8 Responses

1. Engineers as communicators
   Hi Wendy,

   I’ve had some experience of designing and delivering this type of initiative. I’d be happy to chat/exchange ideas/etc. If you want to chat then drop me a line.

   Nigel

2. Personal Effectiveness and Safety
   Hi there Wendy,
   We’ve had experience designing and delivering training to several close matches:
   Photocopy Machine Engineers
   Domestic Appliance Engineers
   Domestic Product Deliverers
   To add to what you’re looking at you need to train them in techniques to keep them safe, and those that make certain they respect the diverse offices/homes that they can be going into otherwise it comes back to the employer with a vengence.

   Give me a call if you’re floundering, just follow the link.

   Very best regards,

   Megan

3. Customer Handling Skills for Engineering Staff
   Hi Wendy,

   I would be happy to assist you in this activity.

   Feel free to drop me a line.

   Kind regards,

   Clive

4. Customer handling
   Wendy

   I have run a project for a similar client group to yours. The sessions being for guys going out to homes / offices etc looking at IT problems / solutions who often found their communication or lack of it made the IT problem into a customer relationship one.

   We began by making them more customer aware including understanding about the payments made by the clients, ie for support services etc. This enabled us to develop a deeper understanding of why the customer needs to be and expects to be looked after.

   We also do some work with them on confidence building (others needed to be brought down a peg or two mind) as well as personal grooming, acceptable communication (language, body, etc) and listening and understanding customers problems.

   One issue in communication was cutting out jargon and understanding clients will not understand the problem in order to explain it correctly and being patient with clients.

   Not sure if some of the above helps, give me a call if you would like to talk to me about it more 01248 672640 or e-mail [email protected]

   Good luck with it, it can be a very rewarding development project if handled well.

   Rebecca

5. It’s a selling task
   A good engineer is your best salesman, although they may be reluctant to acknowledge it. So, take a simple sales skills model, preferably the one you use for your salespeople, adapt the wording to be more engineer-oriented (e.g their ultimate objective is not a sale but a customer who agrees that the repair etc has been satisfactorily carried out) and train them exactly as you would a salesperson, including roleplays. In this way, you can build in difficult customers as the engineer’s version of obstacle-handling.

   Feel free to e-mail or call (+44 (0)1242 222181) if you want to discuss further.

   Jonathan Sindall

6. customers
   Wendy

   I have a lot of experience in customer service in general. In addition I may be able to reccomend a book that deals with this specific issue. I would suggest not to worry about the industry itself – customer service skills are universal – just like smiling !!

   If you like call me on 07973 620968

7. Training for Engineers
   I am the Lifeskills Officer for the Institute of Electrical Engineers, we deliver all areas of training for the engineering community. I would be very happy to speak with you.

   regards

8. Engineers are different!
   Hi Wendy,

   Although I accept some of the comments other contributors have made, I am afraid that they are wrong in assuming engineers are not different because they are or at least believe they are so your approach will need to reflect that.
   I am an ex engineer and senior union official. I have also been a senior HR manager for a major blue chip looking after engineers. I have run my own business since 1995 and we specialise in dealing with soft skills for engineers.

   Please feel free to contact me