Soft Skills: People Skills, Customer Service, and Communication Skills

When I think of soft skills, what comes to mind is people skills. To me people skills are customer service skills or communication skills. While reading this article it surprised me when I read that problem solving is a soft skill. Soft skills are important in the problem solving process for reasons such as brainstorming and swapping. Also, as our jobs become more service oriented than goods oriented, it is important to know how to satisfy our customers.
Unless you are a hermit, we deal with all kinds of people every day in life; whether we are the customer, client, or a co-worker. Not only do we interact with several people a day, we also come across several problems we have to solve a day, whether we solve them alone or with others. It is important to have good soft skills while making our decisions, especially if we are not alone in our problem solving process. Sitting at a table brainstorming over a new idea for our company, is not easy if you or someone on your brainstorming team hasn’t developed their communication skills. A person who is quite, or can’t express themselves, may have an excellent point, but if they can’t communicate it, the point will remain invisible. Another example of how soft skills are important is in swapping. If a brainstorming team is divided (like our government currently is) and a person hasn’t perfected their soft skills, they may go unheard. Some people have no problem talking, but instead of talking to other people, they talk at them. Most people will quit listening once they are being talked at and take on a defensive position.
Soft skills are also important when dealing with our customers and clients. As a Customer Service Manager, I deal with customers (both internal and external) all day. If I have an unhappy external customer I am called to wherever the customer may be in the store to help resolve the issue. Without soft skills, I may end up making the customer more upset than they initially were.