With one in five adults in the UK suffering some form of hearing loss, knowing how to communicate effectively and sensitively is incredibly important in customer service environments.
To continue in our mission to provide the highest levels of inclusive and tailored service to our new and existing members, employees from our Basingstoke branch recently undertook Deaf Awareness training with Simon Houghton, founder of the #WeSupportDeafAwareness campaign.
I was incredibly surprised to find out that 1/3 of over 65’s are affected by a disabling hearing loss, this means that there is an extremely high chance that day to day we are interacting with people who will struggle to hear. Through the deaf awareness training, and in particular listening to Simon talk about his experiences, I have become aware of what I can do to help and support people that are experiencing various levels of hearing loss.
What is #WeSupportDeafAwareness?
#WeSupportDeafAwareness helps organisations better understand how to engage with the deaf community, after founder Simon, who has considerable hearing loss, found himself struggling to communicate when people began wearing face masks as a result of COVID-19. After taking to LinkedIn to share his experiences, he began delivering online training, which has now grown into a campaign with guidelines that businesses can follow to improve inclusivity.
Simon shares his personal experiences which really help you understand what difficulties people with hearing difficulties must overcome daily. I feel the training has helped me to identify customers with hearing difficulties from their behaviour and there were some useful tips which I will use when in the branch and some for using over the telephone.
We would like to thank Simon for delivering the excellent training to our employees in Basingstoke, which will enable us to provide our customers with hearing loss with additional support and better communication.
If you're interested in becoming more deaf aware, or would like to find out more, visit the #WeSupportDeafAwareness website.
