Effective Telephone Communication in Business

Posted on Jan 26, 2025 in Electronics

1. Telephone Communication

Importance in Business: It is used to arrange meetings, interviews, or to ask for information.

2. Telephone Means and Equipment

Fixed Individual Devices (copper networks have been replaced by optical fiber networks)

Private Branch Exchanges (PBX): It connects calls between two destinations or ends.

Function: Call transfers among extensions, caller ID…

Types:

  • IP PBXs
  • Call Centers: They manage just phone calls
  • Contact Centers: They not only manage phone calls but emails, SMS, online messages, faxes, etc.

Mobile Devices:

  • PDA: It’s like a small computer
  • Smartphone: A PDA with video, camera, radio, MP3 player, or television

Services: Internet, e-mail, videoconference, digital camera

3. Additional Services Offered by Telephone Equipment

3.1 Common Features

A. Fixed Telephony:

  • Notice of Charge: You receive information on the cost of a call.
  • Call Forwarding: It diverts calls to any number chosen.
  • Call Hold: It keeps calls on hold to attend to others.
  • Call Waiting: It notifies an incoming call to the subscriber while talking.
  • Call Offer: Allows the recipient to accept or reject it.
  • Identification of the Calling Line: It identifies the incoming call numbers.
  • Three-Way Calling
  • Call Transfer: Connects two incoming calls.
  • Notice of Initiation of Multiconference: It allows communication with more than one recipient at a time.
  • Recall: It makes a call to the last dialed number.

B. PBXs:

  • Identification of Incoming Calls
  • Call Restrictions: It limits the number of calls to the outside.
  • Music on Hold: User hears a musical tune until attended.
  • Billing Information: Informed about the cost of a service.
  • Call Transfer (internal and external)
  • Call Forwarding
  • Remote Call Capture and Remote Extensions out of the office
  • Voice Mail
  • Email
  • Management of Blacklists
  • Actions to be Taken According to Dates and Times
  • Conference Rooms
  • List of Incoming and Outgoing Calls with consumption graphics
  • Automatic Detection of Incoming Faxes
  • Call centers have Queuing of Incoming Calls and Recording of Calls
  • Videoconference

C. Mobile Telephony:

Voice mails, call forwarding and call waiting, missed calls, address book, conference calling, emergency call, voice recognition, Bluetooth system, GPRS, SMS, MMS, video calling, download, Email, GPS navigation system, and internet service.

3.2 Billing-Related Services

  • Information on Bills (duration and cost of every call)
  • Consumption Control (get an alert when a billing limit has been exceeded)
  • Flat Fee (tarifa plana, fixed amount in the billing period)

3.3 Business-Related Services

It’s the set of relationships with customers, suppliers, and employees. In the corporate business world, we have 2 concepts:

  • M-Business (business processes using mobile devices: B2B, B2C, B2E, B2G)
  • M-Commerce: Any transaction carried out through a mobile device.

Examples:

  • Mobile ticketing
  • Mobile purchasing
  • Mobile banking
  • Mobile payment

4. Rules for Good Telephone Communication

A phone call is often the first contact that our interlocutor has with the company; therefore, we must always transmit a good image.

4.1. Stages of a Phone Call

  1. Introduction
  2. Development (assess the interlocutor, adapt our vocabulary to introduce our product or services)
  3. Closure (get your objective: an appointment, or maybe arrange for another call if the time is not convenient)
  4. Farewell (thank the interlocutor for his/her time and use a polite expression such as “Thank you for your time and have a nice day”)