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The Power Of Storytelling For Call Center Reps

by Dean Kaplan, President, The Kaplan Group - August 21, 2018

The Power of Storytelling for Call Center Reps

Dean Kaplan
 
Email, texting, LinkedIn direct messages...business communication options abound today. But those who still use the phone appreciate the value of a personal conversation, especially when it comes to customer issues. Whether your call center handles primarily inbound calls or outbound calls, it’s important that agents understand not only your products and policies, but also the power of storytelling to shape brand messages.
 
For nearly 40 years, I have honed my communications skills in commercial debt collection, an industry where it is important to be genuine, trustworthy and helpful. When meeting with a client, I use stories to help prospects understand my work and what makes me good at it. I tell stories about similar accounts or accounts that seemed less likely to be collected on than theirs. These stories create trust, put the clients at ease and help close the deal. When working with those who owe money, I use personal stories to make them feel more comfortable and show them a workable solution is possible. More importantly, I listen to the stories my clients, and the people who owe them money, tell me. Listening to these stories helps me decide the best way to proceed in the collection process. 
 
Having a client or potential client on the phone is a rare chance to really tell a story. Turning your call center agents into good storytellers and listeners can be just as important to your business as it is to mine.
 
Training
Once you’ve decided your call center agents should adopt a storytelling approach to sales, you’ll need to provide some guidance. Storytelling training is a fun, team-building activity, and the appropriate training can help employees feel more comfortable with the concept. As your center begins to implement the storytelling approach to calls, make sure to use the same techniques in your interviews for new hires. Ask interviewees to tell stories about their experiences to see how comfortable they are with the techniques. Here are some key areas to address when training call center agents to become storytellers:
 
How to Tell a Good Story
Most good stories have a clear beginning, middle and end. They also have a hero or main character. In the stories you tell clients, it’s important that although your product or service may save the day, you are not the hero; the client is the hero. In the beginning, we meet the hero and learn about the hero’s problem. In the middle, your product or service solves the hero’s problem. In the end of the story, the hero conquers the problem and succeeds. During a training session, create several customer scenarios and have call center agents practice framing short stories by using emotional impact, listening skills and attention to detail.
 
Emotional Impact
Stories may include facts and figures, but they aren’t about numbers. Stories are about people and emotions. Here’s an example of a story that is focused on numbers:
 
The Widget Company wanted to purchase new shirts for its employees to wear at trade shows. T-Shirts Express was able to outfit the entire team for less than $8/shirt.
 
Here’s the story told with emotional impact:
 
The Widget Company had an exciting opportunity to present its newest widget at an upcoming trade show. It was important to present a unified and professional look. Its sales staff would be working long days and wanted to be comfortable. The Widget Company wanted its staff to take pride in their appearance. After meeting with the Widget Company and learning about its priorities, T-Shirt Express was able to come up with a professional looking design that came in under budget. The trade show was a huge success and The Widget Company received several new sales as a result.
 
Listening to Your Audience
Stories should be rehearsed, but not stiff. Ideally, your call center agents will have a few different stories at their fingertips that they can adjust and use as needed. In order to do this, your agents will need to be adept at one of the most important storytelling skills, listening. Listening to your audience can be difficult over the phone. It’s not always clear if someone is ignoring you, or if they simply have you on mute. Paying attention to how interested or disinterested in the story the client seems and how they react to certain elements are essential to helping close the deal.
 
Attention to Detail
Equally important to being able to tell a good story is the ability to draw out stories from the people you talk to. It’s important not only for agents to use these stories in their sales, but to be able to share the stories with other call center agents and other departments in the business. To write a story like the one above about The Widget Company, an agent has to ask follow-up questions and pay attention. If an agent hears a great story, make sure he or she takes down details and the client’s information. Having a system set up that allows the agent to share the story with managers, the marketing team and the product development team will greatly improve your company’s connection with clients. 
 
For many of your customers, call center agents may be their primary source of contact. Making sure your agents are well trained in telling and listening to customers’ stories can have a huge impact on not only sales, but on the company itself.
 
Dean Kaplan is President of The Kaplan Group, http://www.kaplancollectionagency.com/, a commercial collection agency specializing in large claims and international transactions. He has 35 years of manufacturing and international business leadership and customer training experience. Today, he provides business planning, training and consultation to a variety of companies. 
 

 
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