Soft skills are interpersonal competencies rooted in people’s personalities and play a role in how they interact with each other. These skills revolve around personal attributes (leadership, teamwork, conflict resolution, and organizational skills) and personality traits (integrity, kindness, sincerity, enthusiasm, and devotion). Personality traits and personal attributes culminate in better, productive communication.
What makes a good example?
A good example of people with impeccable soft skills is workers who provide call center services. That is why they are so smooth with customers. If you want your customer service team to engage with your customers and target audience effectively, you need to instill soft skills into them. Here are 6 tips that will help you with that:
- Make staff members own the process.
Make your customer care department understand the significance of personality traits and personal attributes within their work line. Explain to them how changing their personalities would help your course as an organization and the course of their individual careers. Don’t rush your soft skills training, or force it down your employees’ throats, for that matter, because change can be scary to some people. Take your time to assess whether they are ready and willing to improve their competencies. Train them at their pace even as you remind them of the urgency they need to gain those skills.
- Offer staff learning opportunities
Most soft skills’ training happens on the go- in practice. Employees will be picking up different lessons at their own pace and implementing what they learn as they serve customers. Remember that even customers come with varied personalities and personal attributes, so they will help your staff members improve. But that isn’t enough. A bit of education on communication, empathy, emotional, follow-up and organizational skills also goes a long way. That is why you should regularly sponsor them for soft skills workshops.
Moreover, you can even call in a personality coach or communication experts to train your team. Learning theoretically and practically will make them all-around professionals who can thrive in any work environment, including away from your company. However, we are in the midst of a global pandemic. Therefore, it is safer to encourage online classes, such as job training courses, where they will develop their skills from their home’s comfort.
- Conduct evaluations
For instance, you could ask your customer service workers to participate in opt-in activities to have people call them and attempt to interact with them. How they perform will give you an idea of whether they have become competent in soft skills. A productive exercise should take place anytime during the training without the knowledge of the employee. After this activity, you can have the callers rate the overall interaction with your staff. Rating should be done in surveys with questions asking about the soft skills you are trying to impart to your staff. Such an evaluation is relevant as it showcases the strengths and the areas that need improvement.
- Offer your staff a moment of self-reflection
During this period, they will develop a heightened awareness of the soft skills you are trying to teach them, and they will open up to the possibility of utilizing these skills for the long-term. Self-reflection also fosters creative thinking and enhances engagement in the workplace.
- Encourage practicing skills learned.
You will not get to render exceptional customer service if your employees do get to practice the soft skills that they have acquired. Therefore, you need to give your workers an avenue to take their new competencies for a test drive. One of the most efficient ways to practice their soft skills is during the company’s team-building retreats. Such activities strengthen employee communication and collaboration to such an extent that it will reflect when they are back in the office. After all, when soft skills are learned, they have to be lived!
- Offer feedback
Providing your staff with periodic feedback once they have begun implementing the soft skills they have acquired is essential. Your employees will love to see how much they have grown, given that the process of developing soft skills is gradual and requires people to make major changes in their personality and habits. When providing feedback, you should ensure that you remain objective and give enough credit where it is due. Doing so will encourage your employees to keep on developing their competencies.
Conclusion
Your employees will develop emotional intelligence, collaboration, problem-solving, and listening skills effortlessly with these tips. It is said that Rome was not built in one day; therefore, be supportive, patient, and open-minded. You will be surprised at how much your customer services will be improved in the end.
Soft Skills Training Tips for Exceptional Customer Service
