Soft Skills Training
Definition
Soft skills training teaches field technicians communication, empathy, and sales habits that drive customer satisfaction and revenue alongside technical ability.
What Soft Skills Training Means for Your Business
What it means
Soft skills are everything other than turning a wrench: how a tech introduces themselves, how they explain the problem, how they present options, how they handle objections, how they say goodbye.
Why it matters
Customers cannot judge whether the repair was technically correct, but they can judge whether they felt respected and informed. Soft skills drive review ratings, upsell rate, and repeat business. They are the highest-leverage training investment a shop can make.
How contractors use it
Shops run weekly or monthly sessions on specific skills, role play common situations, record real customer interactions (with consent), and coach to them. New hires get soft skills training during onboarding, not just technical.
Real-World Example
A plumbing company ran 12 weeks of soft skills training for 20 techs. Average ticket rose 16%, review rating climbed from 4.4 to 4.8, and the combined impact was roughly $680,000 in annual revenue.
Related Terms
Technical Certification
A technical certification is a formal credential that verifies a technician has mastered specific skills, equipment, or regulatory requirements in their trade.
Customer Service Representative (CSR)
A customer service representative, or CSR, is the office team member who answers incoming calls, books service appointments, and handles customer questions.
Upsell Rate
Upsell rate is the percentage of service calls on which a technician successfully sells additional work beyond the original reason for the visit.
Close Rate
Close rate is the percentage of presented estimates that result in a booked job or signed contract.
Review Velocity
Review velocity is the rate at which a business earns new online reviews, typically measured as reviews per week or per month.
Put This Into Practice with Free Software
Kaldr Tech handles soft skills training and everything else you need to run your shop. $0/month, 3.5% + 30¢ per transaction.