hey everyone this is your contact center coach here to talk to you about how you can improve
your saw skills like a professional athlete great skills make you a better team player and improves
your performance making you more promotable in this video lesson we'll be talking about
one critical component of soft skills effective communication and I'll be giving you seven great
tips for being an effective communicator over the phone that you can put into use right away
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contact center professionals such as yourself so let's get started so what exactly are soft
skills when you look at professional skills in any job they fall into one of two categories
either hard skills or soft skills hard skills are the ones that are teachable and measurable
like language skills computer skills and professional certifications soft skills
are traits that make you a good employee like dependability friendliness effective communication
teamwork and so on but what does that have to do with handling phone calls well a lot
actually because effective use of soft skills on the phone can mean the difference between a weak
performer and a superstar there are actually a lot of components to soft skills that can make
you a great performer this video is part 1 in a series of lessons about soft skills designed to
help you understand them and to put them into play for this coaching session we're only going
to focus on one that can make a huge difference in knocking it out of the park for your callers
effective communication being a great communicator in person doesn't mean you'll be effective over
the phone because the circumstances are different creating challenges not present in a face-to-face
conversation so let's look at what you can do to be more effective in those circumstances first
unless you're on a video call the other person has no idea if you're nodding shaking your head
smiling or even scowling there are no visual cues that normally help with understanding so be aware
that it's up to you to paint a perfectly clear picture for that caller through your choice of
words but messages are also conveyed in how you deliver those words if you sound bored angry or
disinterested that other person will pick up on that and the caller may focus instead on how you
said it and not what you said some studies show that when there are no visual cues up to 70% of
meaning comes from tone of voice so be sure your voice always sounds pleasant and helpful there's
a tendency to focus on what you're about to say missing what that person is telling you there's
an old saying two ears one mouth that means listen more to hear more so clear your mind and listen to
hear what the caller is saying you want them to hear you hearing them there will be times when
you're not sure about something the caller has said so don't be afraid to ask questions it's
better to ask for clarification than to guess what the other person meant no one is ever
happy if you hurry to the wrong answer because you didn't take the time to ask and understand
long sentences with many words and ideas may result in the other person losing concentration
and confusing them so speak in a structured and logical way think of a race where you
need to get to the finish line as directly as possible without leaving out critical steps
koehlers can tell if you're not giving them your full attention that can lead to you sounding
disinterested or even mistakes in fact research suggests that multitasking reduces productivity
by up to 40 percent so don't even take that risk by trying to do two things at once
finally check your understanding by summarizing at the end of a call be clear about what was agreed
upon who's responsible for what's when you'll be in touch and so on this reduces the risk of
misunderstandings keeps calls from escalating and keeps customers happy and happy customers come
back for more well that's all for now this was just a small part of some great online training
programs we have available to improve your skills you can find links to those resources below don't
forget to Like and subscribe to our Channel and feel free to leave comments or suggestions
below this is your contact center coach saying game over thanks for taking the time to make
yourself a better player for your company and for your customers now go out there and be great