(Revised November 2003) Section 3.E

Section 3.E -- Interacting with Extension Clients

Satisfying Clientele: The Telephone Caller and the Office Caller

Prepared by Sharon K. Drake, Ph.D., Staff Development, Iowa State University.

Start with a Winning Attitude

1. Your attitude toward callers influences your behavior. You cannot always camouflage how you feel.

2. Your attitude determines the level of your job satisfaction.

3. Your attitude affects everyone who comes in contact with you, either in person or on the telephone.

4. Your attitude is not only reflected by your tone of voice, but also by the way you stand or sit, your facial expression, and in other nonverbal ways.

5. Your attitude is not fixed. The attitude you choose to display is up to you.

You are ISU Extension to the customer.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Check your nonverbals first. They speak more loudly than words.

1. Personal presentation
2. Facial expressions
3. Body posture
4. Gestures
5. Smoking, gum chewing, or eating
6. Touching
7. Voice tone
8. Sighing, cursing, and insults

Which areas do you need to improve?

There are three types of expressions you hear from customers:

1. Make a statement.
2. Offer objections.
3. Ask questions.

If You Fail to Listen Closely:

1. You will hear what you want to hear.
2. You will hear what you expect to hear.
3. You will not recognize the difference between a statement, objection, or question.

Work at developing good listening habits and avoid:

1. Criticizing the speaker and delivery.
2. Listening only for facts and not for feelings.
3. Not taking notes--or trying to write down everything.
4. Faking attention.
5. Tolerating or creating distractions.
6. Tuning out difficult or confusing information.
7. Letting emotional words block the message.
8. Interrupting or finishing the other person's sentences.
9. Biases and prejudices.
10. Not facing the person.
11. Not checking that you have understood.

Use questions when fact finding to get the information you need.

1. To determine problems, understand requests, or establish needs: Use open questions.
2. To ask callers to explain requests or problem: Use open questions.
3. To ask for more information to determine a course of action: Use both open and closed questions.
4. To get agreement: Use closed questions.

Key Words in Asking Questions

Open Questions

Closed Questions

How

Did

Why

Can

When

Have

Who

Do

What

Will

Where

Is

Would

Words can make a big difference.

Words you use with clientele can be real communication helpers or can be communication stoppers. Choose words carefully so that you make a difference in understanding and being understood.

1. Keep it impersonal.
2. Use "I" instead of "you."
3. Avoid giving orders.
4. Take responsibility.
5. Avoid causing defensiveness.

What does the client want?

1. To be taken seriously.
2. To be treated with respect.
3. Immediate action.
4. To clear up problems so they will not happen again.
5. To be listened to.

Teamwork is better than working alone on a problem.

Assertive Listening

Question Types

Closed

Does not allow for expression of feelings, ideas, or opinions.

  • Limits appropriate answers to "yes," "no," or specific information.
  • Can discourage others from sharing.
  • Can be helpful in obtaining specific information.
  • People may or may not respond in a closed style.
  • Examples
    • "Where were you last night?"
      "Do you agree with capital punishment?"

Reflection of Responses

Content

Summarizing or paraphrasing the idea or ideas some expressed.

  • Can be used to make sure you understand.
  • Can be used to help another person know you were listening.
  • Can help people understand more about what they said.
  • Example
    • Statement: "I'm not comfortable in this new town. I don't know anyone at all and I usually have many friends."

      Content reflection: "It sounds like you would like to meet some people."

Open

Allows for reasonably full expression of ideas, opinions, and feelings.

  • Encourages the person to think.
  • Can encourage others to be more open than you might think.
  • Can help others feel you want to understand them.
  • People may or may not respond in an open style.
  • Examples
    • "I'd like to know what you did last night?"
      "What do you think about capital punishment?"
      "How do you feel about the movie?"

Feeling

Identifying a feeling or feelings someone expressed.

  • Can be used to communicate you understand and care.
  • Can reduce a tendency for aggressiveness.
  • Can help people "open up."
  • Can help people understand more about how they feel.
  • Example
    • Statement: "I'm not comfortable in this new town. I don't know anyone at all, and I usually have many friends."

      Feeling reflection: "I'm sensing that you feel lonesome now."

Section 3.E Return to top

Telephone Skills

This extension training sheet was developed by Don Broshar, extension organization development specialist, for use by office assistants. An audio cassette seminar by the same title is available from the ISU Training and Development Office, (515) 294-8914.

The telephone is an important tool in extension. It can be the office assistant's best friend or biggest frustration. Office assistants are professionals and their use of the telephone is essential to their effectiveness. Below are several ideas on the professional use of this necessary tool.

In order to help you improve your telephone skills take two actions:

1. Tape record your voice, and only your voice, as you talk on the telephone. Tape your voice at different times throughout the day. Listen to the recordings and learn from what you hear.

2. Use a telephone log sheet to analyze the calls you receive. The log sheet should include:

Time of call
Who called
Nature of call
Comments on how you handled the call

When using the telephone remember the seven Cs of effective service:

1. Caring -- toward the customer, toward your organization, and toward yourself.
2. Confident
3. Considerate
4. Commitment
5. Creative
6. Control our emotions
Take anger professionally, not personally
7. Contagious enthusiasm

First impressions are formed within the first 10 seconds of the call. To make a good impression:

  • Identify who you are.
  • Thank them for contacting you.
  • Establish control of the call by asking the first question.
  • Be confident.
  • Support the organization; do not blame or bad mouth the organization.

To help build rapport with the caller:

  • Use their name.
  • Identify common people or situations.
  • Ask for their viewpoint.
  • Establish mutual goals.
  • Adjust your rate of speech to mirror that of the caller.
  • Smile before you pick up the telephone.

Hint: When the caller is emotional, listen with your left ear to stimulate the right side of the brain. If the caller is giving lots of information, listen with your right ear.

Specific Situations and How to Handle Them

Answering the Telephone

  • Be sure to answer the telephone before the third ring.
  • Say "thank you for calling," then identify the organization and yourself.
  • If you need to put the caller on hold, ask the caller if that is all right and wait for an answer. Then thank the caller for holding. When the caller is on hold, check back every 30-45 seconds. If you need to look up some information and it will take some time, ask if you can call the person back in a certain length of time with the information.
  • If you need to transfer the call, give the reason for the transfer and ask the caller if that is all right. Wait for the answer. Before you transfer the caller, call the department or person and let them know you're transferring the call.
    This will enable you to give the caller the name of the department and/or the person to whom the caller will be speaking. Also give the caller the telephone number and say for future reference, here is the number. Never speak of being disconnected.
  • To get the caller's name, give yours. Or have the caller fill in the blank, "My name is and yours is ________________." Another way is to directly ask for the caller's name, organization, and telephone number.
  • Ask him or her, "What is the nature of the call?"

Telephone Tag

(Only one of three calls is completed the first time.)

  • Establish specific call back times.
  • Schedule telephone calling during certain times in the day.
  • Make an appointment for the call back.

When the Person Requested Is Not In

  • Say he or she is not available. Then give a time when they will be available.
  • Don't say the person is on vacation, on break, or at lunch. That is no one's business.

Call Screening

  • Say I need to know the nature of your call so that I can transfer you to the appropriate department or person.

When the Person Requested Does Not Return Calls

  • Document this every time.
  • Offer to call the person back for them.
  • Keep reassuring the caller that you are passing along the messages.
  • Stop feeling guilty.

Caller Wants to Speak to the Person in Charge

  • State that you handle the office when the person requested is absent.

Caller is Overly Inquisitive

  • State that you do not have that information, but that you can transfer the caller to the person who does.
    Hint: On the first call, business first and small talk second.

Caller Rambles On and On

  • Use the caller's name and say, "I need to interrupt you so that I can transfer you to ______________. Or, so that I can find out the exact nature of your call.

Closing the Conversation

  • Talk in the past tense.
  • Close with promises. Summarize the action you plan to take. Say thank you and good-bye.

Caller Does Not Speak English

  • Get the caller's name, how it is spelled and how it is pronounced.
  • Talk slower.
  • Be right up front that you want to help them, but you cannot understand. Therefore, they may need to spell some of their words.

Angry Callers

  • Resolve the anger before it escalates.
  • Remind yourself when you hear the anger to become logical, rational, and do not take it personally.
  • Listen with empathy.
  • Summarize what you heard. Use feeling words to show you understand. You can never reason with someone until you work through their emotions.
  • Aim for confirmation. Settle for clarification. Avoid correction by the caller.
  • Use a statement of beneficial intent like, "I'm glad you called. I think I can help you with this."
  • Ask if there is any other information you need to have to work on this concern.
  • State what you think can be done. Suggest an action that can be taken. Recommend an option. If you do not know what to do, ask the caller what they think should be done.
  • Finish with exactly what you will do.

Other Suggestions

  • Take notes during the call. Record the date and time on your notes. Keep all your notes in one place.
  • When you call back and get an answering machine, do not hang up. Leave a complete message. Leave your name and telephone number.
  • If the caller uses profanity, tell the caller the organizational policy, if one exists. You do not have to listen to it. Let them know this, and if it continues, hang up the phone or walk away if the person is in the office. If a person threatens you, say that behavior is not tolerated and you will call the police if he/she continues. (You also may want to excuse yourself and locate another staff person.)

Resources

Here are two resources that may be useful:

Dealing With People You Can't Stand by Rick Brinkman and Rick Kirschner. It is available in most book stores and from McGraw-Hill, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

Don also helps maintain a Human Resources Library with other materials that can be checked out. For a list of those materials by topic, go to this web site: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/hr/library.html

Section 3.E Return to top

Working with Clients

This extension training guide sheet was developed by Don Broshar, extension organization development specialist, for use by office assistants. An audio cassette seminar by the same title is available from the ISU Training and Development Office, (515) 294-8914.

Working with Difficult People

Just what is a "difficult person"? Everyone has been a difficult person at one time or another. Therefore, a difficult person is the person who does not do what you want them to do or does what you do not want them to do, and then you do not know what to do about it.

What can you do about difficult people? You have four basic options.

1. Say and do nothing, except complain.

2. Decide that the benefits of the job are too important to risk and just accept the person as he or she is.

3. Change your attitudes and behaviors in order to change your relationship with the other person.

4. Leave. (Not all situations can be dealt with or are worthy of the energy necessary to engage in the relationship.)

When dealing with difficult people, you should practice three steps in order to build an effective relationship.

1. Know what you want from this relationship. If all you know is what you do not want, you cannot build any common ground.

2. Pay attention. Stay focused on the person, the situation, and your reactions.

3. Be flexible. You need to be ready to change your response to the person if it is not working.

Know What You Want

Listen for the negatives in your own thoughts. Replace those with a positive outcome.

Example: Negative thought--I do not want to get angry and lose my temper.

Replace with--I do want to remain calm and assertively stand up for my rights. Or, I want them to understand my view.

Pay Attention

Be aware of what you see, hear, and feel. Avoid being controlled by your assumptions and biases of the person. Pay close attention to behaviors, voice tone and tempo, what is said, and your reactions to the difficult person.

Be Flexible

If your pattern of dealing with the individual does not produce effective results, you need to be willing to try something different. Usually the difficult person has a fairly predictable pattern of behavior.

If you are paying attention, you can use the predictable behavior to "pace" yourself with the other person. Pacing means simply meeting the other person where he or she is. Pacing is reducing the difference between you and the other person. You pace when you show the other person you understand his or her point of view. Doing this develops common ground with the person and helps the other person see that you are not in opposition.

Research shows that in communication:

  • 55 percent of what we respond to is visual
  • 38 percent of what we respond to is sound
  • 7 percent of what we respond to is language

 

Therefore, if you mirror the behaviors of others you can pace your visual aspect of communication. For example, if you observe their breathing pattern and match that with your own breathing pattern you can pace your communication. Also pacing voice tone, volume, and tempo will help build rapport.

Once you have established rapport, common ground, then you can add additional information. Stephen Covey says it best in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, "Seek first to understand and then to be understood."

When communicating, people have two basic needs:

  • The need to be valued
  • The need to be understood

People know they are valued when you demonstrate you are listening. You can do this by paraphrasing or repeating exactly (backtracking) what the other person says. In conflict situations it is best to use backtracking. Paraphrasing allows too much opportunity to add new variables. Backtracking uses the same words as the difficult person, leaving nothing to chance. Once you have demonstrated you are listening, and have built rapport, then you can clarify anything about which you are uncertain. Backtracking demonstrates value; clarification demonstrates understanding.

When you communicate, your intent is very important. The purpose or reason behind the verbal message is critical to the communication process. Therefore, if you state your intent before you make your comments, you will help build rapport. When you do this you prepare the other person for the content of the message being offered.

Keep in mind that in all communications, but especially in communications with difficult people, you have the following basic human rights:

  • The right to contribute value. You have a right and responsibility to contribute your unique view.
  • The right to experience and express your feelings responsibly. Everyone has feelings. It is healthy to express them.
  • The right to ask for what you want.
  • The right to take time to think things through.
  • The right to say no without guilt.
  • The right to make mistakes.
  • The right to be treated with respect.

Working with Other Groups

What are the kinds of groups with which extension works? And how do the other county offices work with these groups? These are the questions asked most often by office assistants when discussing extension's relationships to other organizations or groups. At first glance the immediate response is: "We work with all kinds of groups and the way we work with them varies from county to county." While this response may be accurate, there may be another level of response much more helpful to developing effective working relationships with other groups.

Perhaps the first place to start is by meeting with the County Extension Education Director and field specialists working within the county. Information that may be helpful to the office assistant might include:

  • What groups in this county have we worked with in the past? For what purpose?
  • What groups in this county are we currently working with? For what purpose?
  • What groups in this county are we likely to work with in the future? Why?
  • What level of interaction does the county have with each group?
    • 1. Networking--sharing of information. There may or may not be common goals between extension and the organization.

      2. Collaboration--sharing of information and resources to achieve common goals.

      3. Coalition--collaborating under a formal structure.

  • What role does extension perform in each relationship?
  • What is the office assistant's responsibility in this role?

By answering these questions together the office assistant will be able to determine the number and type of relationships to be maintained with other organizations. This also will clarify the role the office assistant performs to enhance programming with the different groups and organizations.

The key in this process is to always be willing to ask for more information. In times of change and confusion the best approach is to err on over-communicating (if there is such a thing). Operating on assumptions or past patterns of behavior may only result in a climate of confusion and mistrust. Be certain every opportunity for talking and exploring relationships with other groups and organizations is taken.

Section 3.E Return to top

Listings in Telephone Directories

Policy Statement: As a step toward improving extension's organizational image, efficiency and effectiveness, the Marketing/Image Task Force in 1986 recommended implementing a consistent mode for listing phones and initially responding to calls in extension offices. This policy, issued Sept. 3, 1986, and reissued in March 1993, is a reaffirmation of that directive.

A. In phone directories, extension offices should be listed in the following manner:
Extension, ISU, ________________ County, Address, Phone

Extension, ISU, Area Office, Address, Phone

Extension, ISU Administration (or name of unit), Address, Phone

Rationale: In most counties, people will look initially under "E" to find numbers for the local extension office. The "free" listing should be under extension rather than ISU.

B. Some directory companies provide an additional free listing to government offices. They recommend that county and area directors check this possibility. Where it is an option, the county offices should be listed under county government.

Example:
Woodbury County, ISU Extension, Address, Phone

The area office should be listed under state government.

Example:
ISU Extension, Area Office, Address, Phone

Local offices should inquire about the possibilities of a phone listing on the "services or education" pages of their directories, at additional cost.

C. Directory companies generally provide one listing free. Any other listings or cross-references are at extra cost. Suggested cross-referencing is:

Examples:
(Under W) Woodbury County, ISU Extension
(Under I) ISU Extension Area Office

Depending on the format of the directory cross-referencing sometimes doesn't give the number but directs people where to find it, so it is an educational device.

D. The county office may also be listed in the yellow pages under the category of "schools, colleges, universities" as ISU Extension as an option.

Section 3.E Return to top

How to Answer the Phone

Extension phones should be answered in the following ways.

County, area, or state offices, by secretary or other persons answering the initial call to the office.

ISU Extension, (name of unit), followed by a short pause. If party does not speak up, then "May I help you?"

or

ISU Extension, (name of unit), This is (name of person answering the phone).

Examples:

ISU Extension, Woodbury County
ISU Extension, Area Office, Mary Smith
ISU Extension, Administration
ISU Extension, CIRAS
ISU Extension, Family Environment

When campus-based extension staff answer their own phones, they can distinguish between on- and off-campus calls. Off-campus calls (two rings) should be handled in the manner just described. On-campus calls (one ring) may be answered with their own name.

In county or area offices, staff receiving calls transferred from the secretary should answer with their own name.

The rationale for all these recommendations is that the ISU Extension connection is made obvious, yet the answer is as brief and efficient as possible.

Section 3.E Return to top

Use of Phone Answering Machines

A. Phone answering machines have been installed in all county offices to serve the clients at off-hours. Please record a greeting similar to these messages.
1. Message for nights, weekends, lunch hour:

Iowa State University Extension, _______________ county office. Our normal office hours are _______ a.m. to _______ p.m., Monday through Friday. (Note to staff, if closed for lunch, state open/close periods.)

Your call is important to us so we have installed this telephone answering device to take your message. At the tone, please leave your name and telephone number and we will return your call. If you care to leave a brief message, we can serve you better by finding your requested information. We also have a FAX machine available on-line 24 hours a day if you want to send us a written message. Please leave your message at the tone . . . (beep).

2. Message to be used when alone in the office for restroom or non-interruptible tasks:

Iowa State University Extension, ___________ county office. We are unable to answer your call right now, but this telephone answering machine will take your message. Please leave your name and telephone number and we will call you back promptly . . . (beep).

Section 3.E Return to top

Table of Contents | Index | Next Section | Previous Section |

Revised November 8, 2003. Content questions? Ask the experts.
Comments or suggestions? Contact the committee, (e-mail: ofcguide@iastate.edu)