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IF9 > Chapter 6 > Flashcards

Chapter 6 Flashcards

Communication skills

1
Q

What are the 4 stages of an ideal phone call?

A

1) Open the call
2) Establish the customer’s needs
3) Meet the customer’s needs
4) Close the call

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2
Q

What actions should be taken when opening a call?

In what manner should this be in?

A
  • Greeting the caller, usually followed up with your department and an offer to help
  • Identifying the caller
  • Identifying yourself
  • Managing expectations i.e explaining the purpose of the phone call if you are making it or identifying the convenience of the time the call will take or what they may need to have at hand

Manner:
* Warm and welcoming
* Upbeat
* Positive
* Enthusiastic

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3
Q

What are the overall aims to the opening of a phone call?

A
  • Build a relationship/rapport
  • Listen to what the customer is saying
  • Seek to understand their immediate requirement
  • Visualise them and their situation
  • Show empathy
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4
Q

A customers needs can be addressed at what 2 levels?

A

Factual
* Notify a claim
* Obtain a quote
* Find out what happens next
* Get immediate help

Emotional
* Be heard
* Vent emotion
* Have someone listen
* Feel supported

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5
Q

How may a customer consultant meet a customer’s needs during a phone call?

A
  • Provide a quote
  • Advise the next steps of a claim
  • Evidence that the customer understands information provided
  • Amendments to a policy
  • Register a complaint
  • Answering a query
  • Transferring a call
  • Taking accountability
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6
Q

How is a call closed effectively?

A

Ensure customer understands what is happening next and when and by who

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7
Q

What skills are required during a call and in what stage do they apply?

Stages are:
Opening
Establishing needs
Meeting needs
Closing call

A

Rapport building - Opening stage
Empathising - Opening stage
Signposting - Opening stage and throughout the call
Listening - Opening and understanding stages
Questioning - Understanding and meeting needs stages
Summarising understanding, meeting needs and closing stages
Voice control - Every stage

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8
Q

A rapport is where we feel that we understand someone and they understand us. What may be signals that two people have a rapport?

A
  • Agreement
  • Harmony
  • Understanding
  • Seeing eye to eye
  • Making a connection
  • Developing common ground
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9
Q

Why are rapports important?

A

It:
* Establishes a relationship with the customer
* Can be a key differentiator of good against bad customer service
* Makes a customer feel good
* Makeds the customer feel that they are being listened to and treated personally
* Can make the job more enjoyable for staff

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10
Q

What can be done to build a good rapport with a customer?

A
  • Give a friendly and professional greeting
  • Treat people as people
  • Set the climate for the call early on
  • Be interested
  • Use their name
  • Find common ground
  • Adapt your style of behaviour to suit theirs (i.e less formal or more formal)
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11
Q

What is sympathy and empathy?

A

Sympathy= showing you care or understand someones problem
Empathy = being able to understand and share the feelings of another person

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12
Q

What 3 key elements are needed for empathy?

A

1) Understanding
2) Responding effectively
3) Concentrating on the unique circumstances of the person and their situation

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13
Q

What 2 factors are needed for having empathetic skills?

A

1) Empathetic listening
2) Expressing empathy

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14
Q

How can empathetic listening be demonstrated?

Do’s & Don’ts

A

Do:
* Set aside prejudices or biases
* Connent with anothers emotions without getting carried away
* Give people the chance to fully explain themselves
* Focus on the conversation without distraction

Don’t:
* Spend time rehersing what to say next
* Rush to advice or fix things
* Focus on certain pieces of information and ignore others
* Arrive at a conclusion before they have finished explaining

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15
Q

How can expressing empathy be demonstrated?

3

A
  • Ask open-ended questions using bridges such as ‘tell me more’
  • Slow down allowing the customer to express their feelings
  • Harness past experience whilst this can demonstrate empathy, be cautious to not make the conversation about your past experience

Using Feel/ Felt / Found may be handy to use in sentences

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16
Q

What is signposting?

A

The skill of keeping the customer informed as to what is happening and what is about to happen.

It is about removing anxiety and frustration from a customer.

e.g:
* Explaining a process to a customer
* Explaining a silence may come whilst information is being updated into a system

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17
Q

Who said ‘seek first to understand then to be understood’

A

Steven Covey

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18
Q

How will empathetic listening enhance the customer experience?

A
  • Develops and maintains rapport
  • Creates a level of trust
  • Creates a sense of interation
  • Demonstrates how important you percieve the other person to be
  • Shows are you inerested in their situation
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19
Q

What are the 5 different levels of listening?

A

1) Ignoring not listening at all
2) Pretending to listen making appropriate sounds/ nods but not taking in the information
3) Selective listening picking up certain information that is important to us
4) Active listening observing words, body language and expressions and give feedback. However it is without 2 way emotional involvement. There is no engagement or symptathy with the other persons feelings or emotional needs.
5) Empathetic listening paying full attention to thoughts and feelings of the speaker and listening to all signals. See the problem, understand the effect it has on the speaker and engage empathetically.

20
Q

What signals can be picked up on that may tell us how the speaker is feeling?

A
  • Tone of voice
  • Verbal aspects such as pace, volume, flow, style, emphasis
  • Facial expression and body language
  • Culteral aspects that may affect their way of communcations and signals
  • How the other person is feeling
21
Q

What are the barriers to effective listening?

A
  • Environmental distractions screens, background noise, children crying or dogs barking
  • Preoccupied mind thinking of other things such as work
  • Filtering only listening to what you want to hear
  • Making assumptions thinking you know what someone is going to say
  • Mental rehersal thinking about what you are going to say in response
  • Verbal skills such as accent and language
22
Q

How can we show a customer that we are listening?

A
  • Encourage - ‘tell me more’ / ‘you were saying earlier..’ / ‘could you explain that for me’
  • Acknowledge - ‘I understand’ / ‘I see’
  • Checking - ‘you seem …’ / ‘am I right in thinking that’
  • Clarifying - ‘I’m not sure i understand, did you say..’ / ‘Did you say this happened once or twice’
23
Q

What are some tips for listening?

A
  • Stop talking
  • Concentrate
  • Ask questions
  • Acknowledge and empathise
  • Listen between the lines
  • Be motivated to want to listen
  • Take notes
24
Q

What are the different types of questions?

A

Open: requires a descriptive answer
Probing: to draw out deeper information
Closed: requires ‘yes’ or ‘no’
Hypothetical: such as ‘what if’
Rhetorical: where the answer is assumed to be obvious
Leading: phrased in a way to extract a certain answer
Reflective: used to check understanding

25
Q

How do open questions usually start?

What are open questions used for?

A

‘What’ or ‘How’

Used to:
* Build a rapport
* Get the person to open up and discuss
* Open up conversation to gain trust and confidence
* Gather all relveant information to create a solution
* Find out wider information

26
Q

Outline the TED technique for probing questions

A

Tell, explain & describe

Tell me more about that
Explain the situation to me
Describe the damage to me

27
Q

What are probing questions used for?

A
  • To find out more detail
  • Find out how the customer feels
  • Go deeper into the situation and build on information gained
  • Help the person explain more fully
28
Q

What are closed questions used for?

A

To:
* clarify/ confirm details
* ensure you are talking to the correct person
* encourage confirmation and agreement to a solution
* narrow conversation down after going off topic/ expressing anger
* extract specific information quickly
* test understanding by getting a ‘yes’ or ‘no’
* achieve closure or agreement

29
Q

What are hypothetical questions used for?

A

To:
* overcome a difficult objection
* examine possible future situations
* seek solutions to a problem or seek agreement

30
Q

Why must you be weary when using a leading question?

A

Bceause you may not recieve the correct answer which could lead to a breach and problems at a later stage.

You must be confident that the issue has been explored fully first.

31
Q

What is summarising useful for?

A
  • demonstrating listening
  • maintaining rapport and developing trust
  • regaining control if required
  • maintaining a customers interest and attention
  • signposting what customers can expect
  • describing what has happened
  • checking both your own and customers understanding
  • highlighting that needs and wants have been understood
  • showing empathy
32
Q

What phrases could be used to summarise?

A
  • So, in summary…
  • Let me check I have understood correctly
  • What you’re saying is…
  • If i have heard your correctly then…
  • So what’s really important to you right now is…
33
Q

The FCA are concerned about vulnerable customers and have issued guidance on their fair treatment, the guidance makes specific reference to the skills and capabilities of the staff.

It requires that staff should what?

2

A
  • Understand how their role affects the fair treatment of vulnerable customers
  • Have the necessaryu skills and capabilities to recognise and response to a range of characteristics and vulnerability

In additon: firms must be able to offer pratcical and emptional support to frontline stagg dealing with vulnerable customers

34
Q
A
35
Q

The FCA suggests that what signs may indicate that a customer is vulnerable?

Payment behaviours, Phrases and other signs

A

Changes in payment behaviours
* Payments stopping suddenly
* Late or missed payments
* Regular or unarranged overdrafts and charges
* Unusual account activity

Phrases such as:
* I cant pay
* I’m having trouble paying
* Mention of breathing spcae or debt advisors
* I cant read my bill
* I cant understand the letter you sent me
* I cant hold on all day
* I hate these press buttons

Other signs staff should be on the lookout for:
* Shortness of breath or agitation
* Asking for repitition (not retaining information)
* Signs of confusion
* Mention of medication

36
Q

What kind of calls may be considered challanging to make?

A
  • Chasing an outstanding debt
  • Declining a claim
  • Having to ring someone with a difficult personaility such as agression or asking lots of questions and going off topic
  • Contacting someone who is very update and distressed (e.g recent bereavement)
  • Contacting someone who has made a complaint
37
Q

What is the behaviour cycle and when is the opportunity to make a change?

A
  • How someone behaves towards us
  • How we think and feel
    Opportunity to change the behaviour cycle
  • How we behave towards them
  • How they think and feel

repeat

38
Q

How may an agent successfully deal with a challanging call?

A

Prepare
When the agent is going to make the call they have the opportunity to prepare in advance.
* Read the notes and files to know relevant information in advance
* Set out objectives of the call
* Anticipate difficult areas
* Think about the person, what is known about them, have you spoken before? Can anything be used to build a rapport
* Consider the timing of the call and when will be optimal for both agent and person
* Planning questions that need to be asked

Approach
Remain calm and professional

Listening
Empathetically will ensure that other person is aware that you are listening

Empathy
Empathise with the customer’s situation

Understanding the issue
To be able to help, questions will need to be asked and answers listened to to identify the real issue behind the emotion

Agreement
The intention is to reach a point where an agreement with the customer is possible on how the matter can be resolved and what the next steps will be. This will also make the customer leave feeling satisfied that they have been listened to and that their issue is being resolved.

39
Q

What are 3 non- verbal elements of communication?

A
  • Body language
  • How we use our voice
  • Use of positive language
40
Q

Albert Mehreabian found that what percetages account for verbal, vocal and non verbal factors in communication?

A

Verbal = 7% (the words)
Vocal = 38% (the way words are said e.g tone)
Non-verbal = 55% (facial expressions and posture)

41
Q

What factors of body language should be considered when communicating with a customer?

A

Eye contact
Tells customer you are listning but should not be prolonged as could be misinterpreted

Facial expressions
Be mindful not to let a natural frown be defaulted to in a conversation and smiling during a call can help create a positive tone

Distance
Acquintaces usually accept 1.25-2 metres
(those you dont know well may feel any closer is invading their personal space)
Those you know well usually accepts 45cm-1.25 metres

Negative body language
* Face touching = unsure or hesitant
* Poor eye contact = disintersted
* Fiddling with clothing = unsure or uncomfortable
* Fidgeting with objects = distractions that will stop others lisetening
* Shuffling around = uncertaintly and desire to be on the move

42
Q

How can our voices be adapted to conversations?

A

Volume
loud enough to be heard and not misunderstood

Pace or speed
Not too fast or slow as people will struggle to understand or lose interest in listening

Clarity
Without mumbling or muttering

Variety and tone
Monotone voices are difficult to concentrate on andf listen to whereas a warm hello will make a customer feel valued

43
Q

How may positive and negative language impact a customer conversation?

A

Positive language
* tells the customer what can be done
* suggests alternatives and choices available to the recipient
* sounds helpful and encouraging
* Stresses positive actions and consequences that can be anticipated

Negative language
* tells the recipient what cannot be done
* has a subtle tone of blame
* includes words like can’t/ won’t
* does not stress the positive actions or consequences

44
Q

Why is communication ideally two-way?

A
  • It ensures that the sender receives the feedback
  • It confirms that there is a mutual understanding

if the communication is one-way, there is no feedback mechanism

45
Q

Communication involves a message or information being sent by one party to another. Once the message is sent, it is potentially subject to interpretation as a result of what factors?

A
  • Jargon being misunderstood
  • Lack of clarity
  • Values and beliefs of the recipient may mean they interpret the message in a certain way
  • Information overload
  • A lack of attention to detail
  • Correspondance may not be recieved by its intended recipient
46
Q

An organisation will want to check how effectively it is communicating with its brand. To do this, they use research by getting feedback on what 2 areas?

A
  • Brand awareness and recognition: are people aware of the brand and do they recognise it?
  • Brand association: what do people associate with the brand? e.g excellent customer service or trust and honesty.

IF9 (12 decks)

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