After you've introduced yourself and why you've called, whether it's a sales call or a customer service call, I always recommend asking the customer a, "is this a good time" or "do you have a moment" type question. Some suggest that, particularly in a sales call, this just gives the customer an excuse not to speak with you! I would say that if the customer doesn't want to speak with you they wont anyway!!!!
I think it's important to recognise that the customer might not just be sitting there waiting for our call. They may be working on important matters; even more important than speaking to us!
The following diagram may help.
Imagine your customer is working away in their office and of all the things they could be doing, their current task is at a priority 6.
The ringing telephone would be a priority 7. This is because most people will stop what they are doing to answer a ringing telephone. If they do not wish to be disturbed, they will normally forward the phone to voice mail. When we call them, we are asking them to treat our call at least as a priority 8. If another call comes in while we’re on the phone, we hope they will let it go to voice mail and continue to talk with us. We are certainly expecting that they will stop doing their priority 6 activity.
It is therefore simply a matter of common courtesy to ask permission before proceeding. In order for the customer to give us their permission to proceed we need to give them the reason for the call first. After identifying who we are and where we're from, the key phrase we might use could be, "I'm calling about ..., do you have a few minutes?"
Over to you and your thoughts. Do you agree or disagree?
