Brad Worthley is a well known speaker, consultant and behavior change specialist.  He publishes a monthly newsletter called “Exceed Customer Expectations!”.  I find his insight and thoughts to be quite interesting sometimes.  In his most recent newsletter, he wrote:

When you get busy and the adrenaline is running, you may find yourself speaking to customers faster than normal. I am going to ask you to take a deep breath before you speak, so that you can relax just enough to slow your speech down.

Even though you don’t mean to, when you speak fast, the customer could develop the perception that you are trying to rush them. This may even be true, but it is not the impression you want to leave your valuable customers. Slowing your speech also leaves the customer with the perception that you are more sincere and have time for them.

This is also extremely true in call centers — maybe even more so.  The entire perception that people have of your service is verbal.  There are no body signals. There is no eye contact.  Your tone is everything. Keep this in mind the next time that a customer has contacted you and you start speaking quickly — whether because you’re busy or because they’re pushing your nerves.   Even in a call center that focuses solely on your AHT, you’ll find that customers are more satisfied and they’ll actually understand you quicker if you talk slightly slower.  Their response won’t, nearly as often, be “Can you repeat that?” 

Slow down.  We’re not in a hurry.