A set of defined technical skills is every professional’s ticket into the outsourcing industry.

If your employees possess the hard skills needed to execute their tasks, your team will be in good hands, but only for an indefinite period. If your goal is to find indispensable team members, expertise should only be your second consideration.

When you look at employees’ long-term value in the organization, their intangible qualities are the ones that truly matter. The problem is that these characteristics are often undervalued, and this is a management oversight that must immediately be resolved. You should focus not just on extrinsic skills development but also on soft skill training.

Think of it as harnessing your team s inner potential by helping them develop the right professional attitude and career outlook. If they adopt the right interaction skills, they can perform better and contribute significantly to the company s growth, especially in the customer service aspect.

Here are the soft skills every business process outsourcing (BPO) professional must have and the ways they impact customer care success.

1. Interpersonal negotiation skills

   
   Almost every customer interaction would involve negotiation. Most of the time, there will be some form of compromise involved before customer issues are resolved. As part of your agents’ customer service skills, proper and smart negotiation would come in handy if you wish to maximize your earnings without damaging your client relations.

2. Creative thinking

   
   Your employees’ capacity for creative thinking is an indication of good problem-solving skills. One way to incorporate this in your soft skill training is by letting your agents engage in activities, games, and other tasks that require resourcefulness and imagination. This would allow them to exercise their critical thinking abilities so that they can do the same when faced with complex problems.

3. Efficiency in collaborative tasks

   
   Delivering quality customer care is a team-based effort. An effective call center agent is comfortable working with others and can actively contribute insights and ideas for improvement. This means that they have the capacity to look at things from a bigger perspective, and all their actions will be done with the entire organization s development in mind.

4. Adaptability and flexibility

   
   As a call center manager, you know very well that the outsourcing industry thrives on changes brought about by technology, market behavior, and strict business competition. In this kind of environment, openness to change will help employees adapt to and excel in their line of work.

More than technical skills, or the so-called hard skills, agents’ soft skills are the ones that greatly matter in the workplace. Knowing how to relate to customers and how to interact with them can transform the way you deliver customer care, making soft skill training a worthy investment for your organization.