Customer Service Training: It's Time To Sweat the Small Stuff

Fact: a customer’s impres­sion of a cus­tomer ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tive, the com­pany, and his or her over­all cus­tomer expe­ri­ence is influ­enced almost entirely by what is said and, even more so, by how it is said dur­ing an inter­ac­tion. When serv­ing cus­tomers in a call cen­ter, this fact is espe­cially impor­tant as the nuances of com­mu­ni­ca­tion in face-to-face encoun­ters do not apply. Cus­tomer ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tives must have good vocal skills to con­trol the tone, inflec­tion, pitch, rate, and vol­ume of their voice to main­tain a pro­fes­sional and friendly cus­tomer expe­ri­ence. When it comes to cus­tomer ser­vice – the small stuff does matter!

5 Impor­tant Vocal Skills to Max­i­mize the Cus­tomer Experience

1. Tone. Tone is the most impor­tant vocal skill to mas­ter. Tone is the vocal qual­ity that reveals how you are feel­ing in gen­eral and how you feel towards the per­son with whom you are con­vers­ing. Tone expresses emo­tion – and it is inte­gral to keep vocal tone pos­i­tive – even in try­ing circumstances.
2. Inflec­tion. Inflec­tion refers to the way words and syl­la­bles are empha­sized to con­vey dif­fer­ent mean­ings. Adding extra empha­sis stresses impor­tance and can aid in clear communication.
3. Pitch. Pitch refers to how high or deep a voice sounds. Low pitched voices are gen­er­ally more calm­ing than high pitched voices. Being able to con­trol vocal pitch and assert a calm and con­fi­dent voice can assist in dif­fus­ing an angry caller.
4. Rate. Rate refers to the speed of speech. A golden rule is to speak at a rate that is com­fort­able for the caller. The eas­i­est way to do this is to mir­ror the speech rate of the caller. Being able to speed up or slow down speech to tai­lor ser­vice deliv­ery to each indi­vid­ual cus­tomer helps build rap­port and a more pos­i­tive cus­tomer experience.
5. Vol­ume. Vol­ume refers to how loud or how soft a voice is and is the eas­i­est for most peo­ple to con­trol. Speak­ing at a mod­er­ate vol­ume is a good place to start, but lis­ten for clues as to whether a louder or softer voice is needed to assist in cus­tomer understanding.

Vocal skill train­ing is an impor­tant ele­ment of a suc­cess­ful cus­tomer ser­vice train­ing pro­gram. Con­trary to the pop­u­lar say­ing, it is the small stuff that mat­ters and best prac­tice to focus – and some­times sweat – on the small stuff.