Blog · Answering calls
Call handling best practices that fit on an index card
Five lines. Tape them next to the phone.
By the CosVoice team · · 5 minute read
Here's the card
Call handling best practices tend to arrive as forty-page manuals. You need five lines, and they're the same five whether a person or an AI is picking up.
Everything after the list is the reasoning, plus a way to tell whether it's happening on your own line.
- Answer fast.
- Say who you are.
- Get the name and number first.
- Repeat back numbers and dates.
- State the next step.
Answer fast
Three rings is a good target. Past five, a caller starts composing their voicemail or, more likely, scrolling to the next business on the list. Fast doesn't mean breathless, though. If you snatch up the phone halfway through a sentence to someone else, the caller hears it. Take one breath, then pick up.
If you can't answer within a few rings, decide what does. That's a question about your system and not about manners, and we've covered it in how to handle inbound calls.
Say who you are
Business name, then your name. "Graham's Plumbing, this is Graham." It takes two seconds, and it tells the caller they've reached the right place and have someone to deal with. "Hello?" makes them ask, and now the call has started with a small awkwardness.
For an AI answering, the same rule has an extra clause. It should introduce itself as an assistant, and say plainly that it's an AI if anyone asks. No dodging, no "I'm part of the team". There are examples for both in business phone greetings.
Get the name and number first
Before the story. It feels slightly rude and it isn't. "Can I grab your name and the best number for you, in case we get cut off?" Callers understand that straight away, especially on a mobile.
The reason is practical. Calls drop. Batteries die. Somebody walks into the office with a question. If you have a name and a number fifteen seconds in, nothing that happens afterwards loses you the customer. If you've got a lovely description of a leaking valve and no way to ring back, you have nothing.
Repeat back numbers and dates
Anything with digits in it gets said twice, once by them and once by you. Phone numbers, house numbers, prices, dates, times. "So that's 42 Marsh Lane, Thursday the 9th, between ten and twelve." Say the day and the date together, because "next Thursday" means two different Thursdays depending on who you ask.
Spell names and email addresses back too, and on a bad line use words for letters: "M for Monday, N for November". Nobody minds which alphabet you use. It feels slow. It's a lot quicker than driving to number 24 when the job was at 42.
State the next step
Every call ends with who does what, by when. "I'll email the quote today." "Graham will ring you tomorrow before nine." "You send me a photo of the breaker panel and I'll call once I've seen it." If the caller hangs up without knowing what happens next, they'll ring someone else to find out.
Then do it. A next step you don't keep is worse than none, because now the caller has spent a day waiting for you as well. If you can't make the time you gave, a thirty-second call to move it still counts as keeping your word.
Mark an AI against the same card
None of this changes when software answers, which makes the card a decent test before you trust an AI line with customers. Ring it and tick things off. Did it pick up quickly? Did it say whose line it was? Did it ask for a name and number early? Did it read the address back? Did it tell you what would happen next?
Two more checks apply to AI only. Ask whether it's a real person, and see that it tells the truth. And ask it something it can't know, like the price of a job you've never listed. The right response is that it'll take your details and get you an answer.
Our line is built to take a call this way: who's calling, what they need, the amounts and dates, the next step. You can try the card on Lilly, the AI agent that answers our own phone, on (949) 368-9902, or listen to the recordings on the demo page.
Leave these off
A few things get taught as best practice and don't earn their place. Scripts read word for word, which make good people sound bad. "Your call is important to us", which nobody has ever believed. "Is there anything else I can help you with?" when you haven't yet helped with the first thing.
And putting people on hold without asking. If you need thirty seconds, say so, and ask whether they'd like to wait or be rung back. Most will wait. They just want to have been asked.
Five lines is enough because the point of a phone call is small. Someone wants something. Find out who they are and what it is, and tell them what happens now.
Common questions
How many rings before answering a business call?
Aim for three or fewer. If that's not realiztic for your team, arrange for something else to pick up by then, so callers aren't left listening to it ring.
Should I use a script for answering calls?
Use a greeting and a checklist, not a script. People sound natural when they know what they need to find out and are free to ask it in their own words.
What should I do if I can't answer the caller's question?
Say so, take their details, and tell them when they'll hear back and from whom. A quick, honest "I'll find out" is better than a guess at a price or a date.
Do the same rules apply when I leave a voicemail for someone?
Yes, in miniature. Say who you are and why you're calling, give your number twice and slowly, and say when you can be reached.
Read next: Brief an AI receptionist, with a template · Greetings that don't sound like a robot · What our AI receptionist does
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