The company is most worried about how ______ . Employees should answer the phone after ______ .

So, if everyone is here, I’ll make a start. Now, as you might know, a few months ago we asked some consultants to take a look at the way we answer the telephone across the group. They telephoned our offices and made enquiries as customers normally would. They recorded information such as how quickly the call was answered, how friendly people were and how efficiently they dealt with the enquiry.
     So, I’ll begin with what they found out. Right now, first of all, they found out that on average we answer the phone after four rings, which isn’t bad, but we can still improve on it. Secondly, friendliness. Now, although some offices scored as high as 8 out of 10 for friendliness, the consultants only gave the company as a whole 6 out of 10. Once more, this wasn’t as good as it should be. The consultants said that 7.5 is the minimum we should be aiming for throughout the group. And finally, efficiency. Now here, we did quite well. It seems that the people who normally answer the phone can either deal with enquiries themselves or put the caller through to the right person. However, there were one or two negative points which we still have to work on, such as always remembering to ask the caller’s name before putting them through. So, as you can see, we need to do a lot of work.
     Going back to the first point, about the phone ringing four times, everyone will now be responsible for answering the phone after the third ring. This way there is no excuse for keeping a caller waiting. The point about friendliness, however, is the most important. People want to hear a cheerful voice when they call the company and feel good when they do business with us. So we’re going to choose some new hold music and the consultants have given us some good phrases to use on the phone. They’re on the handout I gave you at the beginning. Does everyone have copy? Right, good.
     So, moving on to efficiency...