4. Closing with an agreement

Most phone calls don't go wrong in the middle, but at the end. The contact was pleasant, the customer felt heard, and then you close with "we'll look into it" and a friendly goodbye. A week later the same customer calls again, now irritated, because nothing has happened. This chapter is about that final minute.

The four phases of the conversation

Every telephone call follows the same underlying pattern, even when the customer moves back and forth across the subject. If you consciously follow that rhythm, you keep a grip on time, content and atmosphere.

Open takes up about a tenth of the conversation: your greeting, your name, your organisation and the invitation to explain. Exploring is by far the largest phase, around forty per cent: listening, asking follow-up questions and summarising until you can say in one sentence what the customer wants to achieve. If you can't, you still know too little. Handling is roughly thirty per cent: you give information, offer a solution or make an arrangement. And Closing is the final twenty per cent. Short, but it is the part the customer remembers and it determines whether they call again tomorrow.

The biggest pitfall lies between exploring and handling: as soon as you hear a word you recognise, your answer is already lined up while the customer is still talking. Understand first, then act. The second pitfall is in the closing: it gets skipped because the call is "basically finished" anyway.

Uncertainty is worse than bad news

You won't be able to solve everything while the customer is on the line. That is no problem, as long as they know where they stand. "We'll look into it" leaves them empty-handed: they don't know who is looking into it, when, or what they will hear if nothing comes of it. "I'm passing your request on to the planning department now. You'll hear from us by twelve o'clock tomorrow at the latest" gives them something to count on. If you can't do something, say what you can't do, why, and what the next step is. Someone who knows where they stand can move on.

As you do so, translate your internal jargon into plain language. "I'll escalate your case to the back office and you'll get a response within the SLA" means nothing to the customer. "I'll pass your question on to a colleague who can sort this out, and they will call you back today" says exactly the same thing, but comprehensibly.

Who does what, and when

An agreement is only an agreement if it contains those three things. Who: a name, not a department. "Administration will be in touch" is not an agreement; "Karin from administration will call you" is. What: the specific action, not "chasing it up". When: a time you can keep, with some margin built in. Don't promise "within the hour" if you know your colleague is in a meeting until three.

You bring those three together at the end in the closing summary, and you give the customer the chance to correct or add something. "Just to summarise: I have changed your address and you will receive a confirmation by email this afternoon. Is that correct?" Then comes the question many people skip: "Is there anything else I can help you with?" That is precisely where the real reason for the call sometimes finally comes out.

A commitment or an impression

There is a difference between what you say and what the customer hears. "I think that will be all right" is an estimate to you; to the customer it is a promise. "I'll see whether I can manage it today" is heard as: it will be done today. On the telephone that gap is dangerous, because there is no email in which you can later check what was actually said.

So stick to what you have control over yourself. You can promise to pass something on, to call back, to look into something. You cannot promise that a colleague will call when you haven't spoken to them, or that something will be approved by someone else. If you doubt whether the customer has understood correctly, ask them to summarise it themselves: "Just to be sure I've explained it properly: what happens now?" That sounds odd on paper, but on the phone it is the only way to find out.

The last ten seconds, and what comes after

Thank the customer for calling and end with a polite goodbye. Let them hang up first when you can: there is nothing more annoying than wanting to add something and hearing a dead line. And don't let your voice trail off. The final sentence is the part that sticks, and that is precisely where many people swallow their words.

Then comes the part nobody hears. Write up your note straight away, not after the next three calls; by then you no longer know exactly what was said, and details get lost that come back later as confusion or a complaint. Put the agreement in your diary or in the system, not in your head. And call back at the agreed time, even if you don't have an answer yet. "I don't have it yet, I'll call you again tomorrow" is a kept agreement. Saying nothing is not, however good your reason.

Summary

• A telephone call has four phases: opening (10%), exploring (40%), handling (30%) and closing (20%).
• You have finished exploring when you can say in one sentence what the client wants to achieve; if you can't, you ask another open question.
• Uncertainty is more unpleasant for a customer than bad news. Say what will happen, by whom and when.
• An agreement contains who, what and when. A department is not a who, and "chasing it up" is not a what.
• Summarise at the end, check whether it is correct and ask whether there is anything else going on.
• Only promise what is within your own control. What you mean as an estimate, the customer hears as a promise.
• Let the customer hang up first, write up your note straight away and call back at the agreed time, even if you don't know anything yet.