hi everyone this is your contact center coach here to talk about one of the most important skills you
can have as a contact center agent tone of voice in this video we'll talk about what tone of voice
is why that's so important and i'll give you some great tips on how to improve your tone of
voice over the phone this video is brought to you by benchmark portal the source for contact
center training certification benchmarking and consulting services if you like this video please
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in our previous videos on soft skills we focused on communication empathy and handling angry
customers you can view those videos by using the links above and in the description below in this
video we're going to focus on just one soft skill that can make the biggest difference in your calls
tone of voice we don't normally notice it but facial expressions and body language play a huge
role in how we communicate in a phone conversation those visual cues aren't there so we only have our
voice to rely on and that's why your tone of voice becomes so critical when communicating over the
phone in fact a study done on human communications found that only seven percent of spoken
communication came from the actual words the rest came from tone of voice and visual cues like
facial expressions and body language but when we remove those visual cues just like on a phone call
seventy percent of communication comes from tone of voice alone that's a staggering percentage
and why tone of voice is so important in call evaluations and from the feedback we hear from
our customers so what is tone of voice you can think of it like the musical notes of a melody
that your voice speaks over the phone it rises and falls in a sing-song manner consisting of
varying elements like pitch pacing volume emphasis and pauses varying these elements when you speak
can make your conversations more interesting and engaging if someone sounds monotone or boring it's
because they're not varying these elements to make their conversations interesting and understandable
as an example of how these elements can greatly change the meaning of a message
i'll say the same sentence several times changing the emphasis on one word each time see if you
can hear the difference in how that changes the meaning i never said she stole the money
i never said she stole the money i never said she stole the money i never said she stole the money
i never said she stole the money i never said she stole the money do you see how pitch volume
and emphasis on certain words greatly impacts meaning same words entirely different message
one critical point to understand is emotional mindset how you feel and the attitude you have
is very much a part of your conversations and the way others perceive you as we just learned even if
your words are precisely correct the feeling you put behind those words can radically alter what
the other person perceives with them focusing on the unspoken part of the conversation rather than
what you want them to hear and this is often the result of speaking habits you've developed
through years of repetition some of it learned by how your family speaks with each other or how
you speak amongst friends which can be entirely different from how we should speak with customers
so regardless of how you feel when you walk into work or how you feel about the caller on the phone
it's a conscious decision you can make to change how you feel because your attitude can make
calls either difficult or great so here's some quick tips you can put into play right away use
the five elements of tone we discussed earlier that will keep your conversations engaging and
understandable set a positive tone by leaving your emotions at the door if you just had a difficult
call shake it off the next caller doesn't want or deserve the emotional memory of that previous call
consider the context if the caller is angry or complaining you'll have to adjust by being calm
and professional if they're sad or emotional be gentle understanding and kind and finally practice
tone of voice is a skill and skills take a lot of practice to remove undesirable habits
and replace them with the desirable ones most importantly remember that people don't always
remember what you said but they never forget how you made them feel i hope you found this
video helpful if so please subscribe like and comment below we'd love for you to share your
thoughts on this topic with other professionals like yourself and don't forget to check out some
of our great training programs through the link in the description below well that's all for now
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