It is a fact that having these developed social skills is a fundamental trait for Call Center agents. And not only in the Telemarketing sector, more and more entities are looking for people who present these skills as a complement to the more purely technical ones. A candidate who demonstrates these behavioral competencies has the ability to successfully carry out any type of negotiation, even to deal with angry customers.
If you've never heard of them, soft skills are a sociological term closely linked to the emotional intelligence quotient, which refers to that set of social skills such as autonomy, leadership, proactivity, listening skills, reflection, empathy, logic, social and personal responsibility... and which differentiate one person from another. Soft skills are not independent of the so-called hard skills, which represent the usual professional requirements for performing a job (degrees, certifications, courses...).
For this reason, the importance of these Soft Skills is evident, and even more so in a Call Center, where kindness, honesty, calm and empathy are characteristic traits of its success. At Mediapost , as experts in customer relations through Telemarketing tools, we are going to delve into three types of essential soft skills in your team.
Intercultural communication skills
Immersed in the midst of globalization, the emergence of different cultures in our country is a fact that has already been verified and adopted. Today, we all act as exhibitors to a global hong kong gamblers phone number data audience, which is why having a multicultural vision is gaining ground in companies, and even more so in a Call Center, where communication is the basis on which the business is based.
Therefore, in order to benefit from this intercultural communication, the Soft Skills of each agent must be reinforced again, in order to provide the best service to the customer, wherever they come from. Hence, there are some elements to take into consideration if our employees encounter a cultural divergence, which, like any other, must be resolved.
Keep calm and speak slowly: It is easy for agents to speak quickly in their native language, however, it is a common objection from a customer who is not a native speaker. Therefore, it is advisable to slow down the pace of pronunciation and speech, as well as adapt it to the interlocutor's ability to understand.
Avoid jargon: When trying to help someone who is not comfortable in your language, try to avoid colloquialisms, jokes, or slang from your native language. These expressions make it difficult to provide a useful service to your customer.
Emotional intelligence
When choosing a candidate, giving greater importance to their emotional intelligence (EI) over their intelligence quotient (IQ) will better support your Call Center. Why? Intelligence will help the agent decide the most appropriate way to attack a problem, and it has a direct correlation with the ability to activate Soft Skills. Listening, verbal eloquence, and tone are innate properties of someone who has high intelligence, both in IQ and EI.
Active listening
Sometimes one of the most important and difficult soft skills to acquire is active listening. We often stop processing information from our clients in order to follow established procedures. Active listening ensures that information is processed and is very useful in helping your clients solve their problems.
Repeating what the client has said, using fillers to point out a larger amount of information, or not interrupting and being attentive are four examples of a long list of tips to develop active listening as a predominant Soft Skill in your team.
Ethics and values
A team of agents that possess a solid foundation of ethical values ensures that shortcuts are never taken when it comes to engaging with your customers. Plus, if agents possess these Soft Skills necessary to tackle their job, you can be sure that they behaved professionally, simply by having that little 'gift'.
And you, do you also believe that Soft Skills play a decisive role in Call Centers?
