LEXi Learn was contacted by Richanah Daly, a People Development Lead at Canada Life, about call handling. She and other colleagues had identified a need to improve confidence and flexibility when communicating with customers over the phone.
It’s a frontline role, where you never quite know who you’ll be talking to, or what kind of inquiry will come through next. ‘Expect the unexpected’ might be their motto.
The challenge was to design an experiential programme that would empower colleagues to handle a wide range of situations and personality types. Canada Life chose us as they know our expertise in behavioural and communication skills.
The objective of the learning was to create variety and realism in the written scenarios we designed. We spent time talking to experienced call handlers in Canada Life, learning from real-life examples of the issues and behaviours they encounter every day.
A key focus was how to manage communication when you cannot see the person you’re speaking to, and when all nonverbal cues are missing. People often say one thing with their voice, and another with their body and expressions. That is the challenge of call handling.
Our design began with a back-to-basics look at how we communicate, before exploring the added complexities of verbal communication.
As is often the case at LEXi Learn, the rich experiential learning comes when we move to one-to-one skills practice. In this case, each participant had the opportunity to experience a challenging call, in real-time, but back-to-back on chairs, with the LEXi Learn Actor/Facilitator simulating the conditions of a phone conversation.
We began with an energising warm-up and ice breaker built around a simple idea: that we often make assumptions about what someone is saying and thinking. This led into a brief reminder of the classic Albert Mehrabian 7 / 38/ 55 model, highlighting just how much meaning is carried beyond words alone. People are still surprised that 55% of communication is nonverbal.
From there, participants took part in interactive exercises on the difference between active and passive listening, followed by questioning skills. Finally, a look at negative language and complaint handling, a crucial aspect of telephone communication. In the second half of the session, the participants were invited to put into practice all the skills they had covered in a 1-2-1 situation.
We created a concise slide deck capturing the key elements of the session. This was shared with participants a week after the sessions as a reminder and practical crib sheet – something to refer back to when applying their new skills. This resource was warmly welcomed by Canada Life as a useful tool to reinforce learning.
Feedback from participants and client sponsors was incredibly positive. Teams reported seeing a real increase in confidence and flexibility when handling calls.
Feedback from the participants and client sponsors has been incredibly heartening.
“Loads of positive comments from our groups following on from the sessions. The teams have even recorded where they have seen an increase in confidence from the participants already!”
Richanah Daly, People Development Lead, Canada Life