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-

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blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1995 | | pagina 8