Call Center Management Featured Article
Look for Evidence of 'Soft Skills' in Call Center Agent Hiring
There are a lot of terms for it. Some people call it “people skills.” Others might call it “common sense” or “adulting.” In the contact center industry, they’re called “soft skills.” These include the ability to sooth irritated customers, knowledge of how to deescalate situations, adaptability, willingness to learn, customer retention, persuasiveness, friendliness, calm under pressure, empathy and more.
As we know from reading the news, not everyone has soft skills. People who possess them, however, make excellent employees. Many companies don’t bother to check whether employment candidates possess them, according to a recent blog post by Dick Bourke for Customer Think.
“Most of the time, recruiters look at ‘hard skills’ which involve mastery of certain competencies needed in the job including computer skills, computational ability, and knowledge of specific software programs,” he wrote. “While it is certainly nice to hire an employee who does not need significant training, human resources need to look beyond hard skills and evaluate how the potential employee will interact with their co-workers, communicate with clients, and be able to continue to learn on the job.”
Employees with hard skills but no soft skills may have trouble getting along with co-workers and supervisors, may make damaging mistakes with customers and leave businesses open to litigation and customer churn.
Look for Soft Skills in the Interview Process
When you’re interviewing agents, meet them face-to-face, or at least speak to them over the phone. Are they easy to talk to? Do they sound like adults? Do they seem open to learning? Do they understand social cues, polite conversation and professionalism? Do they come across as helpful and knowledgeable? Do they demonstrate problem-solving skills? Ask some questions that involve theoretical scenarios such as how to calm an angry customer, how to prevent a customer from dropping your company and how to mediate in a dispute between coworkers.
Teach Some Soft Skills
While soft skills tend to be inherent in some employees, they can be built up in people who lack them. For your existing employees, some professional development that focuses on soft skills can be helpful. Do some role-playing to help employees what’s helpful (and what’s not) in situations that require tactful communication or de-escalation.
As customers increasingly rely on the Internet to educate themselves about your marketplace before they call you, customer service is becoming more complex than ever. Ensure your agents have the right mix of soft skills to accompany their hard skills before letting them loose on your customers.
Edited by Maurice Nagle