Telephone skills

Telephone skills

Details  
 
Max number of participants: 6
Duration: Half-day or full day
Available as: In-company course  
 
Benefits  
 
• Build rapport effortlessly on the telephone
• Know how to manage conflict and take difficult behaviour in your stride
• Be able to create a positive impact with customers, suppliers and colleagues
• Save time through communicating appropriately
• Improve your customer and colleague relationships  
 
Course outline  
 
Which medium to choose?
• Choosing the right medium for your message
• When to use the telephone rather than other forms of communication  
 
Modelling excellence
• What skilled and capable telephone advisers do that differentiates them
• What really works, including getting in the right frame of mind, demonstrating empathy, and taking ownership of the situation  
 
Gauging the response of customers
• Understanding how customers form an opinion of your organisation
• What it’s possible to notice about the other person from the first thing they say
• Finding out what’s important to clients
• Making effective notes about the conversation
 
Building rapport and trust
• Why active listening is vital and how to improve your listening skills
• Practical ways of 'connecting' with people immediately
• Personalising your approach and treating people as individuals rather than just a number  
 
Making the most of your voice
• Making the most of tone, pitch, rhythm, inflection, clarity, timing and pace
• Matching the other person’s voice  
 
Handling challenging behaviour
• Techniques for dealing with 'difficult' clients
• Dealing with anger, frustration and other emotions
• Maintaining self-control under pressure  
 
Putting it into practice
• Listening for nuances in customer responses, rapport and voice while dealing with typical calls