Listening is your most important communication skill in face to face customer interactions. Experts believe that within the average work in office environment 9% of your time is spent writing 16% is spent reading 25 to 30% is spent talking and 45 to 50% is spent listening. Research shows we don't listen well. The average person only effectively retains 25% of what they hear. But by using better listening skills, we can increase that to 85 to 95%. We think at around four to 500 words a minute, but we only speak at around 125 words a minute.

So when we are listening, our minds can easily get distracted because they're being forced to slow down. What are the benefits of Improving your listening skills Well, there are many. You get more information and you're better prepared. It helps you to be more effective. avoid mistakes. It helps you consistently give quality service.

It shows customers you're interested in them and consider them worthwhile and important. It helps customers develop trust and confidence in you. When you listen to others properly, they're better able to hear themselves. And that can mean that they realize that they're not being as reasonable as they might be. And that leads them to changing attitudes and demands. Listening helps to fuse emotions and anger.

It's hard to remain angry in the face of sincere active listening. And good listeners are rare. Customers recognize this and they seek them out. Here are some steps to help you listen better. Create space free of distractions, and don't do something else at the same time. allocate time, be in the present.

Listen in 3d words voice and body language for the facts and how the speaker is feeling. Tune in to the body language. Don't get defensive, get the message. Recognize it's not directed at you personally. But as a representative of your organization, avoid judging whether they say something wrong, bad, stupid isn't relevant. What is important is finding out what the real problem is and what you as a service provider are going to do about it.

Be ready to provide appropriate interpreters either for the day or for for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. We'll be talking more about how to do that later. Note down important points. This helps you keep your eye on the ball and avoids getting lost in the detail. Listen for what's not saved. Often people leave out vital information, especially if they're upset.

Don't answer until the customer has given you their message. But do reassure the customer that you're listening with your facial expressions, and the odd Mm hmm. Yes. Right. And repeat back short snatches of the conversation. Like so took three days, or are you spoke to reception?

Use questions to clarify. If you're doubtful about any point or need more information, you can ask direct fact seeking or open probing questions. We'll be talking more about questions later. And then summarize and verify at the end of the message. Repeat back the message in your own words to ensure you fully understood it. And to make it clear to the customer that you've been listening.

Summarize from time to time during the conversation to bring the discussion back on track in a positive way. This allows you to take control of the dialogue and direction by letting the customer know you really have been Listening, be willing to be persuaded, be open minded and really consider what's being said. There may be points that you haven't considered that you need to take on board. And you need to listen in a way that shows the other party, that you're not just waiting for a space in the conversation to say yours piece. It's about engaging in a conversation where you're interested to find out the story the customer is telling you. There are two main types of questions closed, where you get a yes or no answer.

And open where you get lots of information. They typically start with who, what, when, where, how, which, and tell me about both types of questions. have a place in the conversation with your customer? Watch this video and think about which types of questions helped move the conversation forward. And why am I did? Yeah, yes.

Okay. I was I famous. Yeah. was I in the arts? Yeah. Was I in was I in?

In films? Yes. Okay. Am I male? Yes. I'm doing really well.

Was you think I'm male? Yeah. Okay. And I'm dead. Or noes in films? I don't know.

I don't know. You have? What occupation does my person do? He was a really famous actor. What kind of films was he in? Oh, a lot of different films.

Some historical there was a couple of war ones. Some quite weird twisted ones. As he got older. He was in some mafia movies. What country does he come from? He's American.

Does he have any other like heritage, you know? Well, yeah, I'd say They're based in Italian in him. Yeah. He's my brother. Yeah. Yeah.

This video clearly illustrates that open questions are a much faster way to get information. But notice how hard it can be to come up with good open questions. It's a skill that takes practice. And we recommend that you do take the time to practice open questions, especially if yours is a frontline Customer Care role. It helps to write out a few so they're ready when you get stuck. And I suggest you pause here and write down a few.

Your conversation with your customer is like a funnel because it has a large opening at the start to capture a wide spread of data, which we can then sort into relevant and irrelevant as we travel through the conversation. At the end, we only need a narrow targeted gap for data to confirm the agreement. A yes or no and information that comes from the customer flows into the top of the funnel, with the outcome being an agreed next step with the customer. The nature of the questions we are asked and the responses we obtain will either shorten or prolong the conversation. The first question will be a broad open question designed to cast a wide net and capture a lot of initial data. We'll probably need to ask a few of these broad open questions to start to build solid data on the issue at hand.

As the central issues or concerns start to become clear, we may even be able to lose some of the non relevant data. We can now start to ask qualifying or checking open questions that will enable us to be sure what is relevant and what we can now discard. These could even be the sort described in the listening skills lesson as proof of listening. And they might sound like how did that be? Look, or what could you have done? Or So which of those colors Did you prefer?

These prove your listening, but can also lead to qualifying previous responses. Now we can move to checking detail with closed questions. These are verification questions where often alternatives are being decided on. And we'll talk a little bit more about them later. These questions may sound like so you would rather the machine was fixed rather than wait for a replacement. Is that correct?

Or I believe you said the web page crashed a couple of times and that you couldn't get it completed. Is that correct? Finally, we asked the closed resolution question. This last question confirms the agreement. It will sound like we'll send someone to fix the machine on Tuesday at a time to be confirmed by the end of the day on Monday. that correct?

As you can see, questions are a critical part of the sales conversation. Not only are they key to progressing the conversation, they help you get the right product or service to match the specific need of your customer. Your clarifying questions halfway down the funnel should include qualifying the features and benefits the customer needs in their product or service. And you can only do that effectively if you maintain a current knowledge of all your products and stock or your services. This is an important part of your job. These qualifying questions also enable you to determine if there are additional items the customer might need, but hasn't thought of.

For example, if the customer wants to paint their fence, they'll not only make paint and brushes but also drop sheets and disposable towels. They may need sandpaper and a primer as well as the final color paint to and if they have a dog, maybe even wire to dig down below the fence to stop any escaping. Your questions should be aimed at getting the full story from your customer. Please take a few minutes to review the notes in the workbook and complete the exercises. If you review the notes in a day or two, your retention of the material will increase considerably. Thanks