Modesty aside, one ability Daddy Jim has that helped him perform relatively well as an agent, floor support, and eventually supervisor is SOFT SKILLS. By effectively applying soft skills, Daddy Jim can often convert a call from an irate customer into a friendly conversation that ends well for both parties. A lot of times Daddy Jim even gets kudos from the customer and that all-important CSAT. Feels good, really.
Soft skills are a combination of intangible and non-quantifiable traits that enable one to interact and work well with others. Although there are a lot of these traits that fall under soft skills, we will focus our discussion on soft skills that you can use in a typical over-the-phone setting where the only tool you have is your voice and your demeanor while on the call.
And knowing that most of us have very short attention spans and probably will not finish reading this post in its entirety, we will, instead, cut this topic into easy to digest chunks, discuss a couple today and then continue on a later post. Fair enough? Let's start.
SOFT SKILL #1: THE TONE OF YOUR VOICE
The first 10 seconds of any conversation, whether face-to-face or over-the-phone, determines how the conversation is going to end. It doesn't matter if you're smiling ear to ear or if you're wearing a tie while on the phone, your customer can't see that (unless you're video conferencing). The picture that your customer sees in her mind is the image you project with your tone over the phone. If your tone sounds apathetic or insincere or tentative, your customer will perceive you as someone who cannot help her and most probably will ask to speak with someone else. Unless you plan on spending most of your shift every night side jacked with your sup listening to your sup calls, we suggest start with improving your tone.Your tone should always be confident, clear and empathetic. Yes, we all know y'all are tired and it's not easy being bubbly the whole graveyard shift but that's what we're getting paid for.
It would be tremendously helpful to watch and listen to your fave Hollywood actors or actresses and sort of emulate how they talk. Hey, no kidding! As a matter of fact, because he has a deep baritone voice, every time Daddy Jim puts on his headset, he becomes George Clooney and his customers appreciate that, especially the ladies!
More soft skills on our next post. Feel free to leave a comment. More power!
RELATED ARTICLE: Soft Skills: Think Before You Speak
How to Handle Irate Customers on the Phone
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