Francesca Zanisi, Chief People Officer at Webhelp, talks to us about the importance of soft skills and why human interaction is vital to building good client relationships.
Today, we demand more than ever from our interactions with brands. Now, customer experience (CX) is about the power of personal touch – hyperpersonalisation, loyalty and the ability to resolve issues effortlessly and quickly. And while technology has advanced in leaps and bounds, it can’t deliver the soft skills – so valued by customers – that humans can.
Think about when you have a problem at work, or a specific issue with a product that you’re unable to resolve despite protracted filtering through generic ‘frequently asked questions’ or endless online help sections. The truth is, if you want your issue resolved swiftly and painlessly, you want it done via real human interaction. And this desire is even more acute when your issue is urgent and complex, as human connection helps satisfy emotional drivers, which are fundamental to creating and maintaining brand love and are associated with positive customer behaviours.
Very simply, at the heart of human connection in brand-consumer interactions lies soft skills, yet their value is not a new concept. According to a US survey of over 80 million job postings across 22 industry sectors, two-thirds of the job adverts listed soft skills among their list of more technical qualifications. While technical skills can be acquired and perfected on the job, softer skills, such as communication, empathy, listening and teamwork, can be harder to pick up and apply in daily work. It’s no surprise, therefore, that soft skills are still in hot demand.
Monster’s global report, Future of Work 2022, states that employers’ most sought-after soft skills are teamwork and collaboration, communication, problem-solving and critical thinking, and while these are indeed soft skills, until recently, they have been expected from all employees by employers. In fact, to a large extent, career paths and frameworks in many companies have been founded on this premise – but in today’s agile workplace, they’re falling short, because they’re too linear, strict and geared to technical skills, not soft skills in their own right. The importance of soft skills – increasingly recognised as core, transferable skills that can be applied to most, if not all, roles in the business – is disrupting these outdated models.
It’s worth pointing out that soft skills development is now such a global priority that even not-for-profit organisations are working hard to help young people and disadvantaged communities acquire the skills that will both facilitate their social integration and improve their employment prospects. This includes the Think Human Foundation, which supports local NGOs worldwide to promote education and inclusion and the Youth Futures Foundation, which, as well as supporting young people to overcome multiple barriers to quality employment, runs projects to improve essential employability skills such as leadership, communication and patience.
The importance of soft skills for the CX frontline
CX advisors have direct contact with customers, so they effectively act as brand ambassadors. Above and beyond specific product and systems knowledge, they need to convey a brand’s values and voice. Given the different roles and responsibilities among the CX team and the resulting individual objectives and skill sets, developing skills at scale is often a huge challenge.
The majority of customers (93%) are likely to make repeat purchases with companies who offer excellent customer service and customer experience is now a key differentiator across all sectors. And in today’s hyper-connected world, sharing brand experiences on consumer forums and social media and using review sites to inform our own purchase decisions, is the new norm. These factors have transformed the role of the CX team from inbound customer service to the ‘beating heart’ of brand experience, responsible for designing customer journeys and delivering CX that stands out. The winners are the brands that can deliver truly human brand experiences, by harnessing the power of soft skills to deliver rewarding, personalised experiences, all while ensuring that the customer is getting what they want and need, when they want and need it.
Soft skills to adapt and thrive in CX
In the world of a CX advisor, no two days are the same. In fact, for the most part, no two customer interactions are the same and it’s this situational variability that makes the CX advisor workplace unique. To adapt and thrive, teams need the soft skills required to adapt to and deal with unique situations. From building trust, demonstrating understanding and displaying empathy to dealing with difficult customers and navigating the multitude of options for issue resolution, CX advisors today do need an arsenal of soft skills.
Yet identifying and nurturing these skills in a team isn’t as simple as just putting people into training and hoping for the best. Soft skills development is an ongoing investment; programmes must be tailored to each CX advisor and need monitoring and refining as and when a business and advisor needs change.
Line managers play an essential role in guiding and coaching team members, ensuring each performs at their best and develops the right skills – and, accordingly, receives the right training. Talent reviews enable leaders to assess team and individual performance and identify any gaps or areas for immediate improvement and mapping out future areas of focus. Performance data must then be aggregated and harmonised across a business so that, even in a global entity, everyone is all working with the same framework.
Last but not least, programmes targeting specific soft skills improvement, such as leadership programmes, empower businesses to set standards and expectations for employees, managers and leaders across a business. This transparency contributes to a strong and well-understood culture for the business, in addition to forming the basis for other talent-related processes, such as hiring and onboarding. But whatever the seniority, from advisors to leaders, the ongoing coaching of people to be their best selves while performing on the job is key.
And how can technology help soft skills in CX?
Technology can be an enabler in both pinpointing employee soft skill performance and gaps and streamlining customer experience. In addition to the typical key performance indicators that are used in the CX world, predictive tools can also pinpoint areas for improvement. They can highlight specific issues with advisor performance and give immediate feedback to the individual, either linking the individual to online training resources or knowledge bases or flagging the issue to the appropriate line managers, so that they in turn can take the appropriate steps to address it.
To conclude, in a world where customers have the power to make or break a brand, it makes sense to invest in great CX. And great CX is human, whether that’s delivered on the phone, via webchat, social media, email, or conducted face to face. No technology can emulate the feeling we get when we’re interacting with a human being. And as technology propels us ever forwards, and facilitates increasingly immersive environments such as the metaverse, we must never forget the value of humans.
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