• Good Soft Skills Training Improves Results for Trade School Teachers

    Dec. 16, 2009
    Experts say soft skills are vital to the success of a technician's business but many trade schools do not teach this topic. Customer service expert Steve Coscia will be teaching the teachers about soft skills at the 2010 HVAC Excellence conference, March 14 - 15, 2010, at the Tropicana Hotel, Las Vegas.

    Experts say soft skills are vital to the success of a technician's business but many trade schools do not teach this topic. Customer service expert Steve Coscia will be teaching the teachers about soft skills at the 2010 HVAC Excellence conference, March 14 - 15, 2010, at the Tropicana Hotel, Las Vegas.

    Soft skill's or emotional intelligence, include listening skills, interpersonal abilities and etiquette that can make or break a technician's business. Soft skills are the key component of a good experience and are what customers are most likely to remember. These skills improve customer service, which can create more opportunities for technicians.

    “Good trade school teachers thirst for ways to improve their classroom performance and provide superior content for their students,” says Coscia. “My presentation provides a clear, easy-to-follow approach the makes teachers more effective in the classroom when they teach soft skills."

    HVAC Excellence has decided to include soft skills in their 2010 conference. Coscia's soft skills seminar is entitled Being Effective & Having Fun in the Classroom. HVAC Excellence is a not-for-profit organization that has been serving the HVACR industry since 1994.

    Coscia says students will learn how to:

    • Improve Information retention.By approaching the curriculum differently, using a fun approach with participation, teachers can improve their effectiveness almost immediately.

    • Remove boredom. If you’re bored, you don’t learn. By using specifically designed interactive exercises, this approach removes the blank stares from students' faces.

    • Adjusting your teaching style. People learn differently using visual, auditory or kinesthetic styles. Coscia offers a regimen for teaching that appeals to the student's personal preference.

    “Teachers teaching soft skills make a real difference," Coscia says. All of these soft skills really matter to a customer, and when a technician violates one of them, the technical skills no longer matter."

    A 20-year veteran of customer service management, Coscia is the author of a customer service curriculum and textbook which colleges use in the classroom nationwide. For a free copy of his 60-page eBook, Service Excellence: Lessons from the Field, contact Steve at 610-853-9836, [email protected] or visit www.coscia.com.