The following are the best practice tips for effective listening:
Be Attentive or Pay Attention:
Always pay attention to what your Clients or Customers are saying. There may be chances that you may unlikely to pick up subtle clues from a person's verbal communication if you're not paying attention. There are also changes that you may misunderstand what the opposite person is trying to explain you and do something which he doesn't want you to do.
Listen for Ideas:
You pay attention to your customers or clients so that you can listen for the central ideas that they are trying to Communicate. There may be few customers or your clients which carries a distracting methods of communication, however you need to be able to overcome these and listen for ideas and central themes if you are to understand the needs of your Customers or Clients.
Take Notes:
Taking notes is always a great way to help keep you more focused and helps you quickly recall the minutes of the meetings! It will also help you reinforce the action which needs to be taken or implemented for which the meeting was set up.
There may be people who has the problem where they forget things due to some personal tensions/issues and becomes hard for them to re-call what happened in that long meeting and what was expected out of them. Taking notes down help them quickly recall those minutes of the meeting.
Assess the Customer's or Clients Emotional State:
It is very important to assess the customer's emotional state. This is key to meeting a customer's psychological needs. You should listen to the customer's' tone of voice, rate of speech, and the words that they use. If you understand the emotional state of a Customer or a Client then take the action which suites that state, it will make that Customer or Client happy and satisfied.
Assess the Customer's or Client’s Level of Expertise:
Assessing the customer's' level of expertise is very important because you are creating a solution for them. One of the best way to identify customers' level of expertise is by listening to their vocabulary, their understanding of the problem, and the type of information they offer. This will help you in offering a better solution or a product.
Read between the Lines:
Sometimes you need to listen to what isn't being said. Customers don't always know what they want. In order to establish the exact nature of the service request there is often a process of discovery between the customer and the Customer Service Representative. This process often involves reading between the lines. This means you need to differentiate between what they are saying and what they are actually doing.
Listen for "Unspoken" Service Requests:
Once customers start talking about their problem or query you may find that they have other "unspoken" service requests that they would like you to deal with. By listening for subtle service requests, you can go a long way toward creating a loyal, happy and a satisfied customer. Generally, these type of Customers go a long way with you and may bring more business to you.
Casual Discussion:
Having casual conversation with your client or customer may help you in building a rapport however it may also increase the possibilities of understanding the things other way round as there will be no punctuation when you are speaking. In order to get what the client or customer is saying, you need to put yourself into their shoes and understand things.
Leave your Customer or Client Satisfied:
Always care for your Customer or Client’s satisfaction. If they are happy with your service and the way you provide the solution by listening effectively to their query or issue, then they may give you another part of their business to take care of. It should be a Win-Win situation where both the parties i.e. you and your Customer or Client are happy and satisfied. In case you don’t understand the requirements of your clients or customer don’t ever hesitate to schedule a meeting and discuss on the same. Always remember to keep your client of customer satisfied, if they are happy then they’ll keep you happy.
