Telephone Skills Course Modules

Terrific. Can be shortened or lengthened as you need. I’ve used it as recommended to explore assumptions in equality settings, but also really well as an icebreaker for an interview skills workshop. Once I’d revealed how badly people listened, we went on to discuss the way some people assume they know what the question is about and don’t listen carefully enough to understand what the interviewer wants.

I really liked the audio file, the story was familiar but different enough to be interesting and it made a change than listening to the trainers voice.

Both these modules (Assumptions – The Witches of Glum and Goldilocks – a Listening Exercise) are excellent for demonstrating the need for ‘active’ listening skills and how easy it is to make assumptions and ‘hear’ what you think was said.

These modules worked extremely well and prompted lots of interest from the participants and also some key learning points were easily identified.

It then required some simple facilitation skills to identify ways to become better listeners and again to highlight some easy steps that everyone could take to improve their skills.

We use the witches of glum as a useful exercise in the induction programme. As our company is a financial retail business we deal with all types customers from all walks of life. We teach new starters that they should not make assumptions on a customer’s appearance. Just because they look scruffy doesn’t mean that they may be poor. By reading out the story it is clear that people make assumptions to what the answers should be rather than actually listening to the facts. I then have a discussion with the group asking them why they made the assumptions and it really makes them think about it.

Successful eyeopener about the danger of making assumptions. One participant remarked afterwards: "I have just realised what a dreadful listener I am", which was a great learning point for all.

However, some of the statements are ambiguous and biased towards eliciting an incorrect "true" answer. For example: "The king was an old man who could no longer walk." Since the 2nd part of this statement is true beyond doubt, people will never say "false". I solved this by reducing the statements to only one fact. Some examples: "The king could no longer walk".

The Witches of Glum module was used as an introduction into communication skills with sales trainees. The delegates appreciated the story and questions and quickly learnt through the course about the assumptions they had made and as a result, were easily able to relate this to how they communicate with customers and colleagues.

This was an effective module near the beginning of the course; the delegates had an increased awareness of natural assumptions and listening skills which effectively introduced further modules within the course.

This week I ran a seminar for members of the local branch of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in Shropshire. The topic for the presentation was “Diversity for Dummies”. This was my first venture into this type of presentation of this topic as I have only recently begun to train in the topic with the Ford Motor Company. As an alternative to risking ‘Death by Powerpoint’ I decided to use “The witches of Glum” as a medium for getting across how easily we drop into making assumptions and the potential impact making those assumptions. I used the exercise exactly as provided and was delighted with the way that those present took to it and enjoyed the different way of making a valuable learning lesson. Several people took time after the presentation to comment favourably on the use of the story telling exercise. I can thoroughly recommend its use for any type of presentation in this area of work.

The Witches of Glum exercise has been used within our customer service course. It has allowed us to use a fun exercise to identify the pitfalls of assumptions and stereotypical situations. The delegates have found this to be amusing as it is a clear break away from the business theme of other exercises. The trainers notes are very well laid out and it is what all exercises should be, simple and yet effective.

I have recently used this exercise to introduce a session on cultural differences as the organisation was transferring its HR shared service to another country. The training itself was quite challenging as it was perceived to be a big change to how our managers currently operate however, I used the exercise to introduce the final part of the day. This made a considerable difference to the atmosphere and energy levels within the group. They began to understand the assumptions we make about other cultures and they became receptive to altering their communication style to ensure their interaction was effective.

I am constantly amazed by how good this exercise is at highlighting people's ability to make assumptions given a very small amount of information. I've used this in a number of different sessions where it was important to highlight the amazing ability people have to fill in the gaps of the story with their ideas and remembered bits of old fairy tales. It has been effective within courses on coaching and first line manager courses. I have read the questions out from the materials and this worked just as well as writing them all out on the flip chart.

This activity is so popular that staff often ask to do it again at other events.

We are running a series of sessions on HR Skills for Managers , the first of which deals with Managing Diversity Are You a Fair Manager?

Having identified what diversity is the trainer asks the delegates to sit back, listen to a story and expect to answer some questions about the subject afterwards. The story is, of course, Assumptions The Witches of Glum.

This is a great little exercise that really demonstrates to the delegates how readily assumptions are made and how guilty of it they are. At least 50% of the delegates get less that 50% of the statements right each time we run the session perfectly illustrating the learning point. Give it a go, youll love the results!

The handouts played a vital role in unlocking the minds of those who participated. The group work is also very effective and do enhance the interaction between the learners as well as myself - building good rapport amongst each other.

I recently delivered a Telephone Techniques course and as part of that I used the 'Communicating Without Body Language' module. I must admit that I was slightly apprehensive about asking learners to discuss a controversial subject but I tried 'should cannabis be legalised' anyway! The discussions and activities following this resulted in some excellent learning points and really set the scene for moving on to the use of tone of voice. I would definitely recommend this activity.

Since the workshop involved telesales I felt it was important to talk about the impact of Body Language when we communicate and to illustrate how it is still important when selling over the phone. More importantly to encourage the participants to think how this can be done effectively when visual cues are obviously absent.

This is a simple module that can be run quite quickly and illustrates the key points of body language very effectively.

The participants enjoyed the activity and the subsequent discussion quickly identified the key elements of body language that are missing when communicating over the phone. It was then very easy to facilitate a discussion around what things could be done to enhance the communication skills and we identified a number of practical tips that people could put into action quite quickly.

This was a very useful activity for delegates to practice being assertive in potentially difficult situations. The delegates found the ‘fogging technique’ to be a very useful tool for dealing with aggression. I used 4 of the 6 scenarios (2 work-related and 2 personal) and this worked well in the suggested time.

I recently used the course module on ‘Dealing with Aggressive Behaviour’ with a group of people who dealt with internal customers. The group found this module really useful and there were several ‘lightbulb’ moments throughout the room specifically with the ‘fogging’ method. This is a really simple, yet effective technique for diffusing situations and my participants were able to relate this directly to the situation they commonly deal with and devise strategies, using this technique of handling these situations more positively in the future. Another cracker from Trainers' Library.

What a lovely exercise. Everyone knows the Goldilocks tale and this existing knowledge really helps drive the learning points home. I’ve used it in induction courses. It served a couple of purposes – it fulfilled the aims outlined on the site, but also helped new starters to recognise that no matter what their previous experience they still have opportunities for learning new things and that they may have a black spot here and there in which they assume knowledge that they may not possess.

I’ve used this exercise extensively in customer service and sales soft skills workshops and I’ve found it really difficult to find another exercise that beats it when it comes to highlighting how we naturally make assumptions and the importance of active listening. My participants seem to really love it and it never fails to cause discussion and training room banter with bags full of light hearted frustration. No-one has ever got all the questions correct yet!

A simple, yet effective exercise, I like the fact that it uses Goldilocks, a story which most of us will be aware of from childhood. I find it really easy to then link this exercise in to the types of calls that my delegates make or receive, especially the common ones where we can assume we know what it is about and how to resolve it without stopping to listen to the customer. I’ve used similar exercises in the past and have been ‘put off’ as they have sometimes caused a little too much debate. However, with this exercise, it is easy to explain the logic behind the exercise to even the most analytical delegate.

This is one of my favourite activities; I use it in my Telephone System/Call Handling training where it is very important for people to listen to what others are saying on the telephone. Reading a story to a group is fun and people make assumptions on what they have heard which means they learn a lot from the activity. This is great to use for Presentation skills, Train the Trainer, Assertiveness and Selling Skills.

I work for a small voluntary sector organisation with 5 full time and 2 part time staff. We had recently introduced customer service standards and to bring the policy alive rather than just sit on a shelf, I ran a team training morning session using Goldilocks as part of the session. Team training is a new addition to our team time together so as the newly appointed Team Leader (a change to my previous role with the organisation) I was a little apprehensive. The session started off well and discussions were really focused. When it came time to read the story of Goldilocks it at first raised a few smurks and frowns, however it went down well. Interestingly the boss only got 2 out of 12 for the quiz! His comment was - guess I wasn't really listening! Mmm really! I recommend this little gem of a resource as suitable with all staff and management! Having now used this as my first resource from Trainers' Library I certainly have confidence in using more.

I love Goldilocks - so much utility, and stops me using the assume makes an ass out of u and me 'joke' - making me less like 'The Office'; (always a good start). It nearly always creates controversy - 'Can you read that again?'. As such, what a great way to get people to listen actively, consider why people don't always 'get-it' first time, stops them tutting at each other, and maybe (just maybe) helps to improve communication by considering the ears half of the equation. It is foolproof, fast and fun.

What a simple idea and so effective. I've used it with new recruits to customer service teams and with senior managers in a local council. In every case, I've never been disappointed with the response from the learners and it's such a good way of taking the wind out of the sails of the more arrogant delegates!

The Goldilocks exercise is a valuable method of demonstrating to candidates the way they make assumptions. I have used this module with both Customer Service Advisors and customer facing Production Staff as a way of testing their listening skills. By cleverly mixing a familiar story with a few challenging twists, it really stretches the short term memory and in my experience results in an up-beat atmosphere. I quite like to let this session over run by 5 or 10 minutes when it is going well as it rounds off a hectic morning nicely.

I used the Goldilocks story in some customer service training. Some of the delegates didn't listen when I read the story, as they thought they knew it (as it is a popular children's tale). However, they soon learnt what a trap that assumption is when they then couldn't correctly answer the ensuing questions. In fact some people had been quite arrogant in their assumptions intially and quickly realised that this resulted in their undoing! The key learning for them came from the fact that they should always listen to what's being said, without making assumptions or listening from their perspective, as the speaker may go off on a tangent that they didn't expect.

I have always been a great lover of story telling while training and Goldilocks listening exercise has given me the opportunity to combine a good story with a great activity.

Goldilocks really stresses the message of the dangers of making assumptions, but it does that in a fun and different way which gets participants engaged and sometimes a bit fiery when discussing the answers to the questions about the story. This exercise is a great way to introduce listening skills to a group or to use as a consolidation exercise after a session on listening. Fun is guaranteed!

I sent the quiz to the delegates prior to my session, and asked them to complete this as pre-course work and bring it to the training. This saved me a bit of time and allowed delegates to think about why they were attending the session in the first place. Then at the start of the training, I invited comments and we discussed some examples. Following this activity, I used ‘Yes but, No but!’ and that seemed to flow really well.

The questionnaire worked well to elicit what people felt. Positioned this as “be as honest as possible to gain the most from the exercise” – might be worth annotating to the exercise. Also try not to think too much into the questions – you are trying to gauge your immediate reactions to a particular situation as some dwelt unduly on certain areas (perhaps setting a time limit would help e.g. max 1 minute).

I used the notes and the briefing as a positioning tool and it worked quite well. The inference on the general use of the “prey” and “predator” approaches, I would not use again as it created a bit of controversy over their validity (some challenged the basic premise) which detracted from the key message for a time. Whereas the ‘fight or flight’ I would use again as this met with general approval and it made a lot more sense against the “submissive \ aggressive” banner and why we might react the way we do to certain situations.

I had always found it quite difficult to find an exercise which introduced outbound sales to a group of new starters; and then I came across Sales Blocks.

I always divide the group in pairs; this has always worked really well for me as some pairs think about issues that other participants had not considered. We end up with a very interesting and accurate list of dos and don'ts which then I display in the training room for the duration of the course. I will also refer to these lists after role-plays if any of the participants has covered (or not) any of the points raised during the Sales Blocks exercise.

I highly recommend this activity as it gets those sales skills out in the open at a very early stage of a sales course.

Loved it. Used it most recently with a group of leisure staff all at different levels in the organisation and everyone competed well.

The concept of the exercise is easy for them to grasp as it’s so familiar to them, and the challenges are really good. On one occasion, I started the game early on, then later in the course asked the groups to write some of their own challenges (relevant to their own scenarios) then switched these for the ones provided to conclude the game.

Fun and appropriate for all levels of experience in customer service.

I have recently completed my first training session on The Customer Experience and used the module Pitfalls & Trampolines. This was excellent, it involved all the delegates who thoroughly enjoyed this fun exercise and many commented on the fact that they were learning whilst having fun.

We use this as part of our induction. Firstly to identify transferable skills of new recruits and secondly to lay the foundations of the Customer Services skills we expect. We don’t always use the board. Often we will ask the questions and award points. Having put the group into pairs the ones who gather the most points are the winners and we award small prizes/privileges etc. Works very well to set expectations.

This exercise is brilliant! I used it for the Telesales training throughout the course of the day and it was a fantastic energiser which continued with the learning. I split the group into 3 teams playing against each other in small teams - but also made a competition between the teams to see who could come up with the best suggestions - this worked really well as sales teams are generally very competitive. It also meant that within the small teams, people co-operated more with each other to come up with great suggestions - competition within competition. I did laminate the cards so that I can use the exercise again and again - which, for me makes sense as the work is done just once.

I recently used the Pitfalls and Trampolines Telesales game to round off a half day sales training session and it went down brilliantly.

The 2 teams really got stuck in and became quite competitive and it summarised the learning points so well. I've been asked to provide some training for receptionists and was thinking about the game and how it could be adapted to them, but no need, you do one for customer service also. Thank you.

This exercise is very useful to use in any Interviewing Skills courses, but will also fit into many other communication type courses. Will possibly look at it’s use within a telesales course shortly.

The simple sentences that seem to stop you in your tracks were very good at making the learners think about how they’d react. Their first impressions were that if they ever had to interview people that were that monosyllabic, they’d find it hard to continue. This brought out discussion on communication styles, before we were able to proceed with the exercise.

This exercise was used after the Behaviour Based Interview – What and Why exercise and helped them understand the types of questions they could use to drill down to get the information they want from candidates without leading them to the answers they want.

Really helpful tool to use in an interviewing skills course. I used this with a group of managers to help them to ask questions that will open up a candidates’ responses. They could see uses for the type of questioning in a variety of situations – interviews, counselling, 1-2-1 meetings with staff, dealing with problem performance. A key learning point was limiting the use of ‘why’ questions when we’re trying to get someone to open up; too soon or too often will potentially lead to defensiveness resulting in less trust and co-operation. Worthwhile combining alongside other questioning skills exercises as we found this to be quite short.

This module can be used as a nice ‘icebreaker’ and also illustrates the benefit of appropriate questioning.

I actually only used this with me as the person being questioned and two people posing questions. I then facilitated a discussion on the types of questions asked and the benefits and drawbacks of each type.

It prompted a very useful session on questioning skills and really encouraged the participants to consider how best to use questions in different circumstances. We were then able to list examples of the ‘best’ questions to ask in different scenarios.

Again the module is useful because it highlights the good and less good without people having to share what they currently do and because the questions asked are not work related it is easy to highlight the benefits of using different styles of question without getting into detailed discussion about the wording of a specific question.

I used this exercise on a Communication skills day with predominantly home care workers in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of 'open'questions over 'closed' questions. The group quickly grasped what was required and I ran the exercise according to the instructions. They grasped what was required quickly and were able to draw their own conclusions. Several commented on how easy it was to change their questionning style with some thought and that they would remember the point of the exercise when working with their clients. A plentiful supply of chocolate given for good open questions helped I think!

I used this module as part of a coffee break, after we had discussed Representational Systems.

It was a great way to build on the benefits of matching language with more work on relationships and how this can be achieved relatively easily within a conversation.

It prompted some excellent discussions and once again highlighted the benefit of building rapport.

Again a very simple idea that can be adapted for many different types of workshops.

I use this activity to test their listening skills and practice using checking questions to determine whether they have understood the offer correctly. As the offers are very complicated the delegates tend to ask many questions and write notes but always seem to get the offer correct. Again another valuable exercise.

Special Offer was used as a listening exercise with a retail based group, which made the content of the exercise very relevant to them.

It not only showed them the importance of clarifying listening and summarising information but the varying levels of success opened the delegates to the thought of individual differences and preferences in communication styles. Telling the delegates they were not able to make notes whilst they were listening added an interesting twist to the exercise.

Used this quite effectively as an icebreaker for an interview skills workshop. Quick, neat and did the job about making assumptions in people’s meanings and how to help get the best out of interviewees.

I could also see a use in customer service, resolving customer complaints!

This exercise was very clear in it’s purpose and all the learners fell into all the pitfalls!

The passage about Aunty Rita’s shopping requirements was very simple and while reading it I could think of different questions I’d need to ask Aunty Rita for clarification. The difference is very much when the learners heard it. They forgot about asking questions and made some assumptions instead. They did come up with a few questions for clarification, but when reviewing the passage found that there were lots more that they should have asked.

This exercise was almost the opposite of the previous one – questions to probe, challenge & explore, in that if you have a candidate that likes to talk, it’s more about getting short clear answers from them to clarify their answers. All the learners felt that most of their candidates that they’d interviewed in the past were more likely to be in the second group, but occasionally for some roles they’d experienced the short answers too.

They also felt that they needed more practice in asking these sorts of questions, as they felt they were more prone to getting into a discussion with the candidate, rather than clarify & summarise.

Another excellent exercise. Thanks.

This module can easily be used to start a Sales Training session and to encourage participants to really think about their roles and the importance of not just ‘feature dumping’.

It is a simple idea which helps sales people to really reflect on what they do and to potentially notice how easy it can be to, as the title suggests, fall into the role of a Talking Brochure.

It really opens up discussion about the importance of tailoring a sales approach to fit the customer’s needs and can lead nicely into talking about specific sales techniques such as questioning skills, listening skills and handling objections.

It also works really well in getting participants to highlight their own areas for improvement without specifically looking at what they currently do.

I have recently incorporated the Salesperson Talking Brochure module within one of our enhancement workshops with fantastic results. It really gets the delegates to stop and think about what they are actually doing and reflect on how to approach their calls differently with Sales Agents figures improving as a result.

I have used this exercise in the UK & abroad for a wide range of delegates. It is perfect for helping people to understand how easy it is for misunderstandings to occur when communicating, expecially during change. It is particularly invaluable in helping people to understand how messages get distorted because we all have our own information in our head that we use in order to evaluate what we are saying & hearing.

Delegates really enjoy the exercise and, with effective facilitation, they quickly 'get' the key message. It stimulates interesting discussions about times when communication has failed due to not passing on crucial information.

To avoid cries of "I have never even heard of that" I find that well known songs such as Happy Birthday & Jingle Bells work best because pretty much everyone in the room knows them, whatever their background.

I use this icebreaker in Report Writing; however it would be appropriate to use this in any courses which involve communication. I have tried this activity with tapping and humming and I find tapping works best. I have found that delegates really get into this and enjoy it as well as learning that you need to be clear with your communication.

This short training activity is very useful to explain the different types of questions that there are. I go through the types with them first then get them to decide what type of question each one is. Delegates do get confused and try and find types for those which are not blue starred. However, on the whole it is a valuable exercise.

I have used Welsh Holiday with a wide range of groups and learners. I have used the exercise to enhance communication skills and also as a team building event tacked onto some work related exercises. Most delegates find the exercise a real challenge and surprisingly those with some experience of the 'great outdoors' rarely fare any better than those who claim an affinity with couch potatoes! My most memorable delegate was a person who claimed that the exercise would be 'a piece of cake' as they ran trips with the venture scouts every weekend - oddly, as it turned out, they failed to notice the sea on their map, and were unable to steer their 'family' to the meeting point!

I have used this exercise to great effect when training Coaching Programmes for middle to senior managers. Often, in business, there is a challenge when we need to coach someone to get to an outcome when they see things very differently from us – they hold a “different map of the world” – or in the case of this exercise, a different map of Wales.

Through questioning, each team has to establish what the other can see – before they can decide the best route to their outcome. The outcome is clear – the constraints etc are not – and they are not shared.

It is important as a coach that we learn to respect the coachee’s “map” and then lead them from there to an agreed outcome while helping them around the constraints that they can see along the way – this exercise is perfect for this.

Comments like “of course you must be able to see it” , and “there’s nothing to stop you doing that” are common – we are imposing our map onto our coachee – often a problem in business.

Delegates love the exercise as it draws out all the learning and key skills of coaching at the attitudinal level. I would highly recommend using it.

I used this activity following ‘Yes but, No but!’ for delegates to think further about the different behaviours and characteristics. The scenarios were a good test of learning following the ‘Yes but, No but!’ activity. And in the second part of the activity using flip charts, I incorporated some of the questions from the ‘Who is Assertive?’ module. This worked really well.

This is a great starting quiz to get people thinking assertively. It is a funny thing, assertiveness, in that we find it very easy to describe the extremes (aggressive and passive), but because assertive is somewhat in between, it is a more nebulous construct, I think. This quiz helps. Getting people in groups of 3 or 4 is good for me – 5 is possible, but more difficult for the passive ones to get included! This is an exercise of two halves! The questionnaire sets the thinking right. There is usually some discussion on one or two of them – and it is a great opportunity to talk about tone and voice here. (You can read some of the situations in an aggressive voice, for example.) Beware of situation 9 – we don’t have smoking in restaurants any more – but as long as you explain that up front, it is still a valid scenario – although now historical. During the second exercise I usually add a thought provoker – “think about tone of voice, eye contact, stance, listening levels, body language, facial expressions...” The whole thing gets you to the point of defining the characteristics for Assertive behaviour very quickly.

This was a very useful exercise because it really explained the differences between passive, assertive and aggressive. I liked the way that the exercise was split into two so that firstly they could decide in a team which response was passive, assertive or aggressive and then they could decide on the traits of each. We then discussed why an assertive approach would be best. Those in the group were all passive so it was a useful way of getting them to realise that they need to work on their assertiveness.

I ran this course with a group of administrators that frequently have contact with the advisers within the company. Although we have processes for dealing with the adviser requests, they often walk over and speak to the administrators directly to get work done quicker. This course was great for the administrators as it helped them to understand and identify submission, assertive and aggressive behaviour. The second exercise in particular was really good for them as they got to bring in the of experiences of giving / receiving those behaviour characteristics and the consequences of them. Out of the back of exercise two came a number of interesting points to discuss and for that session it was extremely important to resolve them and so we ended up going longer than we would have done. The team now interact better and if someone does point a finger then they have the humour between the group to take the micky out of the aggressive body language. It has also helped them in general with dealing with the advisers, although some may still need some additional coaching in this area.

I used this to qualify what assertiveness is.

The questionaire handout, the questions were very straightforward and easy to understand. They readily allowed everyone to understand the key distinction between “submissive”, “assertive” and “aggressive”. I ran this as a group exercise and felt the exclusion of “passive” was an omission as some people fell into this category rather than “submissive” (see below for more detail):

Passive-aggressive behavior refers to passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to following through with expectations in interpersonal or occupational situations. It can manifest itself as learned helplessness, procrastination, stubbornness, resentment, sullenness, or deliberate/repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is (often explicitly) responsible. It is a defence mechanism, and (more often than not) only partly conscious. For example, suppose someone does not wish to attend a party. A passive-aggressive response in that situation might involve taking so long to get ready that the party is nearly over by the time they arrive. [Extract from “Wikipedia”]

Overall, however this more than satisfied the learning need and allowed us to progress comfortably into the next stage and how to appropriately manage ‘assertive’ behaviour.

Used this exercise which is meant to demonstrate the difference between assertive, submissive and aggressive approaches. Found this very useful, as all trainees could easily relate to the examples used. Only one example that is used has to do with a smoking area in a restaurant, which I amended slightly in the light of the smoking ban.

The module I have used most is What is Assertiveness? I really like this as it gets everyone into a good mindset and is so helpful in determining not so much what assertiveness is, as what it isn't! There are lots of courses and so on that promote tips and strategies for being more assertive, but I much prefer this approach.

I recently ran a half day course for a group of around 30 care workers on the topic of assertive communications. As a part of that event, I used the “What is assertiveness” exercise.

I did consider using the “How assertive are you” questionnaire but decided that I would use another questionnaire that gave an indication of whether the delegates ‘preferred’ communication style was aggressive, assertive, submissive or submissive/aggressive. After having explained these terms, I used the first element of the “What is assertiveness” exercise. This was very well received and the delegates were very quickly fully engaged in discussion – or I should say lively debate as they sought to achieve consensus in their views. To add ‘a little something’ to the exercise, I suggested that one of the group read out the response given in the same manner as they felt that the originator of the response would have used. This venture into amateur dramatics for some added immensely to the enjoyment factor and was a very good way of reinforcing the importance of NVC and tone in communications. Additionally, when working through the ‘answers’ in a plenary session, I invited people to give alternate response in the other styles – for example, if the response was submissive, I asked how it might have been expressed assertively and/or aggressively. Once again, this was a useful technique to reinforce the learning.

Towards the end of the event, I moved onto the topic of NVC and used the second half of the exercise to elicit shared perceptions of NVC is terms of effective communications. The earlier part of the exercise proved to have been an ideal intro as the delegates were very quickly able to make the necessary links between NVC and effective assertive communications.