PHONE PERFORMANCE -
CLIENTS LAY IT ON THE LINE
8
working relations
WHAT'S NewS Nummer 4 August 1995
cism - they appeared to be available in
only 10 percent of cases.
PHONE COURTESY
A further finding was that few people ac-
tually answer the phone correctly. 'There
are established etiquetes, also here in the
bank,' says Edwin Prevoo of Marketing
Services, who was part of the survey pro
ject team. 'Ideally, we should all use the
same response: Good morning/afternoon,
Rabobank Nederland, and then your
name. I know it seems like nit-picking to
insist on a particular form of
greeting, but there is a real
reason for this formula. People
usually forget immediately the
first part of a response, so you
shouldn't say "Good what-
ever" last - the fact they've
reached the bank and who yoiJ
are is more important.' How-
ever, even though some kind of
introduction to the caller is
really no more than comrnon
courtesy, under 30 percent of
CBSers actually use one. Most
people state their last name
only.
FUNCTION FAILURE
A second area looked at by the
survey was efficiënt use of the
telephone technology at our
disposal. Every phone in the
building has a number of op-
tions, some as many as 12. Yet
the survey showed that only
3 three of these were known to
2.
and used by more than 90 per-
- cent of staff - the automatic
dial and redial functions and
the switch-through option. Others, such as
the call-warn option, are barely known
and therefore little used. 'In fact,' says
Prevoo, 'what it shows is that we don't get
the best use out of our phones.'
CLIENT CALL
That's the bad news. The good news is
that clients are positive about our phone
performance. The third part of the survey
asked over 100 clients for their telephone
experiences with the bank and 93 percent
said they were satisfied with general avail-
ability.
In 86 percent of cases, they were also
satisfied with the accessibility of staff. A
number of clear cliënt preferences also
emerged. Most (78 percent) favour direct
access to the person they want to speak
with rather than routing through a sec-
retariat. If the person is not available and
the matter is urgent, they want to be put
through to an equally expert colleague, or
have their call returned within one hour.
You may think you spend most of your time behind a desk within reach of the
phone, but the results of a comprehensive study on Rabobank Nederland front
office telephone availability shows otherwise. What's NewS summarizes some of
the findings and outlines proposals for increasing efficiënt use of the phone.
'EEN OGENBLIKJE, ALSTUBLIEFT'
■BB Aan de telefonische bereikbaarheid kan nog het een en ander worden verbeterd. Dit geldt
voor alle medewerkers van het CBB, maar voor de managers in het bijzonder.
Een recent telefoononderzoek wees uit dat medewerkers niet alleen veelvuldig 'van hun plaats'
zijn, maar ook dat de secretariaten daarvan lang niet altijd op de hoogte worden gebracht. Klan
ten krijgen dan simpelweg te horen: 'Ik weet niet waar hij is.'
Het onderzoeksteam nam ook andere aspecten van het telefoongebruik onder de loep. Zo werd
onderzocht met welke woorden medewerkers de telefoon aannemen en in hoeverre zij op de
hoogte zijn van de diverse telefoon-functies.
Uit een vergelijking van intern en extern telefoonverkeer blijkt, dat de interne gesprekken
verreweg de meeste tijd innemen. Dan hoort de klant dus de in-gesprek-toon. Meer gebruik van
E-mail zorgt ervoor dat de telefoonlijnen vrij blijven voor bellers van buiten.
Naar aanleiding van de uitkomsten van het onderzoek komt het team met een aantal praktische
tips en aanbevelingen voor een efficiënter en klantvriendelijker telefoongebruik.
The three-part study carried
out by the Belgian Telephone
Research Bureau, Zacson,
Marien Gybels, produced
some remarkable findings.
Many of you helped in the
survey without actually realis-
ing it. The result show among
other things that 93 percent of
the clients are satisfied with
our telephone availability. But
it also appears few CBSers ac
tually answer a phone cor
rectly; we make almost six
times more internal than ex-
ternal calls and sometimes
staggering numbers of staff
are simply reported as 'not
here'.
'Clearly, front-office people
tend to be out a lot on cliënt
visits or business trips,' says
Frans Cuppen of corporate
banking, who was the so-
called 'change agent' for this
particular 'As good as the
best' project. 'But that doesn't
explain why callers are told
we're simply not there, without being
given any reason for absence.'
The survey showed that in some depart-
ments no reason for absence was given in
around 50 percent of cases. 'That is not a
good sign,' Cuppen says. 'If you don't
give a reason, you don't make an efficiënt
impression on the caller. And that's clear
ly what we're aiming for in our contacts
with clients. The main problem here is
probably a lack of communication with
secretariats - our colleagues there simply
aren't informed of our whereabouts.' In
terms of availability, the survey showed
that though the CBS was reached in 96
percent of cases, the person called was
only reached directly in 49 percent, and
top managers also came in for some criti-