How Well Do You Listen To Your Customers?
December 8th, 2009 by Katherine Hernandez
Are you regarded as a good listener? How do you know? In my opinion, active listening is one of those skills which requires constant attention and practice. I still find myself once in a while interrupting when I shouldn’t or thinking about what I am going to say next in a conversation and forget what a person was stating to me- yikes! This is not good practice, especially in a sales/customer service situation.
Therefore, if you find yourself in the same predicament from time to time, remember that active listening is crucial when determining the needs of a customer and providing the best products for them. Active listening involves more than just listening…active listening involves probing for more information, paraphrasing, and acknowledgement that you are listening. If you do not listen well, you may lose a sale.
Here’s a fun listening exercise that I participated in during a training class a few years back (however, it’s better facilitated as a listening exercise- not a reading exercise). It goes like this:
You are the bus driver. At stop #1 three people got on the bus, one of them was wearing a blue baseball cap. At stop # 2, five people got on and one exited the bus. At stop #3 two people got on, one person was carrying a bag and the person with the blue baseball cap got off. What is the bus driver’s age?
If you answered the age, which is yours by the way since you are the bus driver, then you passed! If not, then that’s okay, this exercise is a reminder to us all to make the effort to listen effectively to our customers. (Keep in mind that this exercise should be provided verbally in order to be effective)
Have some fun with your co-workers and see who can pass the listening test!
