Aims

To give participants the opportunity to understand how they and others interact and so enable them to improve their face-to-face and telephone communication skills. The course addresses the issue of developing a positive attitude to dealing with people and understanding the importance of non-verbal communication in the interpersonal communication process.

Objectives

At the end of the course participants will be able to:

• Understand the communication process
• Relate effectively to other people and be prepared for negative attitudes
• How to create a good first impression and behave in a more confident manner
• Use voice, words and body language to develop a rapport and show. professionalism and competence
• Develop good listening skills and communicate effectively in all situations
• Communicate in the right way internally and externally

Content

Topics to include:

• The communication process: encoding, decoding and the perception of different styles of communication for specific situations
• The barriers to communicating effectively, how develop active listening skills and to take control of the communication process
• Making a first impression – the important first four minutes
• How we communicate in verbal and non-verbal ways and the importance of congruency in dress, verbal and non-verbal communication
• Plan and prepare for outbound calls
• The importance of the voice in communicating a positive attitude over the telephone
• The four-step formula to answering telephone calls, asking questions, giving information and ending calls appropriately
• Using language in a considered and empathetic way
• Handling negative responses correctly.

Training Methods

A combination of formal content, workshop activities, exercises and show the video 'Attitude is everything'. At the end of the programme participants will produce a six-step action plan for implementing what has been learnt.