Active Listening Skills

strong verbal and written communication
skills are beneficial for your success
at work and in your personal life
with practice anyone can develop their
speaking and listening skills
this will help you build and maintain
relationships solve problems
and get your ideas across in this
section where we'll talk about active
listening techniques
and cover the benefits and barriers that
come in the way of effective listening
i'm going to share verbal and nonverbal
active listening techniques
that you can start applying right away
let's get started
one of the most important skills
fantastic for building up a customer
service interaction
people appreciate the fact that you are
paying attention to them
and that you value what they have the
ability to completely focus on this
customer is feel more comfortable
clearly appreciate yourself in a
thoughtful way this can help you answer
the other side of the resolve
issues overall making you which is what
you would want to avoid in your decision
actively someone helps you go but you're
not retaining customers know that they
can freely speak with you
imagine that you're reading an
interesting or judgment and they'll be
more likely to stress in the background
and more likely to provide positive
feedback you're just passively listening
to what's especially helpful when
building a law enforcement to give you
attention next identify and solve
problems or if you're having
conversations with the spot challenges
you understand
why customers what you're going to
launch that much faster you're
just passing the faster you can think
about these issues the sooner you can
these situations and take action here's
the talking but you're not active
listening also helps you increase your
knowledge active listening requires a
certain reality consciousness customer
service is never you're actively
listening to the same products so does
your job
it makes the community motivation
there's always an approach you don't
have improvements
but also allows
you might be dealing with a lot of
inquiries but this could be the
customer's first time a report with your
customers you already know that people
appreciate the fact that you always
close attention to them so why not give
valuable attention to start off on a
result customers feel more comfortable
sharing information with you
and appreciate your service this can
help you answer questions and resolve
issues quickly overall making you more
efficient and successful at your job
active listening also helps you build
trust when customers know that they can
freely speak with you
without interruptions or judgment
they'll be more likely to trust you
and more likely to provide positive
feedback on your service
this is especially helpful when building
long-term relationships
next active listening helps you identify
and solve problems
you'll be able to spot challenges and
understand why customers are facing
difficulties much faster
and the faster you can spot these issues
the sooner you can find solutions and
take action to resolve them
active listening also helps you increase
your knowledge of your product
in reality customer service is never
static as the company and products
constantly change and evolve
so does your job if you have the
motivation there's always an opportunity
to keep
improving your skills and learning
something new about your customers
you'll understand new topics much better
and remember what you've learned
so you can apply it in the future as a
result you'll have much better knowledge
of your customers
your products and services in summary
you need to remember that each customer
has their own unique needs
even if you've heard their question many
times before and the problem is not
unique
the person is you might be dealing with
a lot of inquiries
but this could be the customer's first
time contacting your company
you already know that the first
impression is going to have long lasting
effects
so why not give them your full attention
to start off on a great note
have you ever listened to a long lecture
presentation and noticed that your mind
starts to wonder
it's common to lose focus in these kinds
of situations
getting distracted can also happen
during simple conversations when you're
interacting with your customers although
we can't control all barriers in
communication
it does help to know what kind of things
can interfere with our ability to listen
in this section i'd like to touch upon
two main factors that can affect your
listening skills
and how you can overcome them the first
one
is internal noise a person can only stay
focused for a certain length of time
before getting distracted you've
probably noticed that even when you're
paying very close attention to something
something that you're deeply interested
in like an engaging book or a good movie
every now and then you pause to do
something else
you might get distracted by your
thoughts or simply get up to grab a
drink of water or a snack
people are leading busy lives so there's
a lot going in our heads as we try to
juggle many things on our plate
we might be thinking about family work
relationships
errands and everything else with a lot
of things in our minds
sometimes we're too tired or distracted
to follow along in conversation
this information overload has a direct
effect on our listening skills
to help your customers stay focused on
what you're saying
you can help eliminate distractions by
speaking in a clear voice
and using simple language if you're
talking really fast
using lots of complicated terms or
sharing information that's not relevant
it'll be harder for the listener to stay
focused on your message
also using positive body language such
as eye contact
turning your body towards the person
will help to keep their attention
on the other hand if you're listening to
someone else's talk focus your full
attention on them
try to cut down on any internal noise or
external distractions
simply being aware of where your focus
is will help to improve your listening
skills
the second factor that often gets in the
way of good listening is multitasking
usually we're juggling a lot of
different tasks at our jobs and dealing
with many customers
unfortunately multitasking is a big
barrier when it comes to effective
listening
great listening is the ability to make
your customer feel like they're your
number one priority in that moment
so even if you believe you're great in
multitasking put those tasks aside
when you're communicating with a
customer when you're going back and
forth between
listening to one person on the phone and
reading an email from someone else
you risk the chance of making mistakes
and understanding both of them
if you misunderstand what someone says
on the phone
she's going to have to repeat what she's
already said all over again
and that's not an efficient way to
communicate for either of you
so to avoid misunderstandings and having
to repeat information it's best to stop
doing anything else other than what
you're doing and just focus your full
attention on the conversation
also i found that when you're dealing
with a lot of information it helps to
take notes and write things down
this will help you keep a record of
important details from your
conversations
and this way you wouldn't actually need
to store all this information in your
head
and potentially avoid making mistakes
next time you're talking to a customer
you can review conversation history
and acknowledge your previous
interactions for example
you could say something like this last
time we talked you mentioned that you
were thinking about switching to another
phone plan
is that something i can help you with
today your customers will appreciate and
may even be surprised by the personal
touch
as you can see effective listening is
really the foundation of excellent
customer service
and it's really a powerful way to turn a
negative experience
into a positive one in active listening
your job is to make sure you clearly
understand the customer's message
if you're having a hard time
understanding the customer it's best to
bring it up and clarify right away
like that you're not risking getting the
wrong information
there are different ways to do this
without offending or making them feel
embarrassed
for example if you're on the phone and
you don't understand
the email address that they told you you
can ask something like this
i'm sorry but i think we have a bad
connection could you please spell your
email address for me again
or sometimes they might have an accent
they have trouble understanding
in that case you can try saying i'm
sorry could you please
say that again more slowly it also helps
to restate what you've already heard to
make sure that you heard it correctly
here's an example just to confirm you
would like to cancel your monthly
subscription
instead of guessing and jumping to
conclusions about what the customer
wants
ask clarifying questions anytime you
think you may be missing important
details
here's another example from a retail
store you mentioned the shirt wasn't the
right fit
what size would you like to try instead
as a listener your role is to reflect on
what is being said
and ask follow-up questions to clarify
information
ask questions that will help you clarify
certain points for example
what do you mean when you say that the
computer is not working well
another way to make sure you understood
the customer is to summarize the main
points of what they already shared with
you
this will show them that you fully
understand the meaning of their message
by paraphrasing you're giving the
customer a chance to clarify vague
information or
expand on the details here are some ways
that you can start your sentence
in order to clarify the information for
example
so what you're saying is or
what i'm hearing is or finally
is this what you mean and then you
paraphrase the main points to confirm
you understood everything correctly
so by clarifying and paraphrasing
information you're making sure
everything is clear for both you and the
customer
and that you're both on the same page
let's take a closer look at how asking
the right type of questions can help you
clarify information
and strengthen your active listening
skills i'm referring to two types of
questions
open-ended questions and close-ended
questions
both are useful for different purposes a
good strategy is to ask open-ended
questions
to find out more information that will
help you understand the situation
these types of open-ended questions
start with words that probe for details
for example
questions that start with who what when
which
how where and why using these you can
ask customers questions that show that
you've gathered the essence
of what they've shared and guide them
into providing more details
some examples of open-ended questions
might sound like this
when did you first notice this issue
what additional information would you
like me to include on your invoice
the other kinds of questions are
close-ended
these are used when you need to move
more quickly and focus the conversation
on something specific
the answers to these questions would be
a yes or no
or a simple choice here's what a closed
ended question might sound like
is tomorrow morning at 10 a good time
for you the answer would be a simple yes
or no
or in a restaurant when the server asks
would you like
fries or a salad that narrows down
options and the customer needs to make a
simple choice
in summary asking both open-ended and
close-ended questions can help you get
the information you need
to find solutions for your customers in
addition to asking questions
short positive statements will show the
customer that you're engaged in
conversation
and listening to what they're sharing
these kinds of affirmations will help
you keep up conversation without
interrupting the speaker
for example when the customer is
explaining the situation you can say
i understand i see yes that makes sense
or i agree
to show that you're following and engage
in the conversation as a result
the customer will see that you're
listening and feel more comfortable
sharing information with you
as you already know body language plays
a big role in showing that you're
actively listening to your customers
when you nod your head in a subtle up
and down motion it shows the customer
that you're
following what they're saying it doesn't
necessarily mean that you agree with
everything that they're saying
rather it shows that you understand the
meaning of their message
to practice active listening you need to
make a conscious effort to hear not only
the words that another person is saying
but more importantly their whole message
you can use these verbal and non-verbal
affirmations to make the customer feel
heard and understood
in your interactions the truth is active
listening is not hard
but like anything else worth doing it
does take some practice
so remember the following listen to your
customers
be aware of barriers and communication
and give them
your complete and undivided attention
make short affirming statements restate
what you have already heard
ask open or closed-ended questions as
appropriate
and take notes when necessary active
listening will help you get the
information you need quickly and
efficiently
without wasting your customers valuable
time