Risk & Business Magazine Miller Insurance Summer 2019 Magazine | Page 24

SOFT SKILLS TOP 7 SOFT SKILLS YOUR EMPLOYEES NEED TO BE TRAINED ON BY: JOHN DIJULIUS, PRESIDENT OF THE DIJULIUS GROUP C ustomer service and soft skills are not common sense, they are not innate, and people are not born with them. The quality of your customer service, and the level of your organization’s customer service, comes down to one thing and one thing only: The service aptitude of every employee you have. The most critical component in building a world-class customer experience culture is the service aptitude of every individual employee in your company. SERVICE APTITUDE: A PERSON’S ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE OPPORTUNITIES TO MEET AND EXCEED CUSTOMERS’ EXPECTATIONS, REGARDLESS OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES. Service aptitude does not apply to the technical or operational side of the experience, which is also a critical part of a company’s customer service. Service aptitude represents the hospitality side only, how an employee makes another person feel. There are seven key interaction traits that determine a person’s service aptitude competency. 1) COMPASSION & EMPATHY Compassion is the ability to feel for another living being, which results in your desire to help. Having strong empathy to a customer’s situation, seeing and understanding it from their perspective, and walking in their shoes. 2) ENTHUSIASTICALLY ENGAGING & WARM Employee is obviously happy in what they do and whom they are doing it for. He or she beats the greet; seeks eye contact and smiles from long distances. Immediately puts the customer at ease by being friendly, cheerful, and caring. 3) DRIVEN BY A PURPOSE TO SERVE Someone who intentionally focuses on the experience of the person they are serving above anything else. 4) OWN IT Does whatever it takes to ensure the customer leaves happy with their experience. Acts with the same care and thoughtfulness an owner of the company would. 5) CHARITABLE ASSUMPTION Acts as if no customer has bad intentions. Does not want to punish 98 percent of your customers for what you are afraid that 2 percent might do. 6) MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN Always 100 percent in the moment of the person they are interacting with. 7) GO ABOVE & BEYOND Constantly looking and capitalizing on ways to surprise and delight customers. + John R. DiJulius III, best-selling author, consultant, and keynote speaker, is the President of The DiJulius Group, the leading customer experience consulting firm in the nation. He blogs on customer experience trends and best practices. Learn more about The DiJulius Group or The Secret Service Summit, America’s #1 Customer Service Conference. In The Customer Service Revolution, DiJulius points out how numerous companies have made customer service their biggest competitive advantage, are dominating their industries, and have made price irrelevant. As a result of this customer service revolution, people are being treated differently, better, and in a way like never before. This is a result of how companies and management are treating their employees and how employees are treating each other and the customer—which ultimately permeates into people’s personal lives at home and in their communities. 24