Customers make judgments within the first 10 to 20 seconds. To ensure that you make a good first impression, you should pause and breathe for three seconds before each line of your greeting.

Tone is a key quality ingredient in a telephone conversation. Unlike face-to-face conversations where visual accounts for 55 per cent, tone 38 per cent and words 7 per cent of the impression - over the phone, tone and words become everything. Tone of voice accounts for 87 per cent and words 13 per cent of the overall impression.