Tips for Engaging Customer Interactions and Effective Call Scripting

When your call volume is more than your in-house team can manage, you might turn to a call answering service for support. A call answering partner like AnswerHero™ can help scale your business and meet customer demand — but you need effective scripting practices for the most effective customer service. When your customers are engaged over the phone, it leads to faster problem resolution and a strong relationship with your business.

Creating Engaging Customer Interactions

Engaging customer interactions are key to customer satisfaction. When your callers feel heard and understood during interactions with your business, they build trust with your company and remain loyal for longer. With the right approach to customer interactions over the phone, you can keep every caller engaged. 

Active Listening and Empathy

Phone conversations require active listening for callers to feel heard and understood. Active listening practices can be as simple as saying “Right” or “That makes sense” to show you understand what the person is saying. Another valuable technique is summarizing what the caller says to confirm you understand. 

Empathy pairs well with active listening because it shows you’re paying attention and care about the caller’s problem. If someone sounds frustrated or angry, empathy can help diffuse the situation and make communication easier. Phrases like “I hear that you’re frustrated” and “Thank you for sharing” are excellent phrases to include in customer service interactions.

Clear and Concise Communication

Clarity and concision are key to getting your message across over the phone. When explanations become long-winded, it can be more challenging for the caller to grasp what’s happening. Keep statements short and simple, and remember to speak slowly. Taking pauses to gather your thoughts can also be helpful to make sure you’re delivering your message well.

Positive Language and Tone of Voice

Positive language and tone have a significant impact on how a message is received. According to a study on tone of voice in the workplace, 59% of people perceive the sender more positively when their tone is positive. Over the phone, this positive perception can strengthen the reception of the message and make it easier to solve a caller’s problems. A positive perception of a call agent can also reflect well on your business. 

Personalization and Building Connection

Customer service can feel impersonal, but it doesn’t have to be. Making phone calls more personalized helps make client interactions more engaging and memorable. A simple way to personalize a phone conversation is by referring to the caller by name. A call agent might also reference the individual’s previous calls to show awareness of the specific customer’s needs. 

You can build these personalization recommendations into your phone call answering script. However, it’s important for call agents to understand that moments of connection might require going off-script. For example, a caller might mention their dog barking in the background, and a call agent then has the opportunity to ask what the dog’s name is. These small moments are an excellent way to build trust and make call interactions more meaningful. 

How to Write Effective Call Scripts

Your contact center scripting will determine how well your call agents field calls. As you start the scripting process, consider these key practices.

Define Objectives and Target Audience

The first step in creating a call center script is breaking down the different objectives of these calls and the types of people who are calling. Most calls can be funneled into a few main categories. For example, categories might include recent purchases, account questions and billing. From there, you can determine what types of situations arise in these categories and develop scripts for those scenarios.

Knowing the target audience makes it clear how to speak to these callers and what matters to them. Information like age group, income level and job role can uncover a caller’s values and desires, helping you create a more effective script.

Structure the Call Flow

Interactions over the phone need to incorporate a natural flow to make them easy to follow for the caller. When crafting your answering call script, you’ll want to have a natural beginning, middle and end. 

The beginning is dedicated to brief introductions and understanding the reason for the call. From there, the middle focuses on digging into the caller’s need to learn more about the problem or situation at hand. The end of the call should involve taking any actions or informing the caller about upcoming actions. From there, the call can be brought to a close with goodbyes.

Craft Engaging Dialogue

Your call agents will read directly from the script you provide, so your script should feel natural and engaging. As you write sections of your script, say them out loud or use a text reader to see how it sounds. Make sure words and phrases flow nicely together and that the messaging is clear. 

As you listen to the script, if you don’t feel interested or engaged, your callers likely won’t either. Call scripts can lack engaging dialogue if the sentences are all similar lengths, or if word choices are too simple or too difficult. Striking a balance is important for reaching all types of people and making sure the dialogue is digestible. 

Incorporate Flexibility and Personalization

A customer service script needs to account for variables in caller interactions. Between personalizing the calls and scenario-specific responses, it’s impossible for one script to capture every type of call. For this reason, include placeholders in your script for call agents to take messaging into their own hands. For example, you might leave space for a bit of small talk during processing times or include placeholders for a caller’s name. 

A well-trained call agent will know how to maintain professionalism when they have to go off-script for a more personalized call experience. 

Request Feedback From Callers

If you want to understand the effectiveness of your script, survey your callers. Asking questions about your phone interactions can showcase what areas need work. Potential questions could include:

• Was your problem resolved?
• Did you feel listened to during your call?
• On a scale of 1-10, how much did you enjoy your call experience?

If you’re seeing consistently low scores in one or more areas, you may need to tweak the script to better reflect callers’ needs.

Engage With Your Customers Better With AnswerHero™

AnswerHero™ provides 24/7 call answering services to help businesses grow. With our team of bilingual call agents, you can communicate with your customers without overextending your team. Our services are flexible and contract-free with pricing plans that shift with your needs. Your team will develop a custom script for how we should answer your specific calls, then our call agents will apply their experience for smooth, friendly customer interactions. Get in touch with us today to get started.