An employee of The Altman Group of Madison Heights, Michigan has been recognized by the US Assoc. of Tm. Svrs for suggesting that his company shorten its mandatory phone greeting – which, it’s estimated, will result in savings of over $70,000 per year.
The new phone greeting was introduced in Jaunary, based on the analysis of Accounts Management Manager John Sample, as follows:
1) An employee spends an average of 13.7 seconds to get through the current mandatory greeting: “Good morning, and thank you for calling the Altman Group, where we take pride in our service, value customers like you, and continually seek ways to help you succeed today, tomorrow, and in the future. This is _____ speaking. How may I help you succeed today?”
2) With each employee answering the phone an average of 18 times per day – or 90 times per week – each staffer spends 17 hours answering the phone each year.
3) Based on the average employee salary of $16.56 per hour, and with 286 employees, a total of $80,000 in salary dollars is being allocated to pronouncing the greeting each year.
4) Shortening the greeting to “Hello!” – which takes one tenth the time to say – will therefore cost the company only one tenth as much, a savings of $72,000.
An additional benefit, Sample said, is that since employees would use fewer words answering the phone, they’d have more to use in brainstorming sessions and mandatory morale enhancement meetings.
He will receive his award at the Assoc. of Tm Svrs. convention in Chicago, which takes place April 8 from 6:45 to 7:03 PM.
