The following tips will help you use your "telephone tool" to its fullest:

• Smile when you're on the phone; your customers will hear it!
• Answer the phone pleasantly and maintain a pleasant demeanor while on the phone.
• Never answer the phone with food in your mouth or try to eat quietly while talking. Drinking, chewing gum or sucking on a mint are amplified over telephone lines.
• Return all phone calls within 48 hours.
• When you place a call that you know might be lengthy, ask if it's a good time to talk before you dive into your spiel.
• Know what you want to say before making an important call. Practice the words out loud until they feel comfortable.
• Don't read from a script during a call. Instead either memorize your script as an actor would or use "thought starters" such as a word or two on index cards to guide you from one idea to another.
• Make a telephone appointment when you want to have a focused, longer (15 or more minutes) conversation with someone who is normally busy.
• Don't do things such as open mail, flip through the newspaper or do paperwork while on the phone. The person you're talking with will know you're distracted.
• Listen and respond to the person on the other end of the line. When you focus on them rather than on what you're going to say next, the phone call becomes much more conversational.
• When you're doing a lot of telephone work, energize yourself after every hour.

Evaluate Your Telephone Voice

Your voice is your personality over the telephone. It makes an immediate impression that can portray you as friendly or distant, confident or timid, spontaneous or mechanical, relaxed or nervous.

So, how do you come across over the phone? Make a tape recording of yourself while on the telephone and evaluate the following attributes:

• Pitch - Is your voice too shrill or strained? Do you speak in a monotone? In normal speech, pitch varies. These variations are known as inflection. The more inflection you use, the more interesting your tone of voice is. Keep in mind that when you are under emotional stress, the pitch of your voice will tend to rise and become shrill or strained. Watch it!  The pitch of your voice is an index of confidence and poise.
• Volume - Check the volume or loudness of your voice. (You might want to get a friend to help you with this.) Is it too soft or too loud? Often when people are tired or upset their voices tend to fade, and they will be asked to "speak up." Be sure to speak loud enough to be heard, but not so loud that you sound forced.
• Rate - If you speak too slowly you'll likely lose the attention of the listener. Conversely, your listener won't be able to follow you if you speak too rapidly. In either case, your message won't get through.
• Quality - The quality of your voice is its most distinctive and individual characteristic. This is where the essence of warmth, understanding and "likability" come into play. Smiling as you speak enhances your vocal quality. Being angry, upset or in a hurry negatively affects your vocal quality.
• Articulation - The price of poor articulation is high, particularly in business. You must enunciate or pronounce your words very clearly or your listeners will misunderstand you. Faulty articulation and incorrect word pronunciation give your listener the impression that you are sloppy, careless and lack knowledge.