SPOKEN COMMUNICATION

Spoken communication requires a number of elements to make it effective and successful. One of these is fluency, which helps the communication to flow through the correct choice of words and avoiding unnecessary and ‘deafening’ silences.

Another important aspect of spoken communication is for a voice to have intonation. This is the melodic rise and fall of a sentence and if a person doesn’t have this in his or her spoken voice then it can become very boring to a listener.

Pitch is the level or frequency at which a person speaks. A deeper pitch is considered to communicate authority, which is why many news-readers have deep voices to convey the gravitas of what they are saying. Yet voices that are higher in pitch are often more accessible and may explain why women are particularly successful in call centres.

It is important to communicate certain key points during the call. The English language is stress-timed ie, we emphasize certain key words at regular intervals while the less important ones are spoken more quickly and with less emphasis. Compare this to languages that are syllable-timed such as French or Italian where there is o en equal emphasis placed on each syllable.

Neuro-linguistic programming

It is becoming increasingly common for aspects of neuro-linguistic programming principles to be incorporated in training. NLP, developed by Bandler and Grinder (1976), is an interpersonal communication model that draws on a wide range of sources to inform its practices.

The particular elements that are useful in call centres (and which, incidentally, have been used by people in the distant past, long before NLP) are to encourage employees to mirror the speed, tone and volume of a caller, and to adjust their vocabulary to suit the caller. In this way it is possible to quickly develop empathy with the caller and thus encourage a productive interaction.