Odisha CHSE +2 Vocational IT/ITeS CRM Domestic Voice common mistakes
Odisha CHSE +2 Vocational IT/ITeS CRM Domestic Voice · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Writing a full scripted greeting as the answer to a question asking for the six elements of a standard inbound call opening, instead of listing stages such as greeting, company identification, self-introduction, offering help, verifying the customer, and closing the opening politely.
Candidates memorise one sample opening line from classroom practice and treat it as the whole answer, so they never learn the component structure that the marking scheme rewards.
What to do instead
Practise deconstructing three different openings (inbound sales, inbound service, outbound follow-up) into labelled parts, and answer structural questions with a numbered list of stage names plus one short example line each.
Confusing active listening with passive silence, so answers describe 'not interrupting' only and omit paraphrasing, reflecting feeling, asking clarifying questions, note-taking and confirming understanding.
Classroom drills emphasise 'let the customer finish', which leaves candidates with a single behavioural cue and no vocabulary for the other techniques.
What to do instead
Build a five-item checklist (attend, reflect content, reflect feeling, clarify, summarise) and rehearse one sentence of each technique against a recorded customer complaint, then quote the checklist in written answers.
Describing voice modulation as 'speaking loudly and clearly' without addressing pitch, pace, volume, tone, inflection and pause, and without linking each to a call situation such as an angry caller or a slow-speaking elderly customer.
Everyday usage of the word 'modulation' is vague, and candidates lack the phonetic vocabulary taught only briefly in the communication unit.
What to do instead
Learn the five parameters with one contrastive example each (for example, slowing pace and lowering volume for an irate caller), and practise a two-line sentence delivered five ways, naming the parameter changed.
Answering escalation questions with 'transfer to supervisor' as the whole procedure, omitting ownership statements, documentation in the CRM, agreed timelines, informing the customer of the escalation path, and follow-up closure.
Candidates reduce escalation to a single transfer action because they have seen it modelled as a button press in a mock dialer rather than as a documented process.
What to do instead
Memorise a five-step escalation ladder (acknowledge, attempt resolution within authority, log, escalate with summary, follow up and close) and write it out with the authority limits of an agent versus a team leader.
Treating CRM as a synonym for a customer database, so answers list fields and screens but not relationship functions such as interaction history, segmentation, complaint trend analysis, retention and cross-sell triggers.
Practical sessions focus on data entry into the software, so the conceptual purpose of CRM is never separated from the tool interface.
What to do instead
Study CRM under two headings, operational (contact and interaction records) and analytical (trends, segmentation, retention), and give one concrete use of each for a telecom or banking voice process.
Mixing up inbound and outbound performance metrics, for example quoting average handle time and first call resolution as the main targets for outbound telemarketing calls instead of connect rate, conversion rate, talk time per call and calls per hour.
Metric lists are memorised as one undifferentiated block without being attached to a call type or a business goal.
What to do instead
Make a two-column table of inbound versus outbound metrics with the formula and the reason each is tracked, and state one risk of over-optimising each metric, such as rushing customers to cut handle time.
Giving generic etiquette rules such as 'be polite and professional' instead of concrete telephone behaviours: answering within three rings, using hold with permission and a time check, avoiding speakerphone, ending with a summary and a thank-you, and never eating or chewing while on call.
Etiquette is perceived as common sense, so candidates do not prepare specific observable behaviours that examiners can award marks for.
What to do instead
Convert each etiquette principle into an observable behaviour with a standard phrase, and rehearse the hold, transfer and wrap-up sequences aloud until the phrases are automatic.
Describing difficult-customer handling as 'stay calm and be polite' without a staged method for acknowledging emotion, probing the real issue, setting expectations, offering options within policy and confirming agreement.
Candidates fear conflict and default to emotional reassurance, which sounds correct but earns no procedural marks.
What to do instead
Learn one named framework (for example LAST: listen, apologise and acknowledge, solve, thank) and apply it in writing to three scenarios: a billing dispute, a repeat caller and a verbally abusive caller, stating when to warn and disconnect.
Answering workplace safety, health and hygiene questions only about fire exits, while omitting voice-sector specifics such as headset hygiene, ergonomic seating and posture, eye breaks at the screen, noise levels, shift and break scheduling, and reporting repetitive strain or hearing discomfort.
The unit is taught with a general factory-safety slant, and the voice-specific hazards of a long shift at a workstation are not connected to the syllabus.
What to do instead
Prepare a workstation checklist covering chair height, monitor distance, headset sharing and cleaning, stretch and eye breaks, and hydration, and link each item to a named hazard it prevents.
Writing entrepreneurship and green IT answers as slogans such as 'save the environment' and 'be an entrepreneur', with no business model, no funding or registration step, and no measurable green practice like double-sided printing, screen-off policy or server virtualisation.
These topics sit at the end of the syllabus, are often skipped for time, and candidates rely on general knowledge rather than the unit content.
What to do instead
Prepare one short BPO or voice-based venture outline (service offered, customer segment, staffing, registration and finance sources) and a list of five green IT practices with the cost or carbon saving each delivers.