Facilitator Guide
Table of Contents About This Course... 3 Lesson 1: Introduction to Soft Skills... 4 What are soft skills?... 4 Soft skills... 5 2
About This Course Audience This course was created for all new hire support professionals. Delivery Time It will take approximately 1 hour to complete this training. Summary This course provides an overview of and understanding of soft skills used when supporting customers. Learning goals After this course you will be able to do the following: Demonstrate how to use your listening skills to identify your customer s issue. Demonstrate how to use soft skills to resolve your customer s issue. Icons are used throughout this course to direct you to types of information. The time a lesson or activity will take Info Resource lookup information An individual activity An activity for partners A group activity 3
Lesson 1: Introduction to Soft Skills The time to complete this lesson, including activities, is 45 minutes. After this lesson, you will be able to do the following: Describe soft skills and how they help you in your role Use soft skills to help a customer with a question What are soft skills? In any job, you learn different skills. These could be physical skills such as driving a truck or using a computer program. When working with customers, there are skills sometimes referred to as soft skills that allow you to effectively communicate with a customer. These skills also allow you to quickly and efficiently resolve issues or complete a sale for the customer. Soft skills are a set of proficiencies, attributes, or qualities that enhance your ability to interact with other people. As an agent, soft skills are essential to help you effectively communicate with customers. Soft skills are also essential for creating positive interactions with customers, which can increase customer satisfaction and drive customer loyalty. Your focus will be on building a relationship with your customer through these skills and you will also be empowered to create that relationship as well as provide the support that the customer wants. Before moving on to the activity, ask students how they might be more effective when communicating with people or how do they build that relationship. Discussion should prompt students to think of communication, rapport, paraphrasing, listening and so on. All of which will be addressed and is a good segue to the activity. Activity This is an individual activity. The time to complete this activity is 10 minutes. 4
You will review some videos or recordings of an agent helping a customer. In your participant workbook, write down any soft skills that you see or hear the agent using during the interaction. You should review at least two of the interactions. Your facilitator will stop you for the group review. After 5-7 minutes, stop the students. Ask the students what soft skills they heard demonstrated in the recordings. They should be able to note items such as using the customer s name, listening intently, paraphrasing when necessary, and building a relationship or a rapport. Soft skills During any interaction with a customer, you use different skills. You also use different soft skills based on whether it is a face-to-face, chat, or email interaction. Ask the students what they feel would be some of the differences in the soft skills used in each support type. For example, you cannot see a customer s face in a chat or email so you cannot tell if they are confused (unless they state that). You cannot hear the tone of their voice to tell if they are getting excited or frustrated. After 2-3 minutes, return to the lesson. First impressions When you first greet your customer, you have started the interaction and you are making an impression on the customer. Everything from how you greet customers to your physical appearance will be judged in the first few seconds you meet someone. This is the start of building rapport or a relationship. Rapport is about building a connection with another person. When you build rapport with your customer, you build a connection that helps them feel comfortable sharing information with you as they build trust in your expertise. Developing rapport with your customer is an essential component, because the first 30 seconds of any customer interaction can determine the success of the interaction. Listening to your customer After you have successfully greeted your customer and are building rapport with them, you move into the next part of your interaction. This is the most important and hardest thing to do and that s to listen. What and how they respond to your greeting will provide you with assumptions in regards to their experience or inexperience, in a rush, and are they happy or angry. As part of this process, you need to quickly adapt to the present situation and demonstrate confidence in your ability to assist them with their needs. 5
Ask the students if they have ever been in a situation where they felt like the person was not really listening to them but just trying to find a key word or easy solution? How did it make them feel? What about a situation where the person did not stop talking or immediately provided a resolution without learning the entire situation? Finding a solution Not every customer interaction will end with a customer singing your praises, but you can find ways to help your customer get to a satisfactory solution. There are some points to consider when you are helping your customer: Do you understand your customer s needs? This could be a simple review or paraphrase of what they have told you. Make sure you are clear before providing any resolution details. Does the customer require empathy? Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else s shoes, not just saying I m sorry. It is the ability to identify with your customer and understand their situation, feelings, and motives. The customer who believes that you really care will have far more tolerance and patience and will be more willing to help you find a solution. Are you confident and can the customer trust you? You have to earn trust. It is ok to tell the customer that you do not know something but you are willing to find the answer for them. When you are honest and real, you will build trust. This will help you build your confidence. What other areas or skills do the students feel should be part of the list of soft skills? Skills that could be mentioned include: Friendly Confident Understanding Reliable Clarity/Accuracy Represent the company with pride Positive attitude Being precise 6
Show that you care Humor Know when to say No. Or I don t know. Let me check. Professionalism Patience Resourceful Respectful Activity: Role play This is an activity for partners. The time to complete this activity is 20 minutes. You will work in teams of three. One person is the agent, one person is the customer, and one person is an observer. You will work through one scenario and then stop and talk with the others about things that you felt comfortable with or the areas in which you felt you did really well. Then switch roles and go through another scenario. The idea is for you to think about the skills we have discussed. Give the students a few minutes to get in teams of three and then go through one of the scenarios. After about 5 minutes, stop them and have them share. As you walk around the room, make sure that they are discussing things in a positive manner but watch for areas that could be improved. After they have a chance to share, ask them to switch roles and go through the next scenario. Repeat the process so that all three have a chance to play each role. Use the list of observer questions and see how the teams did. 7
#1 Scenario/Customer details Customer wants to purchase a computer, but needs help with some questions before making the purchase. The customer likes laptops but is not sure about some of the technical details. The following is a list a questions for the customer role. 1. How easy is it to use? 2. What programs or apps does it have? 3. How much memory does it have? #2 Scenario/Agent details Customer notes: Was trying to purchase a widget online but got an error during the purchase process. It just says the purchase will not go through. This is the 3 rd time you have tried to purchase the item. You are not very computer savvy. You are getting frustrated Agent handling: Agent should ask the customer about the error they are encountering. 1. Did the customer get an error code? If so, what was it? 2. If no error code, what did the customer do to encounter the error? Remember to verify information with the customer and be sure to use your soft skills during the process. 8