Telephone Etiquette & Customer Service Training

A couple of weeks ago, the employees at my work were invited to attend a meeting on Telephone Etiquette and Customer Service Training. Thinking it might be a nice break from glazing my eyes over in front of my computer screen, I decided to attend. My (favorite) coworker, Emily, and I went together and took very informational notes throughout the meeting....(doodles.)

The majority of our job is answering the phone-hence the meeting. I answer the phones countless times while on the clock and think I have quite polished my etiquette. Emily, however, disagreed and decided to tell me. While ending one of the various phone calls of the day, I was being thanked by a teacher and without giving it a thought, I gave the response I say multiple times every day.

Teacher: "Well thank you so much for your help!"

Me: "No problem! Bye!"

Teacher: "Bye!"

Now here's where Emily politely reminded me of the meeting we had attended not long before.

Emily in a very kind voice: "Laura, remember what we were told in the meeting? We're not supposed to say things like "sure" and "no problem." It's "you're welcome."

Me: "Oh, riight. My bad."

So, I tried my hardest to remember this and work on my customer service skills. But it made the following phone calls more difficult. While ending phone calls for the next week or so, my responses varied between stutters and words not included in the english language. They ranged anywhere from "No-you're welcome!" to "No prob-you're...welcome?" The best response, though, would have been the one that I gave to a poor teacher today.

Teacher: "Thank you so much!"

Me (Now keep in mind my brain gets a little scrambled when I'm thinking of two different phrases.): "Your problem!"
And click. I hung up.