Death by PowerPoint

When it comes to training, relying solely on word-heavy PowerPoint slides can lead to disengagement and boredom. Remember that adults have different learning styles; incorporating all three types (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic) is essential. Here are some tips:

• For auditory learners, use storytelling to convey information.
• For visual learners, incorporate images, graphs, and other visual aids.
• For kinesthetic learners, offer hands-on activities and opportunities to practise skills.

By varying your approach, you’ll ensure attendees can engage with the material and learn more effectively.

Role Plays

While role plays can be helpful for practising skills, they can also create anxiety and discomfort for attendees. Instead, consider incorporating games, competitions, and case studies relevant to the learning goal. These activities can be done in pairs or small groups, allowing attendees to practise their skills in a more relaxed and supportive environment.

Lack of Respect

Treating your attendees as if they are all the same and ignoring their individual skills, knowledge, and experiences can lead to disengagement and a lack of motivation. Inviting attendees to share their ideas and input, will encourage participation and make the training more relevant to their needs. Here are some tips:

• Tailor the training to include attendees’ ideas and suggestions.
• Encourage attendees to ask questions and share their experiences.
• Create a supportive and inclusive environment that values everyone’s contributions.

Remember, being a great School Business Manager is not about being an extroverted specialist. It’s about being willing to learn and keeping your focus on your attendees and their needs.

By avoiding these top three mistakes in your training, you’ll equip your Education Support Staff with the skills and knowledge they need to provide outstanding customer service and teamwork, ensuring success for your school and community.

Ready to equip your Education Support Staff with the skills and knowledge they need to provide outstanding customer service and teamwork? Look no further than Just For Schools! Our expert trainers can help you avoid the top three mistakes in training and create a supportive and inclusive environment for your attendees.

Contact us today to schedule a training session tailored to your school’s unique needs. Together, we can ensure that your Education Support Staff are equipped to provide the best possible service to your customers, including teachers, parents, students, stakeholders, and the wider community. Don’t wait – let Just For Schools help you achieve success today!

The post Equipping Your ESS for Success: How to Avoid These Top 3 Training Mistakes appeared first on Just For Schools.

Soft Skills for Customer Service Professionals

Since 2012, Just For Schools has been working with schools across Australia to create teams of Education Support Staff who work harmoniously and provide excellent service to every customer. We call these people Customer Service Professionals, and every school wants them, and every school needs them. Just For Schools specialise in soft skill development, which simply means, we provide the training that gives education support staff the knowledge and the skills to interact professionally with all types of customers – the chatty, the quiet, the demanding, the delightful, the friendly and everyone in between.

The Importance of a Diverse Customer Service Team

Customer service is not a ‘one size fits all’ process, and staff need a ‘toolbox’ of skills to deliver excellent service to meet the expectations of a diversity of customers. The more diverse your Education Support team is, the better your school will be.

The Power of Positive Experiences

If you’ve built or are trying to build a diverse and service skilled and confident Education Support team, there is one thing staff need to hear and be reminded of regularly (because we humans forget stuff). It can take up to twelve positive experiences for an unhappy customer to ‘forgive’ one negative experience.

In practical terms, this means that staff may interact with ‘unhappy’ customers even though they provide excellent service. For example, a customer who received a less than positive experience with the school in the past may need multiple positive experiences for the ‘damage’ to be forgiven. How long that takes is up to each individual customer.

Empowering Staff to Rebuild Trust with Unhappy Customers

Service excellence should consistently be recognised, especially when the customers make it challenging. Interacting with these customers can make staff feel that their excellent customer service skills and efforts are useless. To prevent this from happening, it’s important to remind Education Support Staff that if they feel a customer is being less than polite or friendly, it may be that the customer is on a journey to rebuild trust with the school. All staff are a vital step in that process. Give them the opportunity to vent their feelings, but also thank them for remaining professional and not dropping their service standards.

By investing in soft skills training for your Education Support Staff, you can create a diverse and service skilled Education Support team to help your school succeed. Empower your staff to provide excellent service and recognise their efforts, even when it’s challenging. Remember, positive experiences are essential in rebuilding trust with unhappy customers.

Ready to take your school’s customer service to the next level? Book training with Just For Schools and invest in the soft skills development of your Education Support Staff. With our training, you can:

• Provide your team with the knowledge and skills to interact professionally with all types of customers.
• Build a diverse customer service team that meets the expectations of various customers.
• Understand the power of positive experiences in rebuilding trust with unhappy customers.
• Empower your staff to rebuild trust with unhappy customers by allowing them to vent their feelings while remaining professional.
• Recognise your staff’s efforts in providing excellent service, even when it’s tough.

Keep your school from falling behind in customer service. Contact Just For Schools today and see the difference soft skills training can make for your Education Support Staff.

The post Soft Skills for ESS: A Must-Have for School Business Managers appeared first on Just For Schools.

And then it happened. As I entered a homeware store, I could feel the atmosphere change almost immediately. Something was not right. I looked around and there it was; BSF.

Bad Service Face

The customer service person was staring into space with a look of thunder. I don’t know what had happened for her face to be so dark, stormy and unwelcoming, but I was in such a good mood that I thought, maybe she needs me? Yes, that’s it! I was drawn into this shop to help her.

I gave her my biggest and cheeriest “Hi, how are you?” and her verbal response was…nothing. I think the corners of her mouth turned up slightly, and she did make eye contact, but it was so cold I looked away… and walked out the door; with her wage still in my bank account.

Families and the school community won’t know why and many won’t ‘care’ if Educational Support Staff are having a bad day. Customers of all industries expect excellent service and for staff to have the skills to be positive, friendly and welcoming all day every day, regardless of what is going on in their world.

You probably expect this of your Education Support Staff too, but expecting it does not make it happen.

3 Steps to Help Remove BSF From Your School

1.     Encourage Self-Awareness

Encourage ESS to assess their state of mind before they commence their day. Some ESS will find it easy to shake off negativity, but for those employees who are feeling anything less than positive, friendly and helpful – move them on to Step 2.

2.     Confirm You Value Effort

Encourage your ESS to admit when they are feeling distracted or negative, and confirm that you value the extra effort they are making. This allows you to identify staff with higher level support needs, but also reduces the chance of high performing staff feeling taken for granted. Staff who have to “fake” a positive attitude for a long period of time may wonder if you notice and eventually stop bothering.

3.     Provide Regular Soft Skill Training

Soft skills are our people skills, and that’s what customers of the Schools assess to determine if they feel safe and respected and the great news is, you don’t have to pay for soft skills training;

1. Show what you know. Show your ESS how to communicate professionally.

2. Put up posters/visual aids. Remind everyone of the value of a smile, eye contact and a    friendly tone of voice.

3. Watch your ESS in action. Give them on-the-spot feedback on how they could do more or better, and acknowledge when they meet or exceed your service standards.

The more you encourage your ESS to self-assess and self-manage their behaviours, the less time you will spend handling co-worker and customer complaints.

If you want help creating a team of people who provide consistently excellent service at your school, contact us now.

By Cate Schreck – Service Excellence Coach and Author of The A – Z of Service Excellence.

The post BSF. It’s a Real Problem for Many Schools. appeared first on Just For Schools.

Introverts ‘batteries’ run low when spending time around other people – they recharge by being alone with their thoughts. They recharge through quiet time.

Extroverts ‘batteries’ run low from being alone – they stay charged by being with others. Their batteries run low if they are left alone for too long.

With just that small amount of information, you’re probably thinking that introverts aren’t a great choice for a role that requires them to be around people all day at your school – which is what is expected of customer-facing ESS.

Think again – I’m an introvert.

I run a business that is dedicated to communicating with people, lots of people, and most of this communication is in a face to face situation. I love my business but yes, I am an introvert; a high-level introvert.

If you’re an extrovert, us introverts can be a confusing lot. One minute we are chatting away and the next we are silent. You may find us hard to approach and possibly consider us rude or anti-social. In the past, those terms have been applied to me and not just in workplaces – in sporting teams and friendship groups.

In the past, I had no idea why sometimes I ached to be alone, why I wanted a break when others were just warming up. I thought I must be the odd one; I was wrong.

I no longer worry about and rarely get those negative labels because I have a secret; I know the power and limitations of being an introvert and I know how to manage my energy.

For an introvert to thrive in an extroverted work environment, it’s not about can do or cannot do; it’s about self awareness and energy strategies. It’s knowing yourself so well that you no longer feel anything other than in control of your energy.

So, how can you help your introverted ESS frontliners remain energised all day? 

Get to know them.

Watch

See what your ESS do on their breaks.

• Do they seek solace or do they happily engage with co-workers?

• Are they going outside for a walk, or are they sitting in groups for a talk?

• Do they get excited about after-work social events or screw up their faces and avoid eye contact with those inviting them to attend?

• Do they seek tasks they can do alone, or do they ask to be part of team tasks?

Listen

Are they saying “I need some time to think about this” or “please turn down the music/noise”. Do they need encouragement to share their ideas or engage in team meetings?

Ask

If watching and listening doesn’t provide enough evidence, then share this blog with your ESS and ask them to share their thoughts. Make it OK for introverts to own their power; their ability to understand and communicate confidently with introverted customers and co-workers.

Once you know you have introverts in your team, it’s time to open up a conversation that acknowledges their challenges and then encourage mini-breaks. As little as 1 minute an hour can make a big difference to an introvert in an extroverted workplace ie: mindfulness, breathing exercises, short walks etc.

It’s not better to be introverted or extroverted; it’s about self awareness and energy strategies.

With a few simple strategies and support from you, introverts can thrive at work, and leave at the end of a people-filled day, with energy for life outside of work.

By Cate Schreck – Director of Just For Schools and Author of “The A-Z of Service Excellence”.

The post Introverts as Education Support Staff – Yes or No? appeared first on Just For Schools.