Presented by Performance Consulting of Natick, MA ©Performance Consulting 2012

 Introduction: Customer Focus  Demonstrating Effective Service  Your Voice: Communication Continuum  Communication Channels  Spoken Communication Elements  Emotions and Assertive Communication  Written Communication  Examples and Analysis  Activity

 Responsiveness  Reliability  Assurance  Empathy  Tangibles  How do we translate these customer evaluation criteria into conversations, written or verbal?

Responsiveness  SLA Dictates  Date/Time Stamp Indicates  “I’m happy to help you with that” – convey willingness Reliability  Quality of Solutions  Availability and Knowledge of Technicians

 “I assure you that the objects are being downloaded correctly. Attached is an Excel sheet comparison.”  “This has been escalated to X team for investigation and I will be sure to update you in five days or sooner as new information is available.”  “I apologize for the delay.”  “Thank you for your patience.”  “We will continue to monitor the test for several days to be sure the issue is resolved.”

 “This is important. Here’s what we’ll do…”  “I understand this is critical. I’ll escalate this immediately.”  “This sounds urgent. I’ll need some additional information to begin resolving this issue…”  Please provide specific statements that you use to convey assurance or empathy.

 What do we mean by “tangible evidence of service”?  Please provide examples. Hint: written communication

 Formal – Informal  Business Focus – Technical Focus  Relationship Focus – Solution Focus  Fact - Opinion  Direct – Indirect  Culture  Aggressive – Assertive – Passive  In which areas do you encounter challenges?

Verbal:  Face to face  Telephone  Voic  Virtual meeting Written:   Text  Chat  Virtual meeting – PowerPoint slides

Paralanguage  Rate  Volume  Pitch Kinesics  Movement  Non-verbal/body language  Eye Contact Proxemics  Use of space  Distance between speaker and listener

 Clear and direct  Goal-oriented  Collaborative  Co-operative  Honors individual rights

1. Facts 2. Feelings 3. Shared goals 4. Needs 5. Request

 What does audience need to know?  How will information be used?  Is the information written clearly?  How much time will the audience invest?  What is most important to the audience?

 Individually, please read the assigned document.  Please identify specific ways to improve the communication.  Feel free to write on the handout pages.

 Completely read the customer’s to understand the request/incident  Confirm the request/incident by paraphrasing  Ask questions to begin investigating the issue and gathering important details  Use clear, concise, descriptive language  Use active voice  Be sure the information you provide is accurate  Avoid the perception of arguing with a client  Avoid idioms, humor  Use the telephone for 2-way communication  Use short sentences, short paragraphs

 Salutation/greeting – use customer’s name  Opening – acknowledge the customer and request  Choice of words – avoid “you”; “you should”  Be careful not to be too abrupt or brief  Empathy and assurance statements  Punctuation and capitalization  Professional close and signature block

 Proofread for intent vs. impact “I resent the expense report” “no ring is too expensive for you”  Use spell check  Take a break before sending or publishing  Ask a manager or peer to read  Respond or respond to all?  Use bullets or number steps  Avoid acronyms or introduce properly  Emoticons?  Fonts?

1. Completely read or thread to understand problem itself, impact and urgency 2. When responding, acknowledge the problem and the client 3. Confirm your understanding of the issue 4. Clearly convey next steps to client 5. Assure the client that you will proactively communicate until the problem is resolved 6. If known, communicate approximate time frame or range for resolution or next update 7. Demonstrate progress by conveying what has been done, what is the next step, when the client can expect the next update 8. Proactively communicate internally with Tim and Engineering 9. Document changes and progress

 5 Groups, each at a different table  5 Volunteers  Exchange contact information  Wait for signal to begin  Complete activity  Discuss and receive elapsed time/team

Thank you! Questions?