Persuasion skills: Tips on How to Develop it for Excellent Customer Service

Persuasion skills is a crucial tool for employees in every industry. Persuasion skills is the process of convincing someone else to act or agree with an idea. In the workplace, persuasion is used to sell products, recruit team members and increase productivity. Additionally, an employee with strong persuasion skills can influence others to perform well and succeed. Therefore, a persuasive employee is also able to expedite and facilitate group decision-making. When used well, persuasion is a valuable soft skill that can have a significant impact in any workplace.

Influence is occurring continuously at the workplace. Influence is the ability of a person or leader to affect, shape, or transform the opinions (convincing) and the behaviors or actions (persuading) of other people without necessarily having formal authority over them. Influencing is soft or personal power, independent of one’s positional power. Without persuasion skills, a leader cannot make his or her vision take place. Persuasion skills allow a leader to get things done and to achieve desired outcomes without coercion.

Here are tips to develop persuasion skills for an excellent customer service

Communication

Good communication skills are the foundation on which you build other persuasive skills. Hence, the goal of being persuasive is to influence others to think or act in a certain way, and the quickest way to do that is to speak with them. Effective communication skills involve expressing yourself clearly, using nonverbal gestures and a vocabulary that the other person understands. If you can share your ideas and thoughts in an engaging way that appeals to your listener, they are more likely to be open to persuasion.

Emotional intelligence 

Another crucial persuasive skill involves noticing and interpreting others’ emotions. Emotional intelligence is a learned skill that allows you to understand what others are feeling and respond appropriately. However, when used for persuasion, it also helps you tailor your persuasion methods to suit a particular situation or person.

Interpersonal skill

This is the ability to conduct positive interactions and maintain meaningful relationships with other people. If you are not comfortable with instigating conversations or engaging in workplace rapport, you may find persuasion a challenge. Part of being persuasive is being genuine, and at least a little charismatic. People are more likely to agree with someone they like, so improving your interpersonal relationship is one of the best ways to become more skilled in persuasion.

Listening 

The persuasive skill requires active listening. Listening well involves being attentive and respectful in your conversation with others. Before persuading someone, you will need to know and understand their concerns and arguments. Giving others a listening ear to speak and share their thoughts will make them feel valued and can contribute to building trust. It will also allow you to understand their motivations, which in turn will help you form more effective persuasive arguments.

Negotiation 

Negotiation is a crucial part of successful persuasion. In many cases, the person you are persuading will be unwilling to cooperate unless they believe they are benefitting. You may need to be able to facilitate a compromise to persuade them to participate. To do this, you will have to understand their needs, finds a way to meet those needs, and negotiate an arrangement that pleases both sides.

Logic and reasoning  

Finally, many effective persuasive arguments are built using logic and reasoning skills. Before you can persuade another person to believe in an idea or commit to action, they need to understand why doing so would be a logical choice. To show them this, you will need to reason with them using facts that support your view. A logical mindset and good reasoning skills will help you to form convincing persuasive arguments.   

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