Communication Skills for a Call Taker

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Recap of Day One

  • Cabbage Ball Game
  • Participants to peel outer leaf of the cabbage ball
  • Respond to the question on the leaf
  • Throw the cabbage ball randomly to fellow participants
  • Discussion

Communication

  • Imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium.
  • Means of sending or receiving information, such as telephone lines or computers
  • Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place, person or group to another.

Communication Process

  • Every communication involves (at least) one sender, a message and a recipient.
  • Transmission of a message from sender to recipient can be affected by a huge range of things. These include
    • Emotions
    • Cultural situation
    • The medium used to communicate
    • Location.

  • Refers to the exchange of information or a message between two or more people.
  • For communication to succeed, both parties must be able to exchange information and understand each other.
  • If the flow of information is blocked for some reason or the parties cannot make themselves understood, then communication fails.
  • The Sender
    • The communication process begins with the sender, who is also called the communicator or source.
    • The sender has some kind of information(a command, request, question, or idea) that he or she wants to present to others.
    • For that message to be received, the sender must first encode the message in a form that can be understood, such as by the use of a common language or industry jargon, and then transmit it.
  • The Receiver
    • The person to whom a message is directed is called the receiver or the interpreter.
    • To understand the information from the sender, the receiver must first be able to receive the sender's information and then decode or interpret it.
  • The Message
    • The message or content is the information that the sender wants to relay to the receiver.
  • The Medium
    • Also called the channel, the medium is the means by which a message is transmitted.
    • Text messages, for example, are transmitted through the medium of cell phones.
  • Feedback
    • The communication process reaches its final point when the message has been successfully transmitted, received, and understood.
    • The receiver, in turn, responds to the sender, indicating comprehension.

Barriers to Effective Communication

  • Noise
  • Lack of planning
  • Wrong / unclarified assumption
  • Cultural barriers
  • Emotions
  • Filtering
  • Poor listening
  • Information overload
  • Time
  • Distance

Effective Call Handling Activity

  • Draw my house
    • 3 similar semidetached houses
    • Middle house double size of the other 2 and slightly in front
    • All houses have a cone shaped roof with a chimney on the right side of the roof
    • All houses have 2 windows one on top of the other on the left side with a door on the right side
    • The sun is shining at 1 o’clock
    • 2 clouds on each side of the house
    • 6 birds in 2 rows flying at 11 o’clock
    • 2 clouds one on top of the other at 10 o’clock

Effective Call Handling – Key Notes

  • Effective call handling is a matter of getting the facts and knowing what to do with them.
  • With skilled questioning, a call taker can grasp a caller’s needs very quickly while also engaging them in a pleasant conversation.