Level 6 Assignment 9 Oral exercise

Title & Code of Module          Communications G30001

Assessment Technique            Case Study and Oral Skills

Weighing                                 15% (150 divided by 10)

Title                                         Oral Exercise

Guidelines:              The candidate should role play dealing with a customer on the telephone, using active listening and communication skills. Evidence on the interaction should be presented on audio tape.

Assessment Criteria: 
Listening, interpreting, responding to questions (30)

Positive tone, confidence (30)

Modulation, inflexion, breathing, pace (30)

Receipt and transfer of information  (30)

Use of appropriate language (30)

As a potential employee in a business, being able to demonstrate that you can actively listen could be the difference in getting you hired or not. Why? An employer will want to see that you can interact well with customers as well as being able to work as a team and demonstrate a capability for being able to handle conflict resolution. To do any of these requires a degree of active listening.

When somebody is saying something to you, are you actually listening to what they are saying? Or are
you preoccupied with what you were going to say next? When you are  a customer and ringing up
particular companies, do you feel listened to? Have you had to deal with automated phone answering
machines before you get through to a customer service representative? Are you dealing with a
customer representative in Ireland? Do you feel listened to more or less as a result? Is the customer
service representative more interested in listening to you or making a sale.

Active listening is a method of listening and responding appropriately to somebody else. It is where the focus of attention is on the speaker.

Customer service representatives are under enormous pressure from supervisors and management to
deal with customers within a certain time limit to meet company targets. The downside to this is
if customers don't feel  listened to, they may simply never call again and switch their business. So in a nutshell, your manner on the phone has the ability to make or lose money for the company you work for.

Active listening is an important skill to have, particuarly in The Samaritans

Active listening in your class exercise. Discuss:

                                   Do you listen in class to your teachers? 

                                    Ever drift off? Get distracted? 

                                    Secretly texting under the desk or looking at Facebook when you shouldn't be? Why? Is it because you were bored? 

                                    Do you find it easier to learn visually?

                                    Would Powerpoint presentations help keep your interest?

                                    Was the teachers delivery not interesting enough for you? 

                                    Did the teacher interact with the class or simply lecture?

                                    Was the delivery of the topic too complicated or too simple?

                                    Do you have difficulty recognising the real world benefit of the topic?

                                     Did you have something else on your mind? 

                                     What happens you when this happens?

                                    Do you ever regret not listening to your teacher?

                                    How can you listen better?

 What has that exercise got to do with the real world? Maybe the customer you are dealing with
or their query is boring? Maybe you are tired at work from going out the night before?Maybe
it's a busy day at work? Maybe you are thinking about something else? The distractions in your
classroom can be similar to the ones you face at work.

Do you think this couple are actively listening?

 Here is a tongue in cheek clip taken from the Channel 4 show, The I.T, crowd. Most of us have had to
ring up at some stage about computer problems. 
How do you think active listening wasn't used in these examples?

Youtube Video

The IT crowd - Truest moment about tech support

 Uploaded by johnnyricoMC on 21 May 2010

How could the customer service representative in this roleplay have used better active listening skills?

Youtube Video
Call Handling Skills  

 Uploaded by arun79ccna on 21 Jul 2007

Here is a video about what people randomly selected off the street think of customer service in
Ireland.

Youtube Video How Good is Customer Service In Ireland?

Uploaded by TheLineIreland on 21 Jul 2011

Here is an American video highlighting examples of how to provide good customer service. The video is useful because it shows 2 examples of bad customer service at the start of the video. Next the aggrieved customers are asked how they feel and then 2 positive examples are shown. Have a look and think about how your scenario for the assignment is going to play out.  

Youtube Video Customer Service Training DVD

 Uploaded by NewmarketLearning on 18 Dec 2008

Sample Roleplay Scenarios
You may create your own scenario however if you are stuck for ideas, these may help you

  1- One of you is a Bank Manager while the other person is looking for a loan. The Bank Manager is refusing to give the loan and the customer must convince them why they should get the loan.


  2- One of you is a courier delivering a product (of your choice), while the other is a customer/recipient. Te customer wants to tell to the courier that they have delivered to the wrong place, while the delivery person says that he as the right address/business. The courier says that the customer must pay for the courier/transport charge because they gave the wrong address.


  3- One of you is a driver who has been charged for using the Easyflow toll bridge, while the other is an Easyflow representative on the phone. The driver must convince the Easyflow member that they were not driving that day and that the fine is incorrect.


   4- One of you is a tenant who has decided to move out before the end of your lease. The other is the landlord who feels you are breaking the memorandum of agreement/contract