Listening Tips to Understand Your Customers

Sometimes, the key to great customer service means knowing what your customers want before they do. Other times, you have to know how to listen to what your customers are telling you in order to give them the results they want. Are you worried that your employees are hearing what your customers have to say, but not really listening? Here are some listening tips that will help you understand your customers better.

 

 

Active listening is far different from passive listening. Active listeners pay attention to what is being said and they’re looking for clues to any underlying reasons why the caller is saying what they’re saying. Passive listeners are usually looking for the next chance to respond, not paying attention to what the customer is actually saying.

 

If your employees think they know it all or feel that your customer’s concerns aren’t valid, they’re probably going to engage in passive listening. Teach them to focus on what the customer is saying instead of their own response, and they’ll become better listeners who, in turn, will be better problem-solvers.

 

 

Scripts can be useful for some situations, like when you’re first training your customer service staff, but once they’re interacting with real customers, you shouldn’t restrict your employees by forcing them to read from predetermined scripts or statements. Your customers are all individuals with very different needs and concerns. Why try to serve all of them with the same generic script? You can’t provide good customer service if you’re treating every situation exactly the same.

 

 

If your employees can’t put themselves in your customers’ shoes, they won’t be able to understand the motivation behind your customer complaints and issues. Encourage them to empathize with every customer, even if they think that the customer’s issue is not a valid one. What’s complaint worthy to one person won’t be worth a second thought to someone else, but the ability to empathize over these ‰Û÷small’ matters is priceless.

 

Let Answer 365 help you understand your customers better with the help of highly skilled customer service agents.