The automotive business has a history of practices that have made the general public wary of dealing with both repair shops and sales lots. Both repair and sales have a long standing reputation, decades long, of being deceptive. Much of this reputation is well deserved. There was a time where sales people exaggerated the features […]
Customer Service
Customer Service vs. Customer Experience
This week, my service consultant team and I were discussing the difference between customer service and customer experience. Is there a difference? Are these simply two phrases for the same thing? There is a difference. A huge difference. And at the end of the interaction with your customer, the difference can mean a one-time transaction […]
Good Enough
Have you ever used the term, “Good enough”? Have you ever been working on a project and reached a point when you said to yourself, or others you were working with, “Well, that’s good enough. It will have to do”? Sure you have. We all have. What are we saying when we utter that phrase? […]
Speaking with Confidence in Work and in Life (Part 2)
Let’s pick up with Brian M.’s blog from The Art of Charm on the subject of speaking skills. Speaking without tension That low, dominant tone that makes you sound confident comes about naturally when you release the tension in your voice. The muscles in your shoulders, neck, jaw and throat all affect your voice tone […]
Speaking with Confidence in Work and in Life (Part 1)
Speaking is a main method of communicating. Whether in business relationships or personal relationships speaking in a manner that effectively gets your message to your hearer(s) is an important skill to possess. The skills for speaking effectively are necessary both when we are speaking to someone on the telephone or speaking to them face-to-face. The […]
Smile!
Believe it or not, the person hearing you, on the other end of the phone, knows whether you are smiling or not. Instantly, when you speak they will know whether you are glad they called. This is because our physical behaviors impact our emotions which in turn will impact our voice. Our tone, volume, speed […]
Variety In Speech
Some people speak in monotone. They have developed the habit of eliminating all the variety from the way they talk. We want to be careful not to fall into this ditch. It is difficult to Listen to someone speak in monotone. Staying interested is very challenging. Partially because it is uncomfortable to listen to, but […]
Tone
An important part of speaking is the tone of our voice. Yes, the words we choose are important. The volume and rate of speed we use to deliver our message has a significant impact. A fourth ingredient to successful communication is our tone. The tone of our voice is what communicates our emotions regarding the […]
Byproducts of Fast Talking
As we consider how to become better communicators over the telephone let’s examine what occurs in our own heads when we talk too fast. Often when we talk fast it is because we are nervous. Or maybe we are not confident in what we want to say. Maybe we are scared how the other person […]
Is the Volume and Speed of Our Speech Important?
As we drill down a bit farther in regard to how we are communicating on the telephone, let’s examine a few skills we need to master. The first, and most obvious, is the volume of our voice. When we are excited, stressed or passionate, our voices tend to get louder. In some situations, this is […]