If you have heard part one of this series you will know all about active listening, and utilising the best tone for your customers. Already you will be ahead of people who haven’t learnt these key skills – and here are 5 more!
This jam-packed episode of Contact Centre Focus is all about amplifying your vocal prowess in ways that resonate with customers and leave them hanging on your every word. We kick things off with a lesson in enunciation, and if you think speaking clearly is a game-changer, wait until you hear our tips on pacing. Too fast and you're a sprinter leaving customers in the dust; too slow and you're the tortoise after a heavy meal. We're here to help you find that perfect tempo that keeps your listeners engaged without feeling rushed.
Ever considered standing while taking your calls? Hear us out—it might sound controversial, but a standing desk could be your ticket to more dynamic conversations. We share our insights into how changing your physical stance can inject a whole new level of energy into your voice. And let's not forget pitch; it's not just about hitting those high notes in the shower, it's about using the rise and fall of your voice to convey excitement or sincerity in a way that truly connects with your customer. With our guidance, you'll learn to avoid the dreaded monotone and instead, use pitch to paint your words with emotion.
Tune in and transform your vocal delivery. These two podcasts give you everything you need to have the best voice!
Find more useful and essential contact centre development from realitytraining.com
If you have heard part one of this series you will know all about active listening, and utilising the best tone for your customers. Already you will be ahead of people who haven’t learnt these key skills – and here are 5 more!
This jam-packed episode of Contact Centre Focus is all about amplifying your vocal prowess in ways that resonate with customers and leave them hanging on your every word. We kick things off with a lesson in enunciation, and if you think speaking clearly is a game-changer, wait until you hear our tips on pacing. Too fast and you're a sprinter leaving customers in the dust; too slow and you're the tortoise after a heavy meal. We're here to help you find that perfect tempo that keeps your listeners engaged without feeling rushed.
Ever considered standing while taking your calls? Hear us out—it might sound controversial, but a standing desk could be your ticket to more dynamic conversations. We share our insights into how changing your physical stance can inject a whole new level of energy into your voice. And let's not forget pitch; it's not just about hitting those high notes in the shower, it's about using the rise and fall of your voice to convey excitement or sincerity in a way that truly connects with your customer. With our guidance, you'll learn to avoid the dreaded monotone and instead, use pitch to paint your words with emotion.
Tune in and transform your vocal delivery. These two podcasts give you everything you need to have the best voice!
Find more useful and essential contact centre development from realitytraining.com
Speaker 1:
Contact Center Focus the reality training podcast.
Speaker 2:
Hello, contact Center Focus listeners, welcome to part two of the Voice. You're the Voice. Try and understand it. If you're listening to this and you haven't heard part one and wonder what we're talking about, we're going to give you five ways to use your voice as the vocal instrument that it should be. But you can go back and listen to the previous episode and you'll get five more.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely Now. The first one we're going to focus on today is Annunciation. Now, when Jeremy and I were at drama school which after two years catapulted us to the giddy heights of corporate videos one of the things we did learn was how to articulate. One of the things that we did to do that was to learn rhymes. So one of the rhymes we learned I won't do the whole thing was what did to do to die today at a minute or two to two?
Speaker 1:
Now this sounds ridiculous. It sounds like a nursery rhyme. What you're doing is you're getting your articulators working in your mouth because I'm going to be talking all day in my call center so lots of different customers and I need to make sure that all of my plosives and my various other vocal attributes are being used so that the person can hear what I'm saying. Because if I speak in a lazy fashion where I fall over my words, then that's when you get customers saying I'm sorry, what was that again? So if we can annunciate ourselves more clearly, which might mean adapting your voice very slightly you will have better results Over to you, jeremy Marvelous.
Speaker 2:
Number two is pace. If I talk to a wickily, not going to hear what I'm saying and I might even stop my words. We're going to get that to you.
Speaker 1:
Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
Speaker 2:
I was going too quickly. Was I going too quickly? Pace Too fast, they won't understand too slow and you will bore people because you're really slow.
Speaker 1:
Are you alright? Mate you okay?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so what I'll do is I'll mark you down for a kilo, I'll just check your address and then I'll get it sent to you, and it should run a couple of days, five working days. Yeah, I'll do it.
Speaker 1:
Oh, okay, fine, ccf is brought to you by Reality Training. Our theatrical and entertaining approach to training means you and your people will change and improve what you do quickly and consistently. Please contact us about change projects and new sales and service models. Go to realitytrainingcom.
Speaker 1:
Next one's going to be slightly controversial because some team leaders will hear this and go I don't know how I'm going to manage this. It's really simple Stand, stand up. You can actually buy very low cost standing desks or things that go on top of desks that you can move up with your desktop on so that you can stand in front of it and make your calls from a standing position. That gives you much more energy, and some people are much better at talking when they're just moving around. So you could invest in a longer cable for your headset that plugs in and that allows you to move around the room a bit and have conversations.
Speaker 1:
Now, you must be aware that doing that might annoy some of your fellow team members, so think about the space you're going to utilize for that. But I remember going to one contact center in Leeds Jeremy, you'll remember this but there was a chap who was wandering around standing at his desk. It was by far one of the best salespeople on the floor, and I think that really does make a difference. So if you haven't tried it before, try standing up and see how it feels.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, definitely. My next one is pitch. So pitch often confused with tone, but the tone of voice is just the way I'm feeling you expressing the pitches. It's a very high pitch. Then what? It's amazing. I'm so pleased for you. So that's got excitement. Wow. If it's a low pitch I might sound bored, but also I might go wow, I think that's amazing. So I've sort of showing more sincerity, perhaps to the lower pitch. Now all that can happen is that some people go monotone, don't necessarily express excitement or sadness through pitch as well as tone. It's probably the hardest one to understand the pitch that it's coming in at. And if you think of listening to singing, certain pitches are more attractive than others and certain singers phrase parts of their song where they change the pitch to give us more expression through what they're saying. So work on your pitch. It's very simple. When you're slightly higher it shows excitement, but it's good to go lower pitch to show sincerity.
Speaker 1:
Now, finally, we want to talk about pausing. Now we've done previous podcasts on CCF, on irritators and those are things like and obviously you want to do this and basically we should do that. And I heard one yesterday which was I'll give you a call next week and see where your head's at. Do you want me to do that, jeremy? I'll give you a call next week and see where your head's at.
Speaker 2:
It's going to be up my jack.
Speaker 1:
Okay, fine. So some things irritate people. Now, the reason we put some of these things in is because we're scared of pausing. Now, a pause is designed to take a breath, and the reason that we don't pause is because we think, well, I don't want this person to say something and get in the way of my flow, and so, rather than allow ourselves to pause, we'll finish one thought, chuck in an obviously and then move on to another. So if I was selling Jeremy a television, I might say this television is 42 inches and obviously it comes with a remote control and obviously it's HD ready, and I just it's not obvious at all.
Speaker 2:
Well, it's not obvious. This will be my first TV young man.
Speaker 1:
Whereas if you allow yourself to pause, it actually sounds a bit better because you'd say so. This is an excellent television, which is 42 inches, it comes with a remote control and it is HD ready. Now I didn't need to put an obviously or basically or anything else in between those things. I can just say the words with a slight pause in between. Now if you are somebody who is fast, too fast on the pace, actually, you might want to put some pausing in, and that might be something that a team leader can coach you on, because sometimes a little bit of silence allows what you've said to go into the customer's brain and may actually help you sell more. So pausing is a really good thing to get into the habit of doing.
Speaker 2:
I think I once wrote a blog post with a Depeche Mode song title called Enjoy the Silence brilliant. Which is similar. So we've got John Farnham. You're the Voice, but also Depeche Mode. Enjoy the Silence.
Speaker 1:
Come to us for your 80s throwback pop facts. So, to summarise this podcast, we've looked at Annunciation, we've looked at Pace, we've looked at Standing, we've looked at Pitch and we've looked at Pausing. So, ladies and gents, those are two podcasts for you on your voice, on your top tips, and we'll be coming back soon with new CCF episodes. But in the meantime, I'd like to say thank you to Jeremy and I'd like to say thank you ever so much for tuning in See you next time. Bye.