Communication Skills Training Best Practices Blog

Can Call Center Communication Help or Hurt Sales Growth?

2011-03-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

In a recent business communication training quarterly poll, a large % of individuals stated that "ensuring the best call center & service satisfaction" was keeping them up at night.

A 5% increase in customer service loyalty can boost profits by as much as 25% to 85%. Research has shown that satisfied call center clients lead to greater profitability and growth.

Read more about some of the best communication skills programs, practices and make the link between industry leading business sales and service...

The trick to communicating with anyone

2011-03-28T13:20:00.000-07:00

Is there a secret sauce or trick to employing effective communication practices that work? Well, most successful professionals begin by understanding:

• The key elements that impact interaction outcomes

• Their own communication style and how best to adapt to others' styles

Once you understand the above two elements of successful communication skills, the rest is a breeze.

Search for the Right Communication Skills Resource. Right Now.

2010-12-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

Introducing a powerful new Search Tool to help you track down the right Communication Skills Training & Best Practice Resource right now. Search this blog and the vast collection of corporate training communities and related best practice blogs with a single click.

Step 1 - Locate the Search Tool to the right of this post

Step 2 - Type your keyword search phrase. eg. Performance Culture

Step 3 - Click Search

Step 4 - Review the results, sorted by:

This Blog | Sites Linked to this Blog | Recommended Blogs

See illustration below. Enjoy.

Communication Training Research Study Results

2010-09-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the past 12 months, we conducted an online research study where visitors to our website were anonymously surveyed across an area of topics related driving performance through investments in human capital. In particular, one such survey asked respondents to select an answer that best completes the following statement:

We would outsource communication skills training to...

From a list of predefined responses, here are the results for your viewing pleasure.

Reduce or "variable-ize" costs--41%
Increase business value--35%
Access best practices--0%
Focus on core competencies--12%
We would not do it--12%

How would you complete the above statement regarding communication skills training, presentation skills training or management training in general?

Global Communication Gaps - A Case Study

2010-08-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Situation:
Global Engineering Team, Internal company communication

Engineers in the Japanese division of a U.S. multinational company needed to contact American development engineers in order to solve customer problems and demonstrate customer care. Due to differences in approach to writing email caused by cultural communication styles, problems were slow to be resolved - causing customer complaints.

Solution:

Analyze numerous examples of electronic customer service correspondence between the U.S. and Japanese engineers.
Produce a 3-day management training workshop for the Japanese engineers, explaining the different cultural approaches to communication skills best practices and providing practice in writing and re-writing email to be more easily understood.
Train a local consultant already working at the Japanese division to continue the process and provide timely feedback to the engineers through an informal coaching program.

Result:
Increased speed in solving shortcomings across oceans and time zones!

Communication Skills Best Practice Resources

2010-05-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

From time to time, we like to provide visitors and subscribers to this blog with a refresher on where they can find helpful resources devoted to best practices in the area of Communication Skills Training and related areas.

We hope you find these resources insightful and relevant:

Enjoy!

Communication Mistakes to Avoid in a Customer Service Environment

2010-03-31T13:12:00.000-07:00

Below is an abstract of a communication skills training in a customer service environment focused white paper.

As you listen and monitor customer service phone calls or review written customer service email communication, you're probably looking for the standard components such as proper opening, accurate information, proper tone/style, etc. However, one element that is often missed, both in phone call monitoring as well as email reviews, is the use of proper language and grammar. It's perhaps more noticeable and observable in a written document, but it certainly matters in voice conversations too.

Here are some of the most common customer service grammar problems and mistakes. Most of these grammar rules you and your staff learned back in high school, but it never hurts to have a quick review of these rules and common communication mistakes as a refresher every six months or so.

Mistake #1 - Preposition Placement
One of the biggest written and spoken grammar mistakes in the contact center is putting a preposition at the end of a sentence. Here are some common examples:

Where is your office located at?
What address should we ship to?
I can look up the site it shipped from.

Just make sure those prepositions are removed from the end of the sentences or questions. You might want to rephrase the above to read:

Where is your office?
What is your shipping address?
I can look up the site that shipped it.

Learn about mistakes #2 - #3 by downloading entire white paper PDF...

Behavior that can actually make conflict even bigger

2009-11-02T13:06:00.000-08:00

When management recognizes conflict, it exposes a tipping point: to one side is increased opportunity to enhance corporate communication practices; and to the other is a hardening of the conflict into expensive Us versus Them activity.

Read about how to almost always cause the balance to move toward greater communication skills acumen and employee productivity.

Download whitepaper

Simple Communication Techniques

2009-05-01T11:26:00.000-07:00

Communication skills training may merit consideration if you feel your message is not being effectively sent or received. Or, you can use these few simple techniques for more effective communication:

Listen to how the other person structures their messages. Is it Linear, Tactical, Strategic or Impressionistic? Try to frame your message in their style
Listen to word choice. Is it Traditional, Colloquial, Precise or Global? Use their language. We tend to resonate and listen more closely to people who "speak our language"
Ask yourself, what is the receiver's level of knowledge of the subject, their experience, or bias? Then tailor your message to meet their needs
Ask for feedback. Complete the cycle and check for understanding.

Most importantly adapt to the needs of your receiver. Remember we all give it the way we like it!

Managing Virtual & Remote Teams: What Works and What Does Not?

2009-04-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

In today's dispersed world, almost every high powered team has an important virtual component.

The day-to-day challenges faced by teams that work together at the same location are well documented.

But issues teams encounter with remote or telecommuting members add an additional layer of complexity.

Remote team dynamics are greatly compounded by reliance upon more complex communication technologies as well as by the need to bridge time, geographic, and cultural differences.

Take steps to ensure adequate problem solving training resources are in place and don't let these challenges impede the success of your virtual teams and remote teams.