This is the fourth article in a series of six for companies that wish to implement an effective and positive form of communication into their organization and to enhance employee training for sales and meeting situations.
In an earlier article, I wrote about the importance of optimizing the communication, making everyone work through the same system, so that you can help each employee, in what they are doing and also save time on the joint meetings.
Of course, that is something you should still strive for. But there is a danger of the system becoming too rigid, making the employees not listen to what the customers are saying in the other end of the phone line.
Why should I listen?
You can be so ready for using the questions you have written down or been given, that you just sit there waiting to get to say something again and forget to listen to what is being said.
When you abandon the automatic questions, the one you are having the conversation with starts to feel, that he is not just talking to some kind of robot, but understands that you listen actively, to what he is saying, and that you elaborate on that. When you stop being a robot, they stop answering you like a robot, in short terms. Instead, they open up, and what you gain is, that you start getting to know the person, you are talking to.
You learn, how you can help the other person with his needs, and if you are even able to make a sale. Maybe you have just started a thought process in the other person, so that they will get back to you in the future, when they suddenly find themselves in need, of what you can help them with.
If you believe Dan Gura, Sr. Vice President at Jet Luxury Resorts, the customer satisfaction rises along with the brand loyalty when the ones you are talking to feels, that they have been handled with much care. The customers like you, and they will tell their friends about you, planting seeds for you to harvest in the future.
Another important thing you gain by listening to your customers is, that you learn exactly what they need. Their needs might change from time to time, and this is a way to pick up on that in time to offer them new solutions. Nowadays an effective way to examine the customer’s needs is through using social media in an active way. Ask open questions on all kind of platforms and observe what feedback it brings back, telling you what to start working on.
A tough balance
As I started off by writing, the employees work through the system, you have made. That is appropriate for both the employee and the system. But it is about finding the right balance, where there is room for people acting as people toward other people – that inspires goodwill and trust and makes way better customer relations, than if you are trying to make people into robots by cutting their ears off.
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