There are training sessions you forget the moment you walk out the door, and others that leave a mark. The market is full of the first kind.

The one we do with Impulso Coach is the second: for more than ten years we've been training with Juan Carlos Fontcuberta, and every time we come away with something new to put into practice in what, for a contact center, is everything: the way we listen and the way we help.

In a contact center, listening is the product

At Teléfono Permanente, for more than 40 years we've been answering calls, from Barcelona for more than 400 clients, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in several languages: Spanish, Catalan and English.

In all that time we've learned a few things that sometimes seem obvious and aren't. The person calling wants to be spoken to well and to be understood.

That's why, for us, active listening isn't a soft add-on, it's the raw material.

At any hour of the day or night, handling a call well comes down to truly listening to what the other person needs, often before they can put it into words.

Active listening: stay quiet, don't interrupt, ask

Resisting the urge to reply is the hardest part of listening, and that can be trained too:

Think about how it feels when we're the ones calling: knowing that, on the other end, someone is really there.

Above or below the line

There's an idea Juan Carlos repeats in every session that has stuck with us: the line.

At any given moment we're either above it or below it.

Above, with attitude, ownership, enthusiasm and our eyes on the solution.

Below, in complaints, excuses and "it's not my fault."

In customer service, that line shows instantly. A team that works above it conveys calm and resolves; a team that works below it spreads tension.


It comes down to something simple: it's action, not ideas, that produces results.

However good your notes are, what counts is what you do with them every day.

Writing things down means little if nothing changes on the phones come Monday.

And attitude, unlike technique, is something we choose every morning.

Continuous improvement

These ten-plus years with Impulso Coach have left us much more than notes. Thank you, Juan Carlos.

And all of this, in the end, for one very concrete reason: so that whoever calls feels, at any hour, that there's someone on the other end who truly listens. That's what we look after every day in our 24/7 customer service.

And thank you to the Teléfono Permanente team that, every day, makes all of this make sense.