Believe it or not, most people have an incredible memory, they just don't know how to use it. Other than repeating something multiple times, most of us have never been taught memory techniques that really tap into the power of the human brain.

By completing Skillsoft’s course on Improving your Memory Skills, you'll learn basic memory principles and learn how to use them to memorize and recall almost anything, including speeches, passwords, faces, and lists.

As someone who is terrible at remembering a person’s name right after I have met them, I thought this would be an ideal course to gain some tips on how I might better remember a potential customers name that I want to work with, I believe it will definitely help.

This course is ideal for anyone and everyone looking to improve their memory and recall and covers some key objectives on improving your memory skills. Taking just over 20 minutes, this course can really save you a lot of time trying to remember some simple things in life.

Repetition - Easy really, repeat something over and over again or just the next day, the following week and then month.

Exaggeration – I liked this one, by exaggerating the story either by making it bigger, smaller or even funny -  it really does help to remember it.

Imagery – If you associate an image you want to remember, it forces you to focus.

Focus – basically no multi-tasking. By concentrating on what you are doing or wanting to remember you will have a better chance to memorizing it.

Basically, a brain shortcut to help you remember something.  Quite an old technique, but one that’s still around as it obviously works.

Identify the steps of the memory palace technique

Memorizing lists by using places that you are very familiar with.  Improving your memory skills will show some great examples of using rooms around your house to help you remember things on your “to do” list.

Some very simple but fantastic tips to avoid those awkward situations when you forget a person’s name.  After watching this part of the course, I think I will forever remember ‘Bendy Wendy’.

Recognize tips for memorizing text that you’ll later need to recite from memory

From saying it out loud, reading it backwards or making mistakes, the key thing is repetition.  But repetition is time and something we all lack.  This section of the course really helps improve how you remember text you will need to recite later.

Create strong passwords that are easy to remember

After watching this, I don’t think I will need to write down my passwords anymore and I may even be able to produce stronger passwords also.

In conclusion, if you're looking for methods and techniques to improve your memory, as someone with a self-proclaimed terrible memory, I can highly recommend Skillsoft’s Improving Your Memory Skills course as a great course to help any person improve their memory skills.

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In today’s fast-paced business environments, creativity is critical for success. It’s important for teams to know how to brainstorm and build on creative ideas, to stay innovative and ahead of the competition.

Even though creativity is something that can’t really be taught, it can be facilitated and fostered.

In any role, or industry, employees need to know how to generate, incubate and verify the workability of ideas before implementation. This is a really important process – because after all, failed ideas waste money, time and resources.

Why not take a look at this short online course, specifically designed to help you improve your creative process?

Verifying and Building on Creative Ideas – an online course

The Verifying and Building on Creative Ideas course covers a variety of techniques used to verify and build on creative ideas.

The course gives a really clear explanation of the five-stage creative process model:

You’ll be presented with case study scenarios of employees going through the process, all the way from research to implementation. Throughout the course, you’ll see how important the steps of generation and incubation are to the creative process.

You’ll learn when to use research and when to use simulations to check the workability of an idea. Because while the early stages of brainstorming are generally free from rationale and critique, all creative ideas need to be put into practice, to make sure they'll actually work.

This eLearning course will provide you with helpful tips for checking whether your creative ideas are realistic from an organisational viewpoint. This is about verifying your ideas and testing out the idea for workability, through feedback from others or by key people and using simulations.

While either method may work, one method is usually preferred, depending on the situation. Course participants will be given a handy online table, with specific criteria you can use to help you decide which method is most appropriate to your situation.

Giving you confidence to generate and build on creative ideas

Upon completion of this online course, employees will feel far more confident in using the five-stage creative process model.

Recognise each stage of the creative process

Understand the purpose and activities of the verifying stage

Identify criteria for adopting both canvassing and simulation methods

Come up with criteria-based questions to evaluate the effectiveness of a creative idea, before implementation.

Putting in the time to understand creative process will help individual staff members, teams, and your organisation as a whole, through greater innovation and creativity.

As the course narrator says, “if you want to boost your creativity and come up with innovative strategies, following the creative process model might be the answer!”


Get the Verifying and Building on Creative Ideas course with Go1 Premium

Helping your team to generate and build on creative ideas

Did you know that only 13 percent of customers think a salesperson truly understands their needs?

While a lot of companies believe they’ve got decent sales call process, in reality, customers clearly disagree. Here at Go1, we think we know why this is – most sales people talk too much.

Of course, selling techniques take a lot of persuading and convincing customers that they can benefit from a product or service, but there’s one problem that we see a lot: sales staff are simply not listening to their potential new customers.

This would definitely explain why customers think that nobody understands their needs and obviously this translates into lower sales for your business.

It’s true that sales calls aren’t necessarily easy. In fact, lots of employees are super nervous when they first start out  and don’t know what they’re doing. You really do have to develop the skills and a good technique for a quality sales conversation.

So, how can you help your employees learn how to make successful sales calls? Well, the best way is through providing sales call training.

This is definitely an investment that will see a return for your business since quality sales conversation turns into more business, which leads to bigger profits and more customers. All of this equals success!

A lot of businesses think that the era of sales calls is over. But, this couldn’t be further from the truth. While the rise of technology has meant that sales techniques have changed, there’s still a lot of success that comes with making sales calls to new and existing customers.

In fact, we found out that only 24 percent of people actually open sales emails. On the other hand, sales calls are more personal and interactive – and get better metrics overall. They allow you to really engage with a customer and it offers that human element that shows your business is real.

This is important to customers – they want to be offered more than just a quick sale. They want a positive experience and to build trust with you.

Of course, we all know that sales calls are only effective and productive for your business if they are done successfully. That’s why it’s important to provide your employees with the training they need to feel confident and know how to interact with customers over the phone.

At the end of the day, you don’t want to be too corporate. You need to keep customers engaged and interested in what you’re offering them.

You’ve got to stand out from the crowd and not be like all the other sales calls they receive. You want to build rapport by listening to them and offer them something of value based on what they talk to you about.

This is where our Go1 Premium e-learning course comes in. This is the best way to get your employees up to speed and increase your customer satisfaction and business profits through training.

The Sales Call Flow course is exclusively offered to Go1 Premium customers and its engaging material will make sure that your employees are well versed on how to handle sales calls and secure business for your company.

Your employees will learn all about the eight steps they need to ace their sales calls and the course explains how quality conversation is what the sales call flow is based on.

From learning about how to greet and open a sales call to how to end the conversation and secure the sale, your employees will know how to connect with your customers and secure profits for your business.

This e-learning course is just what you need to get started on sales call training and the content takes around 15 to 20 minutes to complete. In addition, there is a short assessment at the end that lets you test your employee’s knowledge and see how much they’ve learned from the course.

It’s important to remember that practice makes perfect. By providing your employees with training on how they can conduct their sales calls, you can make sure that the needs of your customers are being met.

It’s all about a quality conversation, which involves talking and listening.

With Go1 Premium, you can meet all of your training and compliance needs right in one place. You can gain access to thousands of courses, including the Sales Call Flow course and make sure that your employees can grow and learn with your company.

In addition, we offer an advanced reporting and tracking system, which lets you keep an eye on everyone’s progress. You can see how employees are performing on their training and make sure everyone is up to a standard you are happy with. With a 24 hour support team, help is always on hand when you need it.

Now is the time to focus on your sales call training and make sure that your business offers excellent customer services and generates new leads all year round. Don’t start tomorrow – start today!


Get the Sales Call Flow course with Go1 Premium

How to improve your sales call flow with quality conversations

Are you monitoring employee performance and professional development in your team?

Keeping a close eye on the performance and progress of your team members is as much for their benefit as it is for yours. Because when we talk about monitoring performance, we're not talking about micromanaging people, or watching each individual staff member like a hawk – it’s about taking the time to help employees develop.

Many employees become unhappy in their jobs after some time, especially if they no longer find their work exciting or challenging. Professional development is the best way to help staff feel continually challenged, rewarded and energised by their work.

How Professional Development Programs Help Staff

If you’re an employer or manager, you should be taking the time to sit down with each team member, to devise a personalised action plan that will help them plan for their career.

Having a professional development program in place will help employees identify the skills they want to refresh or develop. These can be role-specific skills, for example graphic design, or skills that are focused more on personal development, such as becoming more resilient to change, responding well to feedback or dealing with challenging situations or people.

This also helps staff to identify goals, while coming up with realistic pathways, strategies and timeframes to achieve those goals.

Outside of the office or away from the job site, learning also helps to keep our minds sharp and active, providing further long-term benefits for your personal life and wellbeing.

How Professional Develop Programs Help Organisations

As well as helping staff to take charge and direction of their career, there are obvious benefits for your organisation.

When you invest time and energy into your employees, they’re far more likely to be productive and high performing. This certainly makes for a better workplace culture, which in turn has a positive impact on your company’s reputation, results, and profits.

Fast-paced advancements in technology mean learning and development tools are always changing, offering us more options and more solutions all the time. But you can rest assured that your business won’t be left behind, as your employees will have the skill sets to keep up-to-date with industry advancements.

Professional development also assists knowledge sharing, as managers reclaim more of a mentoring role, passing on skills and knowledge to their teams, and in turn, the greater organization.

Monitoring Employee Performance through Training

So you’ve invested in professional development for your staff, through increased employee training. How do you know if you’re getting a good return on this investment?

That’s where performance monitoring comes in – you need to think about how you’re going to track employee performance.

Consider how you can measure improvements in staff skill levels. Technical skills can often be measured quite easily, in tangible figures and numbers. Productivity itself is a very good indicator of the success of your company’s training methods, allowing you to see if your training program has been effective.

In this way, professional development programs should aim to improve staff competencies and increase productivity, while helping employees set goals for their career.

You also want corporate training programs to help bridge any skills gap present in your organisation, helping to improve the gap between the skills your business wants and needs, and the skills your employees currently have.

Learn More About Monitoring Employee Professional Development

Need a little more help getting started with employee professional development programs?

The Monitoring Performance and Professional Development course looks at the process of assessing and improving work quality, through the creation of employee development programs.

This online course will help employers and managers understand the importance of planning professional development. You’ll learn how to analyse each team member’s past performance, to identify strengths and challenges before setting goals and plans for personal improvement.

You might also like to check out our tips for creating effective professional development programs. This article is full of helpful advice, to help make your learning and development programs even more effective for your staff.


Kickstart your Professional Development program with Go1 Premium

Why you need to be monitoring employee professional development

It’s nice to have the most up-to-date tech gear, a fancy coffee machine, and a cool open-plan office. However, if your business doesn’t deliver high-quality customer service consistently, it’s almost impossible to stay ahead of the competition. 

Think of your business like a pyramid. Without a solid, dependable foundation — in this case, excellent customer service — the rest of the bricks will inevitably crumble. Only once that is reliably in place can you move on to flashier things, like the most up-to-date gadgets. 

As such, providing consistently excellent customer service is non-negotiable. And one of the most important aspects of good customer service is knowing how to build rapport with your customers. 

Rapport is that feeling when two or more people are on the same wavelength. Sometimes, it can be hard to quantify, but you always know it when you feel it. When you’re building a rapport with customers, you feel ‘in sync’ with each other and are likely to have a good understanding of where the other person is coming from.

When people have a solid rapport, communication and ideas flow easily, leading to high-quality customer service. You might even feel like you’re two steps ahead of your customers, predicting their needs before they even know them! 

With this in mind, we’ll take you through how to establish your foundation by building rapport with customers to improve your team's customer service. We’ll start by analysing the benefits of building rapport with customers, before outlining practical tips for building rapport with customers, and finally detailing online customer service training courses to help you get started. 

The benefits of building rapport with customers

The benefits of building a strong rapport with customers are manifold. Think back to a time when you had a strong rapport with someone else. It could have been a teacher, a manager, or your best friend. How did that feel? In all likelihood, you felt heard, trusted, and like your needs were being met. Customer service is no different. For starters, by developing a good rapport with your customers, they’re more likely to:

Feel confident in your abilities and product knowledge

According to professional speaker and consultant Michele Payn-Knoper, building rapport with customers is critical to show them “you're sincerely interested in a mutually beneficial relationship, critical to selling solutions.”

Or, as ZenDesk explains, “developing rapport with clients can go a long way toward building customer trust and improving satisfaction rates. But you have to show genuine interest in your buyers. Otherwise, your attempts might come off as insincere. And with 90 percent of consumers saying authenticity determines who they buy from, insincerity is a big no-no.” 

In other words, by putting in the effort to build rapport, you’re showing customers that you’re interested in finding the best solution for them and meeting their individual needs. Not only that, but you’re also showing that their needs sincerely matter to you, thereby building trust. 

And this is only the tip of the iceberg, with research showing how critical building rapport can be. For example, Salesforce finds that 80% of customers believe the experience a company provides is as important as their product or service. Unsurprisingly, this means that 90% of consumers believe that customer service is either somewhat or very important when choosing a company to purchase from. 

Additionally, 67% of customers would be willing to pay more to receive a great customer service experience, while 73% of customers will remain loyal to a company with friendly customer service reps. 

Ultimately, these statistics mean that building rapport can benefit your bottom line. In fact, 84% of businesses that prioritise improving the customer experience enjoyed increased profits. 

So, what happens when your customer service isn’t up to standard? Globally, companies lose $1.6 trillion per year due to poor customer service. That’s right, trillion. With a T. 

Further, 62% of customers say they share their bad experiences with others, while angry customers share their bad experiences with 15 people on average. Given this, you're not just losing their business by failing to build rapport, but potentially losing many other people’s business too. 

Finally, 78% of customers have backed out of a purchase due to poor customer service. The bottom line? It’s worth taking the time to build rapport with your customers. Failing to do so could cost you significantly in the long run. 

There’s an old saying that customers first buy into the person and then into the product. That is, they need to feel like they can trust you and like you if they’re going to build a good rapport with you. So, how do you make sure that you’re able to build rapport with each customer?

At its core, rapport is all about establishing a mutual feeling of friendliness and trust. One of the best ways to do this is to highlight things you have in common. Pay close attention to how each customer prefers to communicate and do business. Do they prefer a quick phone call to an email? Would they appreciate a casual, friendly approach or respond better to a more formal communication style?

Some people like to chat before getting down to business, while others respond negatively to any attempts at small talk. Good customer service or sales reps will know how to adapt to different customers to develop a unique and positive business relationship with each individual.

Most importantly, make sure you’re always practising active listening with customers. You need to focus 100% on what they’re saying to be able to meet their needs, wants, and preferences. Active listening is also a sign of respect, meaning customers will feel far more comfortable with you than with other customer service professionals.

Other tips for building rapport with customers include:

Learn their name and make sure you’re pronouncing it correctly — while this may sound basic, nothing breaks rapport quite like someone calling you Julia when your name is actually Julie. 

Be mindful of your customer’s preferred pronouns.

Don’t be afraid to go ‘off-script’ when appropriate.

Restate their problem in your own words to show that you’re listening. 

Establish trust by mirroring the customer. As ZenDesk explains, “sales teams use mirroring—the act of imitating the actions or words of others—to build affinity with prospects. Your support team can leverage this same tactic to develop rapport with consumers. By mirroring a customer’s tone, language, or volume level (within reason), agents can communicate they’re on the same page with them.” 

Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you don’t know the answer to something. 

Try to find common ground and look for relatable, shared experiences. 

Aim for a personalised outcome, not a generic solution. 

Above all, the most vital factor in building rapport is to deliver what you promise. Always. While this should go without saying, customer service people often promise you the world but fail to deliver. Therefore, delivering exactly what you say —  every time —  is the most simple and effective way to create trust and build rapport with your customers. 

If you say you’ll give someone a call, send a follow-up email, or send them a sample product, make sure you do. It’s as simple as that! Not keeping your promises or falling back on your word will quickly undo all your hard work and break your customer’s trust. 

Ready to improve the way you build rapport with customers?

Online learning is a fantastic way to improve your customer service skills, as you can learn aspects of customer service training through short, engaging eLearning courses.

For example, with the Building Rapport: Building Positive Relationships course, you'll learn all about developing rapport with your customers, as well as the four different relationship styles and how to manage them.

Or, you could check out these courses on How to Build Rapport and Building Rapport in Customer Service. 

Remember: taking an online course in customer service isn’t just beneficial for people working in a customer-facing role. Improving your customer service skills will help your professional development — no matter your job. Building rapport is a highly transferable skill whether you’re looking to impress a first date, ace a job interview, or simply build rapport with your boss and teammates.

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

One of the most important aspects of good customer service is building rapport with customers. Here we take a look at essential strategies for doing so.

Building rapport with customers through customer service

One of the most important aspects of good customer service is building rapport with customers. So, we'll take a look at essential strategies for building rapport. 

Using positive feedback to fix a problem.

Employee performance feedback - Who wants it?

Let’s face it: Giving your staff negative feedback sucks for you and your employee. You can bet your employees don’t like being told what they’re doing wrong.  So do you sit back and tolerate poor performance or do you bite the bullet and give negative feedback? The thing is, when your employees do something wrong it’s your job as a boss to fix it. So what if there’s a better way?

It’s a small issue, I’ll wait to see if it becomes something worth fixing,

I don’t want to seem petty and risk my staff hating me,

I don’t have the time this. I’ll save it for the performance review, and

Carol always get’s defensive and has an excuse for everything.

Start With Awareness of Where Your Excuses are Self-Limiting Beliefs:

Bad performance affects everyone on your team,

Your inaction sends the message that you condone this behaviour

When employees don’t perform you have to work extra hard as a boss.

Realise the Cause of Your Self Limiting Beliefs

“Good morning Carol. I like seeing you at the desk when I arrive because I know there is someone here to greet our customers.”

“Good morning Carol, I’m glad to see you on the desk. When you’re there I know that everyone else can get on with their jobs without having to worry about covering reception. I appreciate that. Can you please keep that up?”

“Good morning Carol. I’m glad to see you here before start time – now I know I don’t have to worry about covering reception. Can you please continue with that?”

There’s no unpleasantness, confrontations, disagreements or delays and

Take the Positive Performance Feedback Challenge:

Think of the things that your employees are doing wrong. Can you find 5 examples to write down? (This is the easy part!)

For each of these: write down:

 	How much time this costs you and the company
 	How much money this costs in terms of lost sales, extra costs etc.
 	How this makes you feel



These are the problems that you have to fix and how much they are worth to you in terms of time, money and your personal wellbeing.

Use positive feedback to change these behaviours

How much time this costs you and the company

How much money this costs in terms of lost sales, extra costs etc.

Management Skills Tip: When you’re practicing your employee performance feedback, a safe place to practice is in your one on one meetings with employees. My tip is to download this one on one meeting form, where you can make a note of the employee feedback that you want to give and practice it before the meeting.

This isn’t just feedback, this is Effective Feedback which uses specific motivational words tested to be effective. Effective Feedback is a Communication Skill. You can’t increase your IQ but you can increase your EQ (Emotional Intelligence) by improving your communication skills.

Improve your management skills with the online management course “The Power of Positive Communication”. This shows you how to improve employee performance quickly and effectively and without confrontation. Improving your management skills will not only accelerate your own promotions, bonuses and increase but also give you the confidence that you can deal with any employee problem.

Get The Power of Communication in Go1 Premium

For lawyers and legal professionals, the CPD deadline is fast approaching. Have you made sure you’re meeting your legal CPD requirements?

CPD, or Continuing Professional Development, is an important aspect of working in the legal industry. Developing your skills, and keeping your knowledge relevant and up-to-date, is vital for your clients, as well as your career.

For lawyers, this means making a commitment to continual learning and development within their field.

As you’re most likely aware, the legal CPD year runs from 1 April to 31 March. So now is the time to check that you’ve completed your 10 required units this year!

We’ve put together some information to help you understand more about legal CPD and how Go1 can help you meet your learning requirements.

CPD is compulsory for all employees of legal and professional service firms in Australia.

Regardless of whether you’re just starting out in the industry or are an established partner or owner of a firm, all members must complete the mandatory minimum of CPD hours. This also applies to individuals working on a part-time basis.

By meeting your CPD requirements, you’re showing your clients, employer and colleagues that you’re committed to continual professional development. You’ll be proving that you’re up-to-date with legislative changes and practices within the industry, which is essential to your career.

There are multiple ways you can meet your CPD requirements.

The rules around continuing professional development vary from state to state in Australia, so we do advise you to check the detailed rules for your state or territory.

However, all jurisdictions have in common that 10 units per year is the minimum compulsory requirement, with additional units required in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland for Accredited Specialists.

In general, a unit will generally equate to one hour of live or on-demand activity, in the way of seminars, conferences, webinars, webcasts, or podcasts.

Within your ten units at least one unit from each of the following compulsory fields must be included:

These days, we’re lucky to have the convenience of online learning, which offers legal professionals a far more convenient way to carry out their mandatory CPD training.

With the right eLearning courses, lawyers and legal professionals can achieve their Australian CPD requirements, while also keeping up-to-date with the latest legal updates and market shifts.

To show you what’s out there in the way of online learning, we’ve compiled 5 of the best CPD eLearning courses for the legal industry – take a look and see!

There’s no need to worry about these online courses containing old or outdated information. One of the best things about eLearning courses is that they are easy to edit and refresh – so you’ll always be getting only the most factual and up-to-date information.

Why Choose Go1 for Your Legal CPD Training?

Go1 has your CPD needs covered, with a diverse range of continued learning education and development options at affordable prices.

With our online training platform, you can reduce the hassles associated with finding and registering for 10 CPD units before 31 March.

Through online courses supplied by our trusted providers, you can quickly and easily find and book the units that best suit your requirements. Our providers offer a variety of new activities and areas of law, plus the conferences and seminars you’ve come to expect.

The units are developed and produced by legal education experts, providing you with extensive education and insights into the future of the legal profession.

Go1’s range of CPD options provides you with a simple, one-stop shop, for all your CPD requirements. Take a look through the units available and register today to complete your remaining legal CPD requirements.


Are you meeting your legal CPD requirements?

Today, Friday 16 March, Australian schools will stand united to celebrate the eighth National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence.

While the day aims to address bullying in Australian schools, it’s also a good reminder of the importance of preventing bullying and harassment in the workplace.

Bullying and harassment in the workplace is a serious issue for many Australian workers.

The Impact of Bullying and Harassment at Work

it involves a misuse of power in a relationship

it involves behaviours that can cause harm.

When an employee is suffering bullying or harassment, they are very likely to start displaying unhappy, unmotivated, distracted and unproductive behaviour. Employers can then expect to see a rise in levels of absenteeism, sick leave and staff turnover for their company.

In this way, when bullying becomes a problem in the workplace, it doesn’t just affect the person or people being harassed and targeted. It can very quickly become a problem for the whole company, with poor performance rates, reduced productivity, and low morale across the organisation.

It’s really important that you have a very clear idea of what behaviour is unacceptable in the workplace, to help prevent bullying from occurring.

People who bully or harass others can be very good at using non-verbal tactics or subtle humiliation, instead of direct threats. They often know just how far to push their behaviour, without crossing the line into physical violence or sexual harassment.

Bullying may take the form of continual snide comments about a colleague, putting someone down whenever they pitch ideas to the team, or outright hostility towards another team member. Bullies might also make a point of excluding certain people from team conversations, meetings or project work.

However, whatever form it takes, bullying is a type of abuse – a way of intimidating and dominating others, through physical, emotional or psychological control. And all forms are unacceptable. Turning a blind eye or overlooking bad behaviour is sending a message that it’s accepted or tolerated in the work environment.

As a team leader, manager or employer, you can (and should!) play a strong role in preventing and addressing workplace bullying.

Develop and implement a strong bullying and harassment policy, to show your commitment to providing a safe and productive environment for your employees, while promoting a positive work culture for all. This policy will also ensure your organisation is compliant in this area.

For staff, your anti-bullying policy will help them to accurately recognise and define unacceptable behaviour in the workplace, while guiding them to the appropriate resources and contacts for assistance.

You can also use online training courses to make sure all employees are well-informed of the organisation’s stance and policies on bullying, and know exactly where to go for information and who to contact in the event of bullying or harassment.

Ready to start educating your employees and managers on what is (and what isn’t) bullying, while creating a safer, more inclusive workplace?

Sign up to Go1 Premium today to access bullying and harassment prevention training, plus access to an extra 600+ off-the-shelf courses.

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