There are tones that you can use that will make customers hate you. And, there are tones that will make customers sing your praises. Which tones are you using right now?

You probably dont know for sure, and even more interesting is the fact that your tones are probably randomly selected, based on your mood, your customers tonal choices, the subject being discussed, and the like.

But why leave such an important determinant of customer satisfaction to chance? If you could learn a simple tonal formula for making customers sing, wouldnt you use it, call after call?

But let me backtrack to what I just said. Tone is important.

Prove this to yourself.

The next time someone you know is fishing for a compliment about her clothing, say, Sure, you look great, but let your tone move downward with each word.

Make the phrase sound as if youre walking down a tonal stairway.

Then monitor your friends reaction. I assure you she wont be happy with what you said, despite the fact that each word was positive and above reproach.

Shell hate your utterance, because youre sounding sarcastic. Sarcasm is a tonal cue that says, dont believe my words; believe the opposite. So, when I say you look great, I really mean you look awful!

Sarcasm teaches us that when tone and text collide, when they disagree, guess which one wins, when it comes to the message thats sent and received.

Thats right, tone wins.

So, it is crucial to very carefully orchestrate our tones when speaking to customers. Im going to give you a phrase, something that you probably use already in one form or another, and I want you to do a customer satisfaction experiment with it.

Say this phrase going down the stairs half of the time, and going up the stairs, sounding upbeat, the other half. I promise you that youll get dramatically different reactions.

When you sing the phrase, going up, your customers will sing right back to you, and when you go down in the dumps, theyll also surely follow.

Heres the situation. Youre finishing the call. Calmly append this phrase to the last thing you say:

And is there anything else I can help you with?

Im sure youll find the awesome power of tone will produce very different customer satisfaction outcomes.

Tell me how this works out for you!