Millennial Employees Must Be Taught Phone Skills

Millennials get a lot of flack for being addicted to their technology, especially their phones. It’s tempting to assume that this would make them great at phone jobs, but sadly, this isn’t true. The Millennial generation grew up with text and email, causing them to spend less time talking on the telephone than previous generations. As a result, many Millennials have poor telephone skills, but with the right training this generation can be great at telephone customer service.

Technology vs. personal communication

While Millennials may have the upper hand in their knowledge and application of many types of technology, they are often lacking in the interpersonal communication skills needed to drive customer service in business. And while it’s true that chat boxes, social media, and even texting are now viable forms of customer service, sometimes, a personal phone call is the only solution to a problem.

Millennial training techniques

It’s not that Millennials don’t know how to communicate. Most are very good communicators, though they tend to have a very relaxed approach to conversation that includes slang in every situation. However, the Millennial generation tends to focus on efficiency and practicality in communication. They may not see the point in making small talk or using pleasantries when trying to make a point.

Basic phone etiquette may seem outdated and pointless to Millennials. Businesses will likely need to include some training on this, but they should try to utilize engaging, hands-on technology and techniques to do so in order to keep Millennials engaged and involved.

Millenials do well with microlearning, which involves short bursts of information presented in a convenient and easily accessible way. These short, often interactive lessons help keep the focus on each topic and help Millennials keep on task. Boring lectures and long, drawn-out presentations won’t be effective training tools for Millennial brains, which are wired for short, fast bursts of information integration.

Millennials bring a lot of great things to customer service, but they may not be the things older generations are used to. With patience, practice, and a lot of understanding, you can build a great customer service team with employees from every generation.

For more tips on growing your customer service team, talk to the friendly staff at Answer 365 today.