Seven Tips For Optimal Phone Communication

Posted: Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 11:17:18 AM EST by Stephen Hamilton

Yesterday morning I was preparing to make some phone calls, and in a stream-of-consciousness manner I tweeted about it. I have a little routine I go through before making a lot of calls, and that was what inspired my tweet. I got a response from @XMPieman, who made a great suggestion. I realised this would make a useful blog post.

The phone calls I made this morning were sales calls, but I believe these tips can help with any form of phone communication. And as Paul Hassing often points out, every communication either builds or erodes your business. So with that in mind, here are Seven Tips for Optimal Phone Communication:

1. Have a purpose in mind

Before you do anything else, make sure you clearly understand what the purpose is for making this call. Sometimes, this can be a number of things you need to accomplish, but often there is really just one critical outcome you're trying to achieve. Make sure you identify these goals, and how you're going to get there, before you even pick up the phone.

2. Rehearse

You need to make sure your voice sounds good. This is especially true if it is earlier in the day, but warm up your voice so it isn't croaky or cracking. Some vigorous humming usually works great. Also, consider the pronunciation of any unfamiliar technical terms or names beforehand, and make sure you can nail them.

3. Speak clearly

This goes hand in hand with the previous point, but is absolutely essential. These pointers might sound obvious, but here are a few simple guidelines that are often ignored:

• Don't mumble
• Don't eat while talking on the phone
• Don't shove the mouthpiece of the phone into your neck (or do anything else that will muffle your voice)
• Do get in the habit of maintaining good posture; in particular, keeping your chin up. It works.

4. Speak naturally, using gestures

Speak as though the person(s) on the other end of the phone are in the room. Use gestures as much as you can, and avoid anything that inhibits your natural gesturing (and yes, everybody gestures when speaking). It is for this reason I highly recommend, if possible, using a headset to free up both of your hands. Using gestures when speaking adds something to your voice that is discernible to the listener, and it is a positive thing.

5. Stand up and walk around

Where possible, stand up when speaking on the phone. Your posture is immediately improved, and it is easier to gesture when standing up. And if you can, walk around while conversing (make that a wireless headset, thanks!). You'll sound more relaxed, and this in turn will relax the other person(s). I personally pace about, but this gives me a rhythm which I find comforting.

6. Smile!

This isn't a bunch of tree hugging good vibes. You really will sound warmer, friendlier, and more relaxed, and people will respond to you in a more positive manner when you're smiling. And besides, it'll make you feel better. Try it now.

7. Listen

This is perhaps the most overlooked aspect of effective communication, irrespective of the medium or message. It is essential when talking to someone on the phone we remember the ears to mouth ratio. This 2:1 ratio tells us how much time we need to spend listening in relation to speaking.

Bonus tip: Use the available technology

Where appropriate, leverage the technology you have available to you to enhance the communication. A very simple example of this is using the HOLD button while yelling out to a co-worker to ask if a shipment has arrived. An example of something a little more complex is using teleconferencing to bring in a co-worker on a conversation. There are lots of possible examples, but the point is to acquaint yourself with the capabilities of your phone. You'll be glad you did.

These are tips that I find useful, but what do YOU think? Do you have any suggestions for enhancing your telephone communication? I'd love to hear them; please leave a comment.

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Tags: phone communication, phone calls, telephone manners, communication, phone, telephone, tips, pointers, manners,

The Right Images - A simple guide to sourcing images for the web

Posted: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 4:25:13 PM EST by Stephen Hamilton

I often get asked by clients and prospects about sourcing the right images for use on their website. This is something I am naturally happy to help with. Depending on the client, I can help in different ways.

Sourcing Images for the Web

Usually, the responsibility of providing images suitable for use on a clients website lies with the client. But often times the client lacks high quality images or photographs, or at least enough of them to complete the job.

At this point I usually head to iStockPhoto.com to look for appropriate images that I can work with from a graphic design perspective.

When I find something suitable, there is then a choice to be made: I can either purchase the image and cover the costs in my expenses, or ideally, the client purchases them directly, and forwards copies to me for use on their website. The reason this second option is ideal is because:

• The client then owns the license, and may be able to use the image in other marketing material (such as a print catalogue)
• This is usually cheaper for the client
• I prefer it as it keeps my administration overheads low

I try to be flexible so I don't insist on doing it this way, but I genuinely believe it is a better result for the client and my business. In case you've never used iStockPhoto, it is a very simple process to create an account, and use either credit card or PayPal to puchase images.

Editing & Cropping Images

Another piece of advice I am often asked about is how to make simple changes (usually cropping or simple manipulation) to images or photographs. Although I often do this myself, some clients are more 'hands-on' and want to know how to do this.

For simple cropping and basic manipulation of photographs I'd recommend FastStone Image Viewer. It handles many file types, does cropping, resizing and a bunch of other things, and is a bucketload cheaper than the expensive software we use in-house (in fact, it's free!). It is also pretty easy to use. If you're looking for something a bit more advanced, but for the same great price, check out the Aviary online suite of tools. From the little I've played with it, it looks great! Of course, neither are as powerful as Photoshop, but both do the basics very well well. 

I hope this has been useful - if you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know in the comments.

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Tags: photograph,cropping, images, photos, graphics, photograph, cropping, photoshop, istockphoto,

Another reason why Flash websites suck

Posted: Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 12:57:58 PM EST by Stephen Hamilton

We've been working with a client on a complete redevelopment of their website. Their reason for the redevelopment was simple, and common: it wasn't getting them any leads, sales, engagement or interest at all from their market.

That problem we are fixing for them.

It is worth pointing out one other benefit they'll get from this redevelopment. Their old 100% Flash website doesn't get seen on iPhone's or iPad's. Flash is not supported on these devices.

In fact, here is a picture of what their old website looks like when viewed from an iPhone:

That is fixed with their new website. But there are many people out there who still have the 100% Flash websites they were sold five years ago who don't realise that a 100% Flash website is a bad idea for many reasons, least of all this issue with the iPhones.

Some might ask, "Oh, who uses an iPhone to look at websites anyway?"

Fair question. To be honest I don't have the time to trawl the internet at present for exact stats right now. But I've seen quite a few that indicate that while the numbers are not huge, they are not inconsequential, and more importantly the trend is a staggeringly increasing rate of mobile browsing in general, and on the iPhone in particular.

Add to this the immenient Australian release of the iPad (which behaves the same way in this regard as an iPhone), and the numbers mean this issue cannot be ignored if your business uses a 100% Flash website.

What are the answers? Well, it depends on your needs (and most importantly, the needs of your users), but generally speaking a site that only uses elements of Flash is a start.

Better yet, for simple animations, jQuery does as good a job and doesn't have this issue at all. Ask your friendly web designer for advice specific to your situation. Or leave a question or comment below.

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Points to ponder on the performance of your website

Posted: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 11:03:12 PM EST by Stephen Hamilton

I was talking to Matt from Nett Magazine yesterday at an online marketing session he ran in Brisbane yesterday.

Although it was aimed at a retail-level (i.e. non-geek) audience, I gleaned a couple of interesting points out of it. And a couple of those useful pieces of information are what I want to share with you now.

The first one was something I was already aware of, but as it has only been 'officially' announced recently, it is definitely worth mentioning. It has to do with one of the signals that Google uses in determining search result rankings - page speed. While this isn't surprising to anyone who practices SEO, it does mean that if the performance of your web pages are poor - that is they load slowly - you may suffer in the search result rankings.

This means that ensuring you have suitable web hosting, a well coded site, and optimised content (particularly images, audio and video) are all exercises worth reviewing.

As Google point out in their blog post linked to above, this isn't a major part of their algorithm:

While site speed is a new signal, it doesn't carry as much weight as the relevance of a page. Currently, fewer than 1% of search queries are affected by the site speed signal in our implementation…

Rather, like other factors, it is just one of many factors to consider. But if you're in a competitive search market, paying attention to your websites performance could make the critical difference in the results you get. If you want to know how to go about solving this problem, check out the tools on the blog post linked to above, or leave a comment below.

The second point I wanted to share was the concept Matt raised of bounce rates having an effect on search results.

I have to admit this was new to me. I've been aware for some time that Poor bounce rates can adversely affect Adwords, or Google PPC, campaigns. But the notion that it had an effect on organic search results was new to me.

To be honest, I thought he might have had it all a bit confused. But after taking a look around on the web, I found this article on Bounce Rates, CTR, and Conversion Rates.

It seems that Matt was on to something! Better yet, I'm increasing my knowledge. Thanks Matt!

The article, written by Jeremy Chatfield, shows that largely because of their online ad network, Google certainly have the means to track Bounce Rates. And he eloquently argues that Google are likely to give this signal some weight as it is in their users interests to find information that is generally found to be interesting (i.e. not something most other people navigate away from).

Once again, according to Jeremy, this signal of user behavior is unlikely to make a major difference, but is probably does make some difference, especially in competitive situations. As he says:

The largest impact of user behavior is that we get to keep our position, or maybe even slide up a position or two.

The question you might be asking yourself now is, "How on Earth do I monitor Bounce Rates, CTR & Conversion Rates?"

Good question! If you're not already using Google Analytics, check it out. It does a good job in most situations of measuring these important statistics. Of course, you can always get help from any reputable web designer, including me!

I hope this has been informative. Please leave a comment below if you've got any questions, or experiences to share.

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Why Do We Need Another Website Design Company?

Posted: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 3:46:23 PM EST by Stephen Hamilton

We've started mettlepress, and are excited about what the future holds.

The immediate future is looking bright, and we've got some big plans for the longer-term also.

But the question is: Why start another web design business? Do we need another one?

Sure, there are plenty of people out there who do websites. There are legitimate businesses who offer web design and related services, and everyone has a mate of their cousin who can whack a few web pages up.

The reality is that for every business out there who know what they're doing when it comes to building a commercially successful website, there are dozens and dozens who really have no idea how to deliver what most small businesses need from their website - leads from paying customers interested in the goods and services offered.

What's more, many small businesses struggle with making choices between good web designers and, well, not so good web designers.

That is why we think there is a real need for a no-nonsense, consultative approach to building websites that deliver results for small businesses. Websites can be profitable. They can also look professional. We know, because that is what we do here at mettlepress. Contact us to find out how we can help you get results from your website.

Alternatively, keep an eye on this here blog, where we will be regularly sharing tips, insights and advice on successfully marketing your business online via your website.

Thanks for stopping by!

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