Soft Skill Activities for a Service Deskby Colleen Reinhart, Demand Media

Practice active listening to be better at the service desk.

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According to "Forbes" writer Dan Schawbel, hard skills alone don't produce success in the new economy. Many jobs demand the flexibility that comes with soft skills, including service desk positions. Whether you man the IT help desk or you're fielding customer complaints, you need communication, teamwork and listening abilities to make it through the day. If service isn't your team's strong suit, focusing on soft skill development can take your business to the next level.

Active ListeningIt's easy to get frustrated with someone who's complaining, but active listening can go a long way in finding and fixing the root of a problem. Next time someone comes to you with an issue, try repeating back what was said to you, in your own words. For example, if your customer says, "I brought my computer to you for a virus removal, and now it's so slow that I can't get any work done," you might say back, "I'm sorry to hear that the virus is still getting in the way of your work." You'll find that a little sympathy helps soothe

disgruntled clients, and repetition keeps you calm and focused on the issue at hand. You can even practice this technique with co-workers during off hours.

Straightforward CommunicationService desk clients sometimes get frustrated because they don't understand what they're being told. Eliminate confusion from your end by avoiding jargon and delivering complete information. If you work in IT, brainstorm analogies you can use to explain complex technical terms. For example, an IP address could be likened to a phone number. Try an exercise that uses words to get another person to see the full picture -- literally. Draw a house on a piece of paper. Next, give a teammate a piece of paper and sit back-to-back, so he can't see your drawing or facial expressions. Describe your drawing with the goal of helping your coworker recreate it as accurately as possible.

Related Reading: An Employee Self-Evaluation for Help Desk Employees

Be a LeaderSometimes, service desk work calls for assertiveness and decisiveness. There may be more than one solution to a customer problem, and your job is to make recommendations, take action and explain your choices. Leadership comes with practice, so help everyone develop this skill by encouraging people to take turns at the reins. Have lunch-and-learns, where everyone on the team has a chance to present about lessons learned on the job. Meet and discuss difficult issues that came up at the service desk. When people share their approaches, everyone will have the knowledge needed to deal with problems confidently.

Work as a TeamYour service desk will be more effective if people can count on each other for support when they get saddled with difficult problems. To improve peoples' abilities to work together, do regular team-building exercises. Mind Tools, a website devoted to career skill development, says that team-building activities should be designed with a goal in mind. For example, if you want to improve on employees' ability to think together, try a survival scenario exercise, where the group needs to decide collectively what 12 items to take to a desert island. If you want to build trust, have two people at a time work through an obstacle course, where one person guides a blindfolded coworker with verbal directions.

References (4) About the AuthorA professional writer since 2006, Colleen Reinhart has held positions in technical writing and marketing. She also writes lifestyle, health and business articles. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Business degree from the University of Waterloo, and a Master's degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Toronto.

Photo Credits lovely help desk lady 5 image by Paul Moore from Fotolia.com