How to Help Your Agents Sound More Confident on the Phone

How your agents speak to callers at your call center can be just as important as what they are saying. Words delivered with authority and confidence are better received by customers and prospects. Luckily, you don’t have to hire only voice actors and extroverts. It’s possible to teach great phone skills to anyone.

How to Sound Confident Over the Phone

Before you start training, you need to understand what it takes to sound authoritative over the phone. Agents sound best when they sound:

• Knowledgeable but not overly rehearsed or like they are reading directly from a script
• Smooth and natural
• Correctly modulated in terms of volume
• Like they are making statements, instead of raising their voice in question at the end of sentences
• Polished and not stumbling
• Articulate, with very few “ums” and stutters

Five Tips to Help Agents Sound More Confident on the Phone

Call center confidence is created, not just naturally present. Even shy agents can learn to become phone masters. You can help by taking these steps:

• Offer training: Make sure each agent understands the services and products inside and out. Have each agent go through the sales process themselves, and get as much training as possible about the company and its offerings so they can speak at length with prospects.
• Give plenty of opportunities for practice: When it comes to displaying confidence over the phone, there’s no substitute for practice. Have agents practice with each other and with more experienced professionals. Record practice sessions and have agents listen for their tone, speech patterns and volume. Encourage each agent to set goals for improving one area of speech for each training session.
• Consider formal lessons: Voice lessons and coaching sessions help agents overcome phone anxiety, rapid pace and any other issues so they can move forward with more confidence.
• Make it a game: Agents can “fake it ‘til they make it.” Have agents choose an actor or voice actor they admire and who sounds confident. Ask each agent to place the name or picture of that person in their cubicle and mimic that person in practice. Speaking with the same cadence as a confident person can help an agent “act” more confident, helping them project that trait.
• Encourage the right physiology: Standing up or sitting up straight and breathing deeply can make agents sound more confident. Smiling when speaking and consciously slowing down can also help project an approachable and authoritative tone. Another tactic is to use strong gestures, just as though they were making a point with an audience in-person. Encourage your agents to practice these techniques.

Going Beyond Confident

Of course, to sound confident, your agents need to have the right tools at their disposal. Trusting that their business phone lines and phone dialer software will work correctly every time lets them focus on their job. Easy-to-use systems ensure your agents can connect with confidence.

EVS7 can help. We offer innovative products designed for call centers and businesses who need to connect quickly and effectively. If your systems could use an update, contact EVS7 to learn about our options.