Know Your Hose Components! Key Words And Descriptions Of Products Necessary To Being A Phone Rep

Telephone order representatives have company catalogs online in front of them. However, trainees rarely can tell a customer this part from that part. That is a problem when your customers call your company and try to describe or explain the parts they need to order, and the phone rep is lost, or worse, argumentative with the customer about what the customer needs. It helps to start things off on the right foot by providing trainees with an adequate understanding of hose components so that they know exactly what industrial customers are talking about when the customers call to place an order. 

Hoses

​Hoses are not just black rubber tubes. Hoses can also be silicone or plastic. They can be clear, white, blue, yellow, black, red, and a few other colors, depending on what they are used for. The smallest-diameter hose may only be a few millimeters, while the largest-diameter hose can be several inches. Knowing this, the phone rep can ask specific questions of the customer in order to ascertain what kind of hose the customer needs, what size, and what type works best for the customer's current situation. 

​Hose Fittings

Hose fittings are made from steel, stainless steel, copper, brass, and PVC plastic. Each kind and type has a specific purpose. Each kind and type has a specific name, although many customers will not know the exact technical name for the fitting they need. This is where it becomes so important for phone reps to really know the parts by type, name, shape, size, specific job, material, and how each is used. While that is some extensive knowledge to grasp, it becomes a major boon to customers and a benefit to your company as well because customers will be thrilled that they do not have to give more information on a fitting than what they know. The phone rep can immediately pick up on the description and job the fitting does and be able to find the perfect and correct fitting for the customer almost immediately. 

​Adapters, Clamps, and Extensions

​Finally, the phone rep should know the differences among adapters, clamps, and extensions. Clamps are typically metal clamps that slide over the hoses and tighten around the ends of the hoses to get them to stay in place over a hose fitting. Adapters make it easier for hoses and fittings to fit together, when they otherwise would not fit together at all. Extensions help extend the length of hoses just a few millimeters to a few inches longer so custom hoses don't need to be cut. Other extensions elongate the fittings so that the hoses do not have to stretch quite so hard. 


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