5 ways to communicate respect without saying a word

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School Business Managers from Geelong, Ballarat, Melbourne and all across Australia contact Just For Schools to help their Education Support Staff develop professional soft skills. Soft skills are your people skills and those are the skills that, when mastered, leave customers at your school, no matter if they’re students, parents or the community, feeling respected.

Did you know that it’s possible to give customers a feeling of respect without even speaking to them? Thanks to Professor Albert Mehrabian and his book “The Silent Message”, we know that we communicate our attitudes and feelings both verbally and non-verbally.

In a face to face situation, 55% of the messages communicated to a customer about how your ESS feel and what their attitude is comes via their body language.

What is body language? It’s the non-verbal messages you communicate to those who can see you. It covers things like the following:

  • Eye Contact

  • Facial Expressions

  • Gestures

  • Proximity

  • Your Attire

Regardless of the reason customers come to see your ESS, give them the best chance of gaining trust and winning the day by considering what their body language is telling your school’s customers.

Here are 5 examples of how body language impacts customers:

  1. When we walk into a school that has a reception area and reception staff don’t immediately look up, customers can feel ignored. The longer a customer feels ignored, the greater the chance of them not willingly doing business with your school or considering your school for their children.

  2. When ESS are on the phone, the simple act of eye contact with a genuine smile and a nod goes a long way to giving customers a feeling of respect. It also puts them at ease that staff know they’re there and will be with them soon.

  3. A uniform makes it easy for customers to identify staff, BUT uniforms that are untidy, unclean or ill-fitting can leave a customer doubting the professionalism of the staff and the school.

  4. Staff who look at their watches or let their attention wander whilst a customer is speaking, gives the customer the impression that they are no-longer focused on what is being said. This alone can drive a customer to complain about bad service.

  5. Standing too close to a customer can make them feel uncomfortable. If the customer takes a step back, don’t follow them – they are establishing their comfort zone.

If you’re busy, annoyed, frustrated, tired, nervous or feeling anything other than focused on the needs of your customer, keep in mind that you may be sharing your feelings and attitudes via your body language.

If your ESS need to brush up on their communication skills, consider our Onsite Training or contact us to find out more about how we can deliver training customised to your team.