the guys and gals who answer your phone) in the dark about your company’s products?
