How to Avoid Dead Air on Calls

hey everyone it's sheena and in today's
video
we are going to talk about how to avoid
or
reduce dead air during calls
by the way this video was requested by
rachel gabassin
or rachel gabassin so rachel if you're
watching thank you so much for
supporting my channel and this video is
for you
let's begin so you might wonder what the
heck is a dead air
a dead air is basically the awkward
silence
during your call where you don't really
know what to say next and the customer
also have
nothing to say and you kind of feel that
you need to
feel that silence by talking to the
customer
and if you are a cousin and you be it's
going to be hard because it will make
you feel
nervous it'll make you feel awkward
overall
you're not going to be able to focus on
the solution so it is important that you
take the time to avoid or at least
reduce it also when you have dead air
the customer gets the impression that
you're you're disconnected or you're not
listening to her or worse you fell
asleep
when the customer says hello are you
there then it is an indication that
the dead air is unbearably long and you
need to do something about it so
basically i can think of three scenarios
where the dead air might be too
noticeable
and unbearably long and the first is
when your system or
internet connection is loading very
slowly
and the second is if you have to process
something for the customer
like for example a refund and you have
to fill out a form for the customer and
you need
time to concentrate on that form before
talking to a customer or third
if you don't know what to say next if
you don't know the answer to
a customer's question and you need to
check
your products knowledge or knowledge
base or if you need to
ask someone like your team lead about
the solution for the customer's problem
so these are the three scenarios that i
could think of and i have three
solutions for that the first solution is
going to be
to put your customer on hold now what is
a hold putting your customer on hold
means that you
have to press a button in your system
what that does is you will be
temporarily separated from the customer
during the entire duration of the whole
the customer is going to
hear a music while she is waiting and
for that duration
you will have the time to to ask your
team lead about the problem you will
have the time to
check your knowledge base so you might
wonder how exactly
do you put a customer on hold to put a
customer on hold you need to
ask for permission to put her on hold
and then you have to state the reason
for the hold
and you need to give her the duration
the expected
duration that you are going to get back
to her for example
yeah so i don't really know how to
return this thing because you didn't
even include a return label
will you guys send me one i would need
to ask
the returns team about that amber
because normally
you should have received a return label
along with the package
uh can i push on hold for one to two
minutes so i can check with the returns
team
okay thank you
by the way putting the customer on hold
will solve all
three of these problems but i don't
really recommend that you put your
customer on hold all
the time as much as possible you want to
use
the hold feature when you really need it
for the problem number one where you
where the system is low and the internet
is low i think you can get away with not
putting the customer on hold especially
if the delay of the system
is just 10 seconds it's really fine to
not put the customer on hold
but if your problem is the number two
and three where you really
need more time alone time to check the
customer's problem or to ask someone
about it or to process something for her
then in that case you can definitely put
the customer on hold
because the thing about putting your
customer on hold is the more you put the
customer on hold
the more it's actually going to be
really annoying for the customer so you
want to
do it as less often as possible
by the way most accounts only allow a
maximum of
two minutes per hold once you reach two
minutes you have to get back to the
customer
and give her the answer or the solution
to a problem but if you need more time
you can tell the customer so thanks for
waiting amber
i just talked to the returns team and
they're currently processing the return
label for you can i put you on hold for
another minute
by then i should be able to get back to
you with a return number
okay thank you don't make the mistake of
telling the customer that you're gonna
be putting her on hold for two minutes
and then get back to her in five minutes
because that you you cannot do that
that is just a no-no you get back to the
customer
according to the time that you promised
her period
if i don't recommend putting your
customer on hold for
problem number one so what do i
recommend
in this case if you're just waiting 10
seconds for the
for your system to load then in this
case you can make
small talks i know it's it's
it's intimidating not everyone is
really skilled at small talks i
personally
hate it but i personally know some
agents
who are really good at it who are really
skilled at making small talks to
customers
and they are usually the extroverted
ones where
they have everything right to say to the
customer
they're not just talking about the
weather they're actually talking about a
lot
and you know making small talks just
comes naturally to them
and i personally hate small talks it's
not something that comes naturally to me
i understand that it's not this is not
something for this is not something that
most agents could and want to do
but if you can and you don't have a
choice then
practice making small talks to your
customer and maybe
who knows you can maybe master the art
of it i personally know
an agent who has stories about himself
that he could share to the customers so
if you really want to master it
you could probably do the same you can
prepare short stories about yourself and
and say them at the right time maybe
that could help too i
also have another friend who had a laugh
template what i mean by that is she
he he has this specific graph that he
only use when he's talking to the
customers
when a customer makes a joke or initiate
small talks
then it's not going to be so awkward
laughing
to a joke that's not even funny because
you know most customers actually make
jokes that are not even funny or
probably not something that filipinos
could actually
find funny and it's important that you
have this kind of
laugh template that you prepare
and i think it works for her for him he
could really small talk a lot of
customers and customers would like them
but
again this is not for everyone i
personally hate small talks and i try to
avoid it as much as i can but if you are
cornered in
a position where you really have to do a
small talk because the customer
initiated it then
oh god you just have to prepare a story
about yourself
that you're willing to share to the
customer the problem with small talks
though guys
is not all customers could be small
talked you cannot really small talk all
types of customers
depending on their mood maybe if it's an
irit customer
it's probably best to not small talk an
irate customer
or maybe the customer isn't isn't really
talking isn't really that much talkative
or maybe the customer is not really that
open to you
and he's a little bit more reserved then
in those situations it's probably best
to not make small talks it's something
that you would
you would learn with practice so it's
fine you would know
when and when not to make small talks so
you're fine and the third and probably
the best way to reduce
dead air during your call is to update
your customer
on what is currently happening on your
end to
keep her posted of what you're currently
doing
on the line you can do this in two ways
you can do something like this
that's scarlett smith order number
one two three four five six
thank you let me just check that here
okay i'm currently loading a database
because
the it department had us restarted 10
minutes ago
so bear with me
for a while it should open right about
now okay
and that is scarlett smith
order number one two three four five
six yep
okay okay i got it
but if you're not the talkative type and
you really just want to concentrate on
checking her account
or processing the refund for her then
you can tell your customer that she
is going to hear some moments of silence
but that's okay and you're not being
disconnected
that you're still on the line with her
you're just processing her refund
you can say something like this amber i
am now going to process your refund
um you will probably hear some moments
of silence but know that i am just here
on the other end of the line and if you
need anything just
just call me and i'll be there no
that's not how you do it amber i am now
going to process your refund and fill
out the form
so you're going to hear some moments of
silence but
no worries that is normal if you need
anything just
call me and i am listening i'm just here
over the line okay
that should already be fine for your
customer and then your customer would
already get
the cue that she should not talk too
much because you are filling out
something
so that is still good i also just want
to remind you that if you do this
make sure that you do not mute your
headset because it would feel really
unnatural for the customer because when
you mute your headset
the customer hears absolutely nothing
but if you just uh you just remain
silent
the customer is actually going to hear
your background she's going to hear
the other agents she's also going to
hear the clicking of the keyboard
it gives the impression that you are
doing something for her problem you're
working
on her problem that you're not just
completely gone because
when you put the customer on mute it's
kind of
a different effect the customer is going
to
to wonder sooner about where you've gone
so yeah you know try to
not put her on mute if she hears your
background that you're typing
something and you're doing something
then it is definitely better than
putting it your customer on mute
i really recommend this technique if you
are trying to reduce your whole time
because remember most accounts have only
two minutes maximum per hold but
sometimes when the customer's problem
is a bit complicated you could actually
sometimes
agents take three minutes and take
minutes or longer
and when this happens your team lead or
your
quality analyst could probably talk to
you and
would tell you that you should lower
your whole time for each call
and if this is the case with you you're
trying to
reduce your whole time then you really
could use this technique
because with this one you're not really
using the hold feature
the customer's waiting time is not
really registered as
a hold um it's registered as a regular
duration of the call
so this is definitely what i recommend
if you're trying to reduce your whole
time
in your stat and lastly and probably
a very common sense advice that i can
give you
is to obviously memorize the common
issues that you might encounter when
you're still starting out on the floor
getting to know the ropes and
familiarizing the
problems you're going to encounter
common issues that
you know you will encounter every single
day of your shift or every single night
of your shift
if you just familiarize the procedures
the solutions and answer to those common
issues and questions then you're going
to be a lot
better at assisting customers and
reducing your dead air
and hold time that is all for today guys
if you have any questions
suggestions you know what to do comment
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bye