5 Responses

1. sound bites
   One activity that I’ve used before is to facilitate the learners to develop their own ‘prompt sheet’ of positive soundbites.
   You start off by exploring the types of calls that the learners get that they find difficult to give a satisfactory answer to, (off the cuff) and that they end up giving bland, ‘stock’ answers like, ‘it’s not our policy to..’ or ‘due to circumstances beyond our control’. These are phrases that focus on the org rather than the customer and that the customer finds annoying to hear. Get the group to produce some ideas of how to say those things in a more positive way and produce a laminated sheet of ‘soundbites’ that staff can use in a ‘live’ situation. Note – these should be short phrases and responses to help avoid hesitation, not a full script.

2. Customer Care Soft Skills
   Don’t forget diversity and equality. Communication skills and body language as well as the protocols you mention,might have to have non western slants and insights into gender,race,disability,age,transgender,sexual orientation,religion in terms of providing facilities or services. We have been running such courses of the sort you describe with diversity thrown in.You will know your local customer base and demographics better thAN BUT “horses for courses” should be one of your watchwords

   Warm regards

   Jennifer

   [email protected]

3. putting communication back on the agenda
   Hi

   If you’re looking for a new approach to liven up a workshop, or help everybody participating to feel valued, heard and respected then maybe a game might be the answer. It’s non-confrontational but great for opening up dialogue, fun, easy to play and effective. If you’d like to know more or discuss further then email me on [email protected] and I’ll be more than happy to elaborate.

   All the best
   Lilamani de Silva

4. Leadership by managers is Crucial!
   Don’t forget to teach their managers to treat employees just as well or better than they want employees to treat customers. In a business, we follow the boss’ lead so how she treats us is how we treat others. It’s a matter of leadership.

   Best regards, Ben
   Author “Leading People to be Highly Motivated and Committed”
   http://www.bensimonton.com

5. Rapport & Resource
   Hi Claire,

   Not sure what your client base is, but would suggest any of the NLP rapport skill exercises would be helpfull as would some of the resource state anchoring, pacing & leading drills.

   If you need specific details on these, let me know & I’ll e-mail you some of the drills we use.

   Good luck!

   Paul
   Alefounder Associates
   [email protected]