“Personal effectiveness is the core of our business.”
- Sheila Viesca, TalkShop

Monday, December 19, 2011

TalkShop Training by Design

TalkShop training by design is an assurance of quality and value. It pays to compare corporate packages of training providers. A good number will simply run workshops, and follow through some time for the next run. The one focused on excellence offers a partnership – working closely with clients to determine special needs and particular considerations – through diagnostic runs, individual assessments, customized designs, and performance monitoring.

Sheila Viesca, TalkShop CEO explains, “We are here for the long haul. Our Total Training System (TTS) has enabled us to fortify relations with client partners who see the value we offer. It is a holistic training package that we offer at many levels – from Consultative Selling, English Communication, Personality Development, Negotiation Skills, Speech and Presentation, Assertiveness and Leadership Programs, among others.

For Viesca, the operative word is service. “With our partners, it cannot be touch and go. We invest time and effort to ensure we exceed our partners’ expectations. So far, it has been most encouraging, with partners who tap us on sustained basis. With TalkShop’s Total Training System, a company can have their teams evaluated with regard thinking style, communication proficiency, leadership sense, customer service, motivation and behavioral issues, among others. Evaluation is the important first step to delivering a meaningful program that will benefit the participants, in particular, and the company, in general,” she adds.
Viesca, who is also a faculty member of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), runs the workshops. She brings with her many years of experience from special training from Canada, to the expertise borne from many years as corporate trainer.

For more information to empower your corporate team, call 894-5588 or visit www.talkshop.ph.

TalkShop Mounts Public Seminars

TalkShop, a leading corporate training provider announces its schedule of public seminars to be held at the Tower Club, 33rd floor of Philamlife Bldg. along Paseo de Roxas, Makati City. “We begin the new year on a high note, targeting front liners tasked with the all-important role of meeting targets, engaging customers, and imparting the desired corporate branding,” said Sheila Viesca, TalkShop CEO. TalkShop holds Communication for Sales Executives on January 14, Technical Writing & Grammar Mastery on January 28, and Etiquette for Professionals on February 11, 2012, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“The workshops are designed for participants to meet the target performance level of their organization that demands only the best from their teams. Such top-performing companies give important regard to the benefits of training in empowering people,” Viesca informs. “Communication for Sales Executives will focus on effective selling and closing, corporate protocol and branding. It educates the participants in the sales process, bringing to the fore the need to be proactive, use creative thinking, assertiveness and negotiation skills, and best practices in relationship selling. Technical Writing & Grammar Mastery will aid writers in honing their craft in persuading, influencing, and conveying particular information. Etiquette for Professionals will add the polish that is needed for image enhancement and professional advancement. The program includes Conversation Expertise, Phone Etiquette, Social Graces, Charm Training, Manners in Daily Situations, Makeover, among others.

The workshop fee includes lunch, coffee, snacks, training kit, and certificate of attendance. Registration ends a week before workshop dates. For reservations and group discount, call 894-5588 or log on to www.talkshop.ph.

How to Learn English

If you are considering how to learn English casually, think again. While reading and learning English online can help, a well-planned curriculum and classroom interaction are critical. You need to choose a reputable school.

Learning English in the Philippines is becoming more and more popular for non-native English speakers all over the world because Filipinos are renowned for their facility with the language. For ESL learners looking for “English for Kids” “How to Learn English Conversation”, and other “How to Learn English Grammar” courses, TalkShop is the school for you.

TalkShop has been in the business of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). For years now, it has been the choice of top Japanese firms that has been regularly sending their key executives and technical people to learn and improve in Business English and Management Communication. They choose to be trained by the best ensure the best performance from their teams.

“We are adept at training non-native speakers of English to not only polish their communication skills but also to become globally competitive. Adopting Integrated Language Teaching (ILT), our main objective is to develop all communication skills, reading, writing, listening, and speaking for a cohesive approach,” says Sheila Viesca, TalkShop CEO. Viesca pioneered the ILT approach in the Philippines in 2002 after undergoing special training in Canada. “Beginners who struggle with English are overjoyed at how they are able to cope in meaningful ways with the use of the language in everyday life - from ordering lunch, buying from a store, answering the phone, ordering for home delivery, writing their email, coordinating with foreign clients, and accomplishing business transactions. We get raving commendations especially from family and friends who find their colleague’s progress in language acquisition remarkable,” Viesca adds.

TalkShop, as a learning facility, specializes in corporate training programs. Companies find a trusted partner in TalkShop for communication skills, sales management with leadership training, and values reinforcement that are aligned with the organization’s mission, vision, and corporate values. TalkShop enjoys long-standing relationships with clients who prefer its tailor-fitted, values-laden programs that come with assessment aids depending on the target competencies and program designs.

Professionals, educators, students, and children find TalkShop’s communication excellence programs especially rewarding for their personal development. Courses combining grammar mastery, personality dynamics, social graces, and assertiveness training results in a polished performance that empowers the entire team.

TalkShop is affiliated with U.S.-based International English Education Research Association (IEERA). Come for a free evaluation. Call (632) 894-5588 for reservations or visit www.talkshop.ph for more information.

How to Teach English

Teaching English is not just for full-fledged professors. Many professionals discover that it is an alternative, rewarding path, possibly more fulfilling than one’s chosen field. But does teaching of English require advanced certification?

If you wish to teach English without taking an Education course, certification programs in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) are your best options. A good TESL/TEFL school is your best bet.

Where does one enroll in a good TESL, TEFL course that will reinforce teaching the English language fortified with actual practice? TalkShop offers these teaching certificate courses using a unique and proven learning approach. “We use Integrated Language Teaching (ILT) which fuses the interactive, communicative teaching approach of the West with the creative, reflective learning style of the East. This tapestry approach of integrating all language skills – reading, writing, listening, and speaking is key to effective language acquisition,” says Sheila Viesca, TalkShop CEO.

Viesca pioneered ILT in the Philippines in 2002, after completing special studies in Canada. She is also a faculty member of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).

ILT adopts the modern approach whereby teachers become facilitators, coaches, and motivators. It is not the run-of-the-mill classroom type of instruction where teachers do all the talking. TESL and TEFL engage teachers in creativity, as they conjure activities to engage students in using English in varied situational activities.

TESL and TEFL teachers find employment in non-English speaking countries and in local English learning centers catering to both foreign and local professionals, students, and children who wish to master the language or upgrade their skills to become more effective communicators.

For your teaching certification requirements and more information, call (632) 894-5588 or visit www.talkshop.ph.

What is Public Speaking?

Most careers will require one to engage in addressing a group of people for varied reasons. Whether it is to inform, educate, or entertain, it pays to cultivate the art of public speaking.

How a person fares at public speaking can make or break him. The fact is there are too many people who dread public speaking. It is a real fear that can be gripping and life-limiting. Can you snap out of your public speaking fear? Are public speaking classes helpful? Will a course in public speaking give your chances for success a boost ?

The good news is TalkShop can help you get out of your rut, and spur you on to success. TalkShop is a leading facility for corporate and English language learning. It has been in the business for 11 years molding students, professionals, educators, and the country’s top companies into top form.

Sheila Viesca ,TalkShop CEO steers you from the anxiety with Public Speaking and Presentation Mastery workshops. Whether you need to conquer your fear, work on your personal development, or bag that promotion, TalkShop helps you find your voice, tell your story, and engage the listener.

Viesca puts together a meaningful workshop that integrates the verbal, visual, and vocal aspects of presentation with personality dynamics, verbal yoga, and practical speech applications. Conversation expertise is included for good measure.

Viesca gives these tips on public speaking:
- Know your material by heart. Practice makes perfect.
- Think positive.communicate. In the process, one becomes impressive.
- When it is your turn, relax. Breathe deeply. Smile whenever possible.
- Whoever the audience, aim to motivate and inspire. The orientation should not be to impress but to
- Ignore fumbles.
- Let every speaking experience enrich and motivate you.

For more information and advise from the language experts, call TalkShop at (632) 8945588 or visit http://www.talkshop.ph.

What is Management Communication?

Management communication involves the relationships in the workplace with variables in place, including the hierarchy, personalities, and culture. With the dynamics in the environment, change is indeed inevitable and conflicts do arise. Management communication is the glue that binds everything into place, allowing a company to run as a cohesive whole.

What is the role of good communication in effective management? Can they operate separately? Are conflicts normal in the workplace? How important is conflict management?

TalkShop highlights the role of communication with Management Communication workshops. The 2-3day sessions underscore the impact managers create as leaders and coaches to motivate their team, engage their staff fully, and manage conflict effectively.

Sheila Viesca, TalkShop CEO evaluates and discusses the leadership styles of your officers and staff. “This journey to self-discovery is always an eye-opener for everyone, fostering greater understanding and harmony in the workplace,” she explains.

Besides leadership, TalkShop’s Management Communication features Managing People to harness team spirit, The Language of Motivation, Emotional Quotient, Review and Interweaving of Core Competencies and Core Values.

“The idea is to set into place a culture of respect and productivity in the workplace. In a healthy work environment where the morale is high and positive feelings prevail, the staff will be inspired to give their best,” Viesca adds.

TalkShop offers value for its management communication workshops with a customized compendium of lessons and activities, a helpful resource material that your officers and staff will treasure; individual and group progress reports; personality and leadership skills evaluation; training certificates.

For more information on how to boost morale and productivity of your team, call (632) 894-5588 or visit www.talkshop.ph.

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Customer Complaints Handling

For any company, customer complaints come part of the territory. This aspect of the work is always an unpleasant experience for the customer. But it need not be a losing proposition for the company. The truth is, complaints pave the way for opportunities to improve on a product, correct service procedures, and win over customer loyalty. The key is careful selection and effective training of your personnel.

Complaint management is critical. In this age of digital communication, when customers can resort to the Net to spread the word quickly, it pays to be able to put out fires and turn a negative situation to a positive one. How does one go about complaints and procedures? Can complaint handling be assigned to anyone? How can one remain cool when handling complaints?

All these and more relevant questions will be answered in TalkShop’s Complaints Management Workshop.
We teach you how to keep calm and collected, to listen with empathy, to think creatively and quickly. This highly practical workshop will be interactive, employing case studies and role plays for on-the-spot drills that will engage your participants’ sensitivity, sensibility, and quick thinking.

Sheila Viesca, TalkShop CEO, will teach your staff to deal with difficult situations with customer retention as the end goal. Whether it is a minor customer complaint or a potential crisis, she will teach you how to read your customer correctly, and handle difficult situations with confidence and dispatch. The course also includes writing that all-important letter of response that appeases.

Your system of handling complaints is telling. Let TalkShop assess the proficiency of your team and take it to the next level as befits your brand. For more information visit us at www.talkshop.ph or call (632) 894-5588 to consult with our course adviser.

What is Social Media?

Communication will never be the same with the advent of social media that has made business concerns faster and easier. Social media makes use of web-based technology centers on content. It is the creation of content, the exchange of ideas, and the simultaneous interaction that creates and engages a community that accounts for social media’s popularity.

How does social media differ from the traditional tri-media (i.e., newspapers, television, and film)? For one, social media is affordable, and mostly free. Hence, it poses the economical alternative in the face of tri-media’s spiraling rates. Social media is accessible. One needs only to be connected to the internet to access it, 24/7. The access is instantaneous, the reach global. This makes communication to any part of the world immediate, making it the most compelling communication tool.

With virtually everyone connected to the worldwide web, individuals, communities, and companies realize the need for strong online presence. Today we have social media jobs for writers, a social media campaign that gets people wired to a cause, social media consultants for the right strategies to employ. The web offers great potential that has paved the way for social media marketing that companies need to tap to hear the buzz on-line and be in the loop.

Avail these vast opportunities through TalkShop’s Social Media Language workshop. Master Netiquette, online etiquette to tread smoothly with your communication. Learn to write blogs, chats, and emails while integrating your branding and building trust in the social media sphere.

Sheila Viesca, TalkShop CEO takes you through the how-to’s, do’s and don’ts, and writing applications to help you, your community, and company navigate your way through the buzz on-line and put online communication to best use.

For more information, visit www.talkshop.ph, or call (632) 894-5588 for a free consultation.

Etiquette in Business

Let TalkShop Hold Your Hand

Is etiquette still relevant today? What use does it serve in a society that has turned informal and relatively casual? Do manners and etiquette factor in one's corporate training?

Though much has changed in our fast-paced business life, good conduct and proper behavior will never go out of style. While it is true that manners and etiquette may change with the times, there are social behaviors that are timeless and universal, like saying “Thank you” and “Excuse me.” Others conform to a specific culture like our use of “po”and “opo” as a sign of respect when addressing elders, while new norms are born, as called for by the changing times, like email, phone, and text etiquette.

Business etiquette calls for high sensibility. In essence, it means being nice to all - not only to paying customers, but to everyone else in the workplace, from our superiors, the people in the team, and co-workers.

Good business etiquette requires a boss to manage his people well by eliciting the support of his staff, inspiring, and trusting them. Etiquette is at work when the personnel are team players. There is etiquette and protocol to observe when meeting with clients, making arrangements for the boss, canceling appointments. Telephone etiquette is a must for front liners who should always make a good impression. Table etiquette must likewise be practiced when wining and dining with corporate friends.

TalkShop’s Etiquette Training for Professionals” teaches the ABCs of business etiquette. From urbane behavior, corporate communications, good grooming, interrelationship manners, to dining etiquette. Sheila Viesca, TalkShop CEO, holds your hand through the rules of good manners and etiquette any professional would greatly benefit to know and master.

Master the art of professional etiquette for the polish that impresses. This corporate training is essential part to create your winning brand.

Book your workshop now. Visit www.talkshop.ph or call (632)894-5588 or (63) 917-8535588 for a free consultation.

How to be Assertive Through Communication Skills

TalkShop Shows You How

Communication skills pay in every aspect of life. It gives you the edge on your way up the corporate ladder; it is the secret of star salesmen who use glib to close the sale; it is the distinguishing mark of every successful person. It integrates a good command of the language, with logical and moral reasoning using rational arguments. One area of communication fortified by assertiveness is speech. Parlance and eloquence can be developed by anyone who wants to enhance his self-esteem to improve his chances for success.

The definition of assertiveness is usually equated with speech eloquence, a must-have life skill for everyone. There are actually some misconceptions about the definition of assertiveness in speaking. Many equate it with aggressiveness, a negative quality resulting from rudeness that reveals lack of breeding, an evident deficiency in both emotional and social quotient.

What is assertiveness? It is being up-front in a positive way. Assertiveness lies midway of aggressiveness and submissiveness. It is being self-confident by asserting one’s rights without transgressing on the rights of another. It is acting self-assured and with self-respect. The goal is to arrive at win-win situations.

Learn assertiveness techniques to get you out of a bind. TalkShop teaches you how with a well-packaged workshop that incorporates Speech Eloquence with Assertiveness Communication.

Harness your emotional and social quotients, hone your listening skill, avoid communication pitfalls, learn self-assessment tools, and assert yourself. After the workshop you should be able to communicate better with your superior and direct hires, provide excellent customer service, use creative thinking quickly, stand for your rights without being pushy and demanding, and enjoy win-win situations in life.

Sheila Viesca, TalkShop CEO, engages you in this life-enriching workshop adopting the interactive, communicative approach that integrates communication skills aimed at accuracy.

Book your workshop now. Visit http://www.talkshop.ph or call (632) 894-5588, (63)917 853 5588 for a free consultation.

Confidence

What is confidence? How does your level of confidence measure up? Do you have a personality that is self-assured or do you struggle with low self-confidence that hampers your progress?

Personality types are as varied as the personality tests out there. Myers-Briggs is one good tool to gauge your personality type. Whoever the person, whatever the personality, it is important to build one’s confidence. A person has to believe in his abilities to put in a good performance. This is confidence. Now, knowing about it is one, how to be confident is the question. It does not happen overnight. It takes mindful awareness to find it and persistent, targeted strategies to work at it. It takes engaging tasks and challenging situations to harness it in one's person.

One daunting task is public speaking. The stage fright can be overwhelming for many. Yet, overcoming this is easy with TalkShop’s personalized workshops. Whether it is for one-on-one coaching or corporate workshops, TalkShop customizes a program to eliminate a person's heebie-jeebies in public speaking.

Sheila Viesca, TalkShop CEO, guides you through interactive, communicative sessions. Conquer your fears as you learn to emcee and host, speak up and be heard. In store are personalized modules with experiential exercises that build your confidence and give you the edge.

Viesca has been working closely with the local government of Makati City as the speech trainer and personality development guru. She is now on her third year as quiz master and emcee of the Makati Brain Olympics that pits talented high school students from the different schools in the municipality. She is also a communication guru of the Asian Institute of Management.

TalkShop trains you and your team to be confident with an array of communication programs to enhance your skills, knowledge, and personality. For customized workshops that increase your productivity and opportunities, call (632) 894-5588 or visit http://www.talkshop.ph.