Greet, establish a first impression and then build rapport and trust. Assure them it is my desire to answer all their questions and ask permission to gather a littel information first.
It is easy to forget after you have answered a lot of calls to keep your voice upbeat and with variation. I find it hard at times to sound excited when we repeat the same information day in and day out.
In our situation we talk to potential students from all over - in person visits are rare. Call efficiency and effectiveness is paramount.
Our calls come in two ways. We have a main number where inquiring callers call us and encounter a phone tree that guides them to the department they need. The second way calls come in is through a call center. Lead inquiries (through online contact forms) are called and then hot transfered directly to an enrollment counselor.
These two ways are improvements on previous practices. Enrollment counselors are less frazzled and able to focus more positively on the potential student they are talking to.
Improvements I can now make because of this is being more attentive to motivation and needs.
We have reps taking calls directly from students who either called directly into the school or who were transferred from a third party vendor.
I would like to see an improvement in the way we manage inbound calls as a team, as I am not always sure when it is my turn or if I am answering too many/not enough calls. What are some ways we can manage this better?
I try to move them through small talk to mutual interest to understanding their needs to answering their questions. The tough part is lack of time in a lot of cases to do this effectively the way a field EC would do.
I currently use a script that follows the build rapport, gather info, give info. I think I follow the script fairly well, however, I don't ask enough about history.
I need to ask more about the buying committe as well. Right now I only touch on the answers abotu financial status but not so much the buying committee.
I was trained with a very simular model, so generally I follow the steps of building rapport, gathering info, and giving info. I feel like I will sometimes spend less time on discovering motivations of prospects, and move too quickly to giving infomation, which leads the prospect to feel like they are being "sold".
Great approaches, Carolyn. It sounds like you take the time in your calls to connect with your student, acknowledge that they are busy, and get permission from them to explore a bit about their background. Keep it up.
I would build rapport and trust by asking the potential student if now is a good time to talk or if i reached them at a good time. In addition, I would ask the potential student if it would be ok to ask them a few questions to make sure I get them the right information or to ask a few questions to understand his/her background better. I might also respond to things we have in common if these things came up during the conversation.
Thank you for sharing, Carolyn. It looks like you've got a handle on the framework for your calls, that's great! I also like the fact that you recognize an area for improvement in your phone work. How might you go about building rapport and trust over the phone?
Introduction
Questions to Determine Interest/Need
Summarize Responses
Suggest a Visit
Schedule a Visit
Complete the Call
Potential improvements could include techniques on how to build rapport and trust over the telephone. It is easier to accomplish building rapport and trust face to face.
Thanks for sharing Jenny! This is a great practice and helps to increase your transparency with your students. I imagine that it also helps you set a positive tone with your students. Keep up the good work!
i like being up front with all callers...if they ask for a price..i tell them....i do not like to trick people into coming into our school...if in the long run, the can not afford it.
it is upbeat, gathering of information of the caller's needs, improvements on asking the right questions and seeing when they are looking to start classes.
Great awareness, Marci. It can be helpful to evaluate how your currently doing things and what seems to be working and what doesn't. It sounds like this is something you did when you thought about how you might improve your call process. I'm curious, what specifically have you started incorporating your calls that has allowed you to improve your ability to gather information from your students?
Thanks for sharing, Marci. Glad to hear that some of the new information from the course has been helping you. A lot of times it's just adding small tweaks to your current processes that can have the greatest impact! Much luck to you and your continued success.
I have not been very good at gathering information. After completing the course I have been practicing and it has improved with each new call.
I did not have a call log. It certainly has improved my organization of incoming calls. I also tried the smiling technique while talking, It has helped a lot promoting my school.
Thanks for sharing your approach, Jim. It sounds like you take strides to make sure that the incoming calls are connected with an admissions professional right off the bat. I can imagine that prospective students find it helpful to talk to someone who can answer their questions right away. For more ideas, you may want to check out some of the posts from other participants in this course, they've shared a number of best practices that you might find helpful.
We are a small school and all incoming calls are forwarded to one of the two Admission Reps. We do not currently use a call log. Since we are anticipating increasing our advertising budget, we probably should start using a call log.
Other than what was in the first module, are there any other examples available?
