<h1>7 Powerful Effective Communication Skills for Call Center Agents</h1>

"We have two ears and one mouth so that we listen twice as much as we speak."                                          Epictetus

Nowadays, news travels fast on social media and bad news travels exponentially faster. The WORST that can happen with a dissatisfied customer is for that customer to go on social media to vent out her frustration. This is exactly what happened in a recent incident concerning a TELCO customer in the US ranting against a Filipino call center agent on Facebook, a post which went viral.  Her viral post left a sour taste in my mouth especially after realizing that the customer’s main frustration was that the call center agent did not understand the real issue and the call took over an hour. There was clearly a failure of communication where either the customer did not understand the call center agent or the call center agent did not understand the customer or they both did not understand each other. Reminds me of that KHAMAKA BREKKER video I saw on YouTube which I still find very frustrating no matter how many times I have watched it.

As call center agents, ensuring there is effective communication between customers and agents is a lot more challenging mainly because we are not face to face with the people we are speaking with. Without the benefit of being able to read their lips or interpret their body language, we still need to effectively communicate with our customers using only our ears, our tools and our focus to work with. This is why it is important that we avoid distractions and maintain our focus on every call.

In an earlier POST, I emphasized the importance of effective communication skills in providing rockstar customer service. With the recent incident that triggered the viral FB post, I felt it is important to focus a little more on the subject of effective communication skills so that call center agents can avoid a repeat of having a very frustrated customer on the other end and instead project an image of efficiency and professionalism. In this post, I have listed down 7 effective communication skills for call center agents which I know you will all find very useful:

ACTIVE LISTENING

Treat each and every call as a unique customer concern. Avoid being complacent, assuming that the resolution to your customer’s concern is the same as every other call you have received. One size does not fit all! Active listening is a powerful effective communication skill that requires you to focus and listen attentively to what your customer is saying before proposing a solution. Rushing a call and providing a generic solution is not the same as being efficient. While it may be true that you have resolved the same type of problem dozens of times every shift, there could be some unique concerns your customer mentioned that you may miss if you don’t practice active listening and provide an inaccurate solution. Nothing frustrates a customer more than feeling that you did not understand her real concern. If you feel you are having difficulty hearing or understanding what your customer is saying, do not hesitate to politely let your customer know that you are unable to hear her clearly so that she can make adjustments on her end. This gives your customer the impression that you are actively listening to what she is saying. Effective communication requires that you be good at giving and receiving information.

PARAPHRASE

This is a very powerful effective communication skill. Applied correctly, paraphrasing eliminates misinterpretation of information the customer provides. Whenever you feel you are not a hundred percent clear with what your customer just said, it would be wise to rephrase, but not repeat, what the customer said just to make sure you correctly understood her. Paraphrasing is a powerful effective communication skill that lets your customer feel that you clearly understood her real concern and should be able to provide the correct solution. Paraphrasing usually starts with something like “Just to be clear Mrs. Customer, did you mean…”or “I would like to make sure we’re on the same page Mrs. Customer, did you say that…”, then rephrase, but not repeat, what the customer said and then wait for the customer’s response. Note that I keep stressing that you do not repeat word for word like a parrot what the customer said as this tends to be irritating for the customer and makes you look incompetent. Paraphrasing requires that you rephrase in your own words how you understood what the customer said. Paraphrasing even allows the customer to correct herself after you rephrase her statement and she realizes she gave you the wrong info. Just make sure you paraphrase in a friendly tone and not sound confrontational or like you’re interrogating the customer.

ACKNOWLEDGE

Whenever you paraphrase a customer, let your customer know you understood her response clearly by acknowledging her. By saying something as simple as “Thank you!” acknowledging is another powerful effective communication skill that let’s your customer feel that you are giving her your 100 percent attention. This gives your customer the impression that you are competent and she is in good hands. Never use “uh-huh” to acknowledge your customer, especially if you say multiple uh-huhs in rapid succession. Your customer will get the impression you are either bored with the conversation or you have nothing intelligent to say.

HOLD YOUR TONGUE

This powerful effective communication skill demands a lot of discipline and self control from you. Honestly, most of us are guilty of this bad habit of interrupting our customers while they’re talking. This is mainly because as call center agents, we already have the information and experience available to us which enables us to have pre-conceived ideas what the customer’s concern is and how we can resolve the concern. Holding your tongue requires you to fight the urge to barge in while your customer is talking. Never interrupt your customer. Interruption, whether intentional or not, will always be interpreted as rudeness on your part. Make a conscious effort to hold your tongue, bite it if you have to, and let your customer finish what she needs to say before you respond. Letting your customer finish talking allows her to provide you more info that could otherwise be left out or omitted if you interrupt. Take the time to digest and note down what your customer is saying and organize your thoughts before responding. Remember to apply soft skills and choose your words wisely.

TONE

The tone of your voice, believe it or not, is also another powerful skill for effective communication. It is usually recommended that you speak in a low, calm and confident tone to project an aura of reassurance and competence on the phone. Talking calmly often calms down even an irate customer. Your tone should tell the customer that everything is fine and she should have nothing to worry about. I always tell my team even if you look like Freddy Kruger but you sound like George Clooney, in the customer’s mind you are George Clooney! That’s the magic of your tone. There will be times when you get a very irate customer on the other end and your heart starts beating at 200 beats per minute (not even sure if that’s humanly possible) at which point, and this I learned from my science class, your vocal chords contract and your voice becomes high-pitched and you start sounding like a smurf instead of George Clooney. Not good. The key here is to not let your customer affect your calm demeanor. You should be controlling your customer, not the other way around. Remain calm. Reassure your customer in a calm, low tone that you will take care of her concern. On a number of occasions, I even went as far as telling an irate customer that I would love to help her but I cannot help her unless she calms down. There can never be any effective communication until your customer calms down. Use your magical tone.

CHOOSE YOUR WORDS WELL

It’s wonderful that our brain can process information a thousand times faster than our mouth can talk. Imagine the chaos if this was the other way around. We’d be talking without thinking! In a previous POST, I discussed the importance of thinking before speaking. Choosing your words well is a powerful effective communication skill that we should apply on all our calls. Make it a habit to always ask yourself if there is a better way to say what you want to say. Make certain the words you choose are relevant to the customer’s concern and demeanor. This makes the customer feel that you are genuinely interested in her concern. But be aware that there is a fine line between choosing your words well and patronizing the customer. Your customers can smell bullshit and will not appreciate it. Be subtle.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Always make it a habit to assess how effective your communication skill was on the last call and find opportunities how you can further improve on your next calls. The day you stop improving is the day you stop growing as a professional. Strive to be better today than you were yesterday. One motivation why I started this blogsite is for me to reach out and teach my team things I never got to teach them while I was still their sup. The fact that I am currently no longer part of the call center industry and that my team have already moved on to other locations does not stop me from sharing lessons which I know can contribute to their continuous improvement. Sorry if I sounded sentimental. Those kids were like sons and daughters to me and I sorely miss them.

I had the opportunity to communicate effectively with customers who can barely speak English and even with customers who had to communicate through interpreters. A call center agent’s work is definitely challenging but as long as you have the necessary effective communication skills and adapt these powerful skills to conform to the customer’s unique concern and demeanor, then you should be able to resolve the concern efficiently and customer ends the call on a happy note.