Module 12: How To Win Customers For Life Transcript Hello everyone and welcome to Module 12! Get set to be introduced to one of the most neglected customer service skills that, when activated, actually has the power to instantly win customers over for life! This powerful skill is known as The Art of Listening. Perhaps you re surprised to hear there s actually an art to listening as opposed to simply letting those two spectacular ears on the side of your head just flap away and do what they do best. Well, even if you consider yourself to have perfect hearing, chances are high you still fall into the category of service staff who struggle to successfully listen to their customers - and let me tell you, you re not alone. Not really listening to customers is a major reason why customer service currently sits at such a low level in Australia - and in much of the western world. Before we examine why lazy listening has become so common place, let s briefly get some perspective on where the art of listening fits in relation to your other new essential service skills. So far in the program you ve learned some powerful skills to help you really connect and communicate with your customers, and to deliver them sensational service. These skills include: Always smiling at your customers Making and maintaining eye contact Making the effort to engage with them Choosing positive words Adjusting the tone of your voice And using body language to your advantage. But there s one more powerful piece of the communication puzzle still to come and that s conversation. In the broader community, the art of conversation involves the ability to listen and also speak. But when you step into the world of customer service, the art of conversation becomes about the ability to...listen and question. That is, listening to a customer so we understand what their needs are and questioning to find out more information about a customer s specific needs. In this module we focus on how to effectively listen to your customers, then in the final module we ll explore how to develop your questioning skills. Once you re familiar with both these skills you ll be well on your way to having more effective and successful conversations with your customers. OK, so to get your ears tuned into the key message of this module, let s kick things off with a quick audio quiz. You ll need a pen or pencil and paper for this, so if you don t have these handy, we suggest you Customer Service 360. All Rights Reserved 1
pause the module and take a moment to gather these items. If you need to do this, go ahead a hit the pause button now. OK, so hopefully you now have a pen and paper in front of you and are ready to focus on the audio recording we re about to play. This recording contains a collection of typical questions customer service staff may be asked during their daily conversations with customers. At this point, we don t want you to touch your pen and paper we just want you to concentrate 100% on listening to the recording. Once you re done, we ll give you some further instructions. Let s listen to the recording now... Now that you ve listened to the recording we want you to take a few moments to jot down a list of everything you can remember the customer wanted to know. Recall as many items as you can, then once you re done, total up the number of things you remembered and write that total number somewhere near your list. Pause the module now to give yourself time to write your list.then, when you re ready, press play to resume your learning. OK, how did you go? Have you added up the total number of things your remembered and written this number somewhere near your list? Great! We ll revisit these results a little later in the module, but for the moment, put your list aside whilst we delve a little deeper into the art of listening. For instance, did you know that we humans typically only operate at 25% of our listening capacity? Our capacity to listen ranges from 400 to 600 words a minute...while the average reading rate is only about 125 words per minute. Unfortunately, this discrepancy provides us with ample time to daydream while a customer is talking to us. Your challenge as a customer service provider, is to keep your listening focused and don t drift off! As a customer, I d be surprised if you hadn t at some point come into contact with a customer service staff member who has drifted off or zoned out to the job at hand. Instead of focusing all their efforts on trying to engage and connect with you, they slip into auto pilot mode and just go through the motions of delivering the same old robotic service. Have a think whether you re guilty of occasionally serving up robotic service to your customers. Some of the common examples that I ve personally experienced when it comes to staff not really listening to customers are things like; Staff asking you to specify how you would like to pay but then ignoring your response. Or when you re at a café or restaurant and you request for the bill or cheque to be brought to the table. If the cheque never arrives and you re forced to ask for it again, then that staff member has failed to really listen to your original request. Perhaps you ve been out to dinner and ordered a delicious steak from the menu with the option of vegetables on the side. However, when the meal is delivered, you re presented with a steak, chips and salad instead. Customer Service 360. All Rights Reserved 2
Coffee is another great example. If you re ever asked to repeat your order or are handed an incorrect order, then it s a sure sign your local barista is just going through the motions in his or her own little bubble! And finally, other one that pops up occasionally for me occurs at the end of a transaction when a service assistant asks whether I d like to hold onto the receipt or have it put in the bag with the purchase. I ll usually ask to hold onto the receipt so I can keep it in my purse, but despite this request, I ve often witnessed service staff completely ignore my response and still put the receipt in the bag and not even realise what they ve done. Why even ask the question if you re not prepared to listen to the customer s response and then act on it? Yes, what s really going on in all those examples is summed up perfectly in this quote by the late author and educator, Stephen Covey; Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. I think this really highlights the underlying problem within most customer conversations, and it also reminds us there s a lot more to listening than just hearing. That s so true. Believe it or not, humans actually have four distinct levels of listening. The lowest of these is Marginal listening. This is when a person only vaguely listens to what another person is saying. The listener is distracted, so really only hears bits and pieces of information rather than the whole conversation, and their responses may be minimal such as yeah or even just a grunt. Selective Listening is listening with the intent of reply and only really hearing what you think you need to hear. For example, if you order a salad with the dressing on the side, only to be delivered a regular salad with the dressing already drizzled through the dish. At the time of order your waiter gave the impression he had registered your special request but, in reality, he only really heard you say salad. Active listening is listening to understand the true meaning behind the words. Active listening is the single most useful and important listening skill in customer service, so we ll focus further on this in a moment. And finally, the highest level of listening is known as Empathic listening which requires hard work and sensitivity on the part of the listener. It s used regularly by people like insurance claim officers, helpline staff and counselors, who must adjust their normal listening skills to show greater empathy towards customers in a state of distress. Most of the general population move through everyday life listening at the selective and marginal levels, but if you re serious about delivering sensational service then you need to become an active listener. So how do you become an active listener? Customer Service 360. All Rights Reserved 3
Well, active listening means trying to find the real meaning of the words as well as the unspoken message behind them. In addition to the facts, you evaluate the speaker s tone of voice, body language, emotional state, and the context of the situation, in active listening, you re genuinely interested in understanding what the customer thinks, feels and wants. Listening is actually active not passive work. It s not about just sitting back and receiving information, you need to be engaged in what the other person is saying. Active listening requires effort and discipline. You also need to be aware of how much talking you do compared with the customer. If the conversation is one-sided this may tell you something about your listening skills! Yes, I always point out to my clients they have two ears and one mouth, so they remember to use them in proportion do twice as much listening as they do talking. It s a great little reminder of the powerful role listening skills play in creating winning customer connections. OK, so now you re more aware of how to actively listen to customers, we want you to listen to the previous audio quiz again. Once you ve listened to the entire recording, grab your pen and paper, and once again make a list of everything you heard the customer ask about. Pause the module at the end of the recording if you need additional time to complete your list then resume your learning once you re done. Here s the recording now OK. Have you finished your list? If so, go ahead and total the number of items you listed and, same as last time, write this total number somewhere near your list. How does this total compare with your previous total? Is your score higher now that you re more aware of how to actively listen to a customer? Did you notice an improvement in your listening skills between the two exercises? So, for those who are keen to know - the total number of customer enquiries in the recording is 13. How does this compare with your total? Scan the list to identify any enquiries you may have missed. Go ahead and pause the module if you need to. So, that wraps up our focus on the much-neglected skill of listening. To be honest, a large part of your challenge to improve your listening skills is being aware humans have a natural tendency to not listen at their full capacity, and to prompt yourself to maintain an active level of listening whenever you come into contact with customers. Customer Service 360. All Rights Reserved 4
That s right. Always strive to be an active listener and really hear the unspoken message behind a customer s words. It s often helpful to restate or paraphrase your understanding of a customer s request or order and feed it back to the customer in your conversation. This verifies to the customer that you re really listening to them and that you re understanding the information they re sharing with you. We ve got plenty of other great suggestions and service challenges in the support material area all specifically designed to help you integrate your new and improved listening skills into your everyday customer conversations. Give them a go when you return to your workplace and before you know it, your active listening skills will have you winning over customers for life! To really take your customer conversations to a higher level though, it s essential to combine your new active listening skills with some highly effective questioning skills - which is the focus of our final module. We can t wait to share this hugely important final essential service skill with you as soon as you re ready. See you in Module 13! See you soon. Customer Service 360. All Rights Reserved 5