Feature

The following topic would enhance justification process for those attending Call Center training, in realizing if your trainers are applying “Effective Listening Skills” during the training session.

Foremost, ensure if your trainer is really listening to the responses and are they employing the skill of active listening.

Actually, listening happens at 3 Levels:
* Active
* Conversational
* Superficial
The last level, Superficial, is what we do when we are hearing but not listening. I am providing an example: we might have a conversation at a occasion trying to take an interest in what another guest is saying but really having our attention elsewhere, perhaps on some other conversation we suspect would be far more interesting.

Here the problem is that we are only hearing what the other guest is saying but not listening, so we often land up being confused and eventually lose track of the conversation or end up having to ask them to repeat.

To be honest, if your trainer shows symptoms of above level, this would be extremely damaging in a Training Conversation. You know why? You would instinctively know if the trainer is only listening to you superficially. The fact that their mind is elsewhere will be revealed in the body language. Frankly, this will dismantle any trust that has been built up and lessen the chances that the training will produce a useful outcome.

Now about the second level, conversational, is the type of listening that we do throughout the day. In conversational listening, we listen while our partners talk and vice versa. However the danger here is that while the other person is talking, we are concentrating on making our next point, rather than truly focusing on what the other person is saying.

This is not an easy thing to do when trainers are conducting 'Training'. In fact, if the trainers not used to this approach, it can be hard to keep the questions flowing. Nothing much you can do about it but it's the trainers who should adapt with the practice to wait until the trainee has finished speaking and then decide upon the next question.

I got something now for both 'Trainer' & 'Trainee' and that is “We should also avoid the habit of finishing other people's sentences for them”. Only rarely do we pick the words they would have chosen themselves and we end up jarring their flow and causing hesitation or confusion.

Trainers need to work hard to reach the top level, Active Listening. Put simply, active listening is about clearing trainers' minds of all other distractions and really tuning in to what the trainee is saying with as much focus as can master. But this is easier said than done and takes a lot of time and practice to develop but is well worth the effort for the Call Center Trainers in becoming successful.

Conclusively, on a practical level it means the trainee should observe that trainers doesn't coach when they're in a hurry or preoccupied with something else. And neither should a Training Session should be run in a noisy environment or one that is likely to get to hot or too cold. In such circumstances it is impossible to actively listen.