My last blog focused on why some gym owners no longer use business telephone numbers. Many of the reasons I discovered dialed down to a specific issue: employees were uncomfortable with phone calls.
It seems younger people find phone calls to be anxiety filled trauma bubbles filled with uncertainty. If this is your situation, how can you help your employees over this technology hurdle?
Discuss the value of a phone call
As a writer much of my communication is conducted almost exclusively email or messaging apps. Yet — when I am producing a story for Gym Insight — all my interviews are over the telephone or (second choice) through video conferencing.
It is in telephones calls where I hear accents, listen for regional idioms, feel the emotion, and sit with hesitations. All these tiny details give me the tools needed to fully grasp both what they are trying to say and what I want to learn from them.
I personally find phone calls build better rapport and yields results not possible across any other medium.
Explain to employees when we speak by telephone we can:
- Fully communicate our ideas.
- Discover unexpected, helpful information.
- Establish an emotional connection.
- Persuade through facts, story, and tone.
Young people want to be prepared for the call
For all the grief we give younger generations, their fear is reasonable. Most did not grow up with a landline bolted to the kitchen wall. They never hit a “replay” button on a telephone recorder. They were never taught to take a message. They never watched their parents walk in circles speaking with friends. So how do they know what to do with the thing?
The plastic gadget might as well be a spinning wheel.
If you ask a young person why they don’t like speaking on the telephone, the answer is usually pretty simple: they are afraid of making a mistake.
Telephone calls require listening skills and the ability to understand someone’s emotions acoustically instead of visually. So perhaps this is what scares young people – that they cannot see the performance?
This generation is use to the power of the Internet, instant information, and perennially correct answers. For better or worse, they prefer the questions ahead of time and the answers at their fingertips. Everything a telephone call is not.
How to get to Carnegie Hall…
Yes, it starts with a cliché. If your employees are to hurdle the fear of personal conversations, they need practice. Urge them to start with the easy calls — friends, parents and other employees. According to Mary Jane Copps, communication expert and known as the “The Phone Lady” speaking on the telephone is much like public speaking, it’s a skill that must be practiced. Novices will soon discover the natural rhythm building as two people listen for each other’s vocal cues.
To provide on-site practice, consider designating a text-free week or weekend and encouraging your employees to make calls to each other rather than communicating through electronic messaging.
Show a good example and make those call yourself, in front of employees, just to prove you’ve got what it takes.
Easy telephone call hacks for the tele-phobic.
Every unfamiliar task starts with a good support structure. Here are few tips experts suggest:
- Place a picture of a smiling man or women in front of the phone. As awkward as it sounds, Copps swears by it as a visualization technique.
- Focus on the conversation. It’s tempting to multi-task by opening email and scrolling through social media, but all those tasks ruin concentration. Instead, flip the extra screens to dark, place pen and paper nearby and focus on listening to the person speaking.
- Jot down a few notes ahead of time. A list of points prepares you and eases anxiety.
How to make calls more productive.
Although the art of the call is a good skill to practice, we still live in a world of dwindling telephone calls. Chances are the people your employee is calling are not use to speaking by telephone any longer either. Here’s a three good steps to make every call productive in our not-so-easy world:
- Text the customer ahead of time and ask for a time to speak by telephone.
- Use direct language. Eliminate “ums” and “likes” and stay on point. “Iffy” language, as Copps calls it, can end a call faster than anything else. Patience is in short supply today.
- Try not to interrupt the other person. Allow them to finish their thought before you speak. It’s tempting to jump in and assume you’ve got the answer. To fully comprehend their perspective though, you must listen carefully and respond after they are through speaking.
Dial up! Here’s to your next call!
Thanks for reading our blog. The more I research this subject, the more I learn. Looking forward to sharing more telephone news with you in the future. Thanks again and good luck with those Gen. Z employees!
Gym Insight.
We’re a gym management software firm with a legacy of excellent customer service. Our sales and support team are located in the United States and are available at a moment’s notice. We answer our calls, monitor our voicemails and really appreciate a great conversation. If you’re searching for gym software that does not take a percentage of your sales, is easy for you and employees to use, and provides comprehensive insight into the day to day operations of your gym, call us today. We can be reached at 855-FOR-GYMS. Ask for Natalia or Anthony. They will be happy to provide a free demo of just how well our gym software works.
