Can Call Center Communication Help or Hurt Sales Growth?

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

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.

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

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.

1. Reduce or "variable-ize" costs--41%
2. Increase business value--35%
3. Access best practices--0%
4. Focus on core competencies--12%
5. 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

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 Mistakes to Avoid in a Customer Service Environment

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.