Web Extras – Skill Sharpener

Keep political talk low key — Encourage your team to avoid political talk with Conversation Cards. Available in a variety of formats, Conversation Cards can spark conversation and encourage people to learn more about each other.

Five small things that make a big impression on customers — Reinforce key points in the article with a colorful glancer that reps can post in their work areas.

Help your reps to focus on the customer on every call — A lot of companies claim to have a customer focus. But it most often falls to the customer service rep to live up to that claim. Here is some advice from customer service consultant and author, Shep Hyken:

• A blog post  on how the employee experience contributes to the customer experience.

• A video presentation on how to use customer service to stand out from the competition.

Create a positive work environment for your team — A positive environment contributes to better service, happier customers, and customer service reps who are more confident about their service skills. The following resources will help:

• Suggestions from JoAnna Brandi on how to  “pivot” toward positivity.

• Advice from Brandi and other experts on making a positive impression on customers. Handout.

• Our Frontline Spotlight Award, a low-cost way to recognize and reward reps for maintaining a positive attitude.

This month service leaders showed reps how to stand out and make a difference. The following resources will help you recognize those efforts and ensure that your entire team stands out.

• Information on our Frontline Spotlight award, a low-cost way to recognize stand-out reps.

• A blog post by Jeff Toister on the importance of developing a service culture.

• A radio broadcast with Shep Hyken and Gigi Butler on how to stand out from the competition.

Help your team improve its listening skills –Leadership consultant Stacey Hanke suggests that managers focus on improving their own listening skills as well. She shares two helpful resources. 

• A two minute video blog.
• A checklist for improvement.

Support your reps’ efforts to obtain customer feedback — John Goodman, vice chairman of Customer Care Measurement & Consulting (CCM&C), and author of Customer Experience 3.0, shares two recent documents to help managers obtain, understand, and use customer feedback. They include:

• An article on “Taking Your Voice of the Customer Program to the Next Level.”
• A summary of highlights from CCM&C’s 2017 Customer Rage Study.

There’s much that managers can do to alleviate stress in the workplace — Service expert Genella MacIntyre recommends that managers help their teams by monitoring stress levels, providing back up, offering praise, and setting up a quiet room. These resources provide additional insights:

• Tips and techniques for setting up a quiet room

• Five steps to help managers reduce stress, a leadership article from Genella MacIntyre.

Train your reps to handle customers online and via social media — Online service skills are a growing necessity for reps in today’s digital communication age. Managers need to make sure their reps are prepared. Here are some resources:

• A brief excerpt covering online and social media service from Renée Evenson’s Customer Service Training 101, Third Edition.

• An article from the Customer Service Group archives with Evenson’s advice on the proper language to use with customers, whether on the phone or online.

Help your reps understand and appreciate generational differences — This month author Meagan Johnson discussed generational differences in the workplace. Below she shares additional resources.

• A video with Meagan Johnson, and her father, Larry Johnson speaking about generational traits.
• A blog post by Meagan Johnson which discusses generational issues in the workplace.