Telephone training skills?

Alan50

My daughter (age 19) has just lost her 2nd job (office assistant) in Manchester, large multi-national company, due to poor telephone skills.
She has just left college after a 2 year office admin course, but was not prepared for the pace of a busy office...Any help or information concerning training providers within Manchester would appreciated...or any reader who has a similar experiance.
Thanks

bubbles_2

Hi Alan,

I used to work in a call centre at management level so if you dont have any joy finding a trainer, i'll be happy to put together a few tips if thats any help? But from the sounds of it, she needs one to one training. There are call centre courses (nvq) available, i know she did not work in a call centre but for telephon skills, it wont get any better to be call centre trained, after that, she will be able to handle anything!

hth
BUBS X

Katgoddess

Has she thought about temping? It's a great way to pick up office skills and build her CV. She won't get fired because she is "just the temp" and hopefully she will get some good assignments where people will train her.

I'm temping at the moment, and its awful answering the phone and you don't know what the caller is on about.

jessicamb

I would suggest temping too but for the sake of her CV. Three job losses in a short time could take some explaining - but temping to gain some experience would appear to me to be more positive.

[Deleted User]

Silly question, but how do you have 'bad telephone skills' ? Is it poor diction, a lack of politeness or an overbearing regional dialect?

Lady_E

I used to work in an office that dealt with very sensitive information and required a large amount of tact and diplomacy to receive the relevant information and subsequently advise the caller correctly. I had no official training (early 80s) but I picked up loads of handy tips and hints from the more experienced staff who I shadowed for a week or two. Personally I would advise her to get herself on an NVQ course for call handling, as potential employers will see that she may have had issues with telephone calls but she has been positive and got herself "up to speed" to deal with any call that may come in. Good luck to her ,she will be fine .

Throbbe

That seems a little harsh! Did she ask them to explain what she was doing wrong? At least she would have had a chance to put it right if they had told her.

Alan50

For your advice, I have suggested a call handling course to help with her situation.

bubbles_2

Your welcome Alan. Im glad to help anyone on MSE as i have been helped so many times on here it gives me a real feel good factor to give something back!

Squidgy

It helps if she can be upbeat on the phone, it's dreadful talking to someone who sounds miserable
Be speedy conecting calls to other departments and if they have to wait any length of time go back to the caller and explain
Keep a note of who the caller is, where they are from and what they want. There is nothing worse than getting through to someone who won't speak to a caller unless they know the above.

HTH
Squidge
Have been a receptionist for two different companies.

flossy_splodge

If you would like to PM me I would be happy to have a few calls with her to begin the process and maybe identify where the key areas are that would benefit from some attention. I train telesales for a living and if I can help I certainly will. I too have had a lot of help here from others on other matters. :j