Hearing is not yet listening!

So it is very important that you are genuinely interested in what the other person wants to tell you. Only then can you properly absorb what is being told. In addition, you must want to understand it. So understand what is meant and what purpose it serves. You can eliminate room for interpretation by asking questions, summarizing and checking whether you have understood correctly. Then you show genuine interest.

I well remember the following situation in my then role as a contact center manager. My colleague received an elderly lady on the line who was clearly having trouble logging into her personal online environment. This colleague did not immediately jump into action mode to guide this lady through the login process with telephone instructions, but took the time to listen to her story. It soon became clear that she was visually impaired and therefore literally couldn't find the right place on the site. He then helped her by first making sure that her screen was optimized for her so that she could navigate better and therefore logging in was no longer a problem.

So listen to your colleagues and customers

So listening also plays an important role within organizations. Starting with listening carefully to your colleagues. What drives that one colleague when he talks about his main goals and what does he really say during the team meeting. At least as important is listening to your customers. This can be done in many ways. You can call them, send questionnaires, visit them, meet them at trade fairs and so on. But only with genuine interest and with the intention to understand what they are saying.

You undoubtedly recognize it; the many and often long questionnaires from organizations in your mailbox about how you experienced the service or contact with them. And then you probably also recognize that you get tired of them and often drag them straight to your Outlook trash can. But why really? Simple: the majority of these organizations, while willing to hear you out, have no intention of really listening. To them, the figure you give is nothing more and nothing less than management information with which the organizational objectives are or are not met. You don't need to listen for that, because what good is a grade in terms of genuine interest and interpretation?

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From the figure to the human being

Of course a grade has nothing on genuine interest, but behind that grade is a customer, a flesh-and-blood human being with an opinion. And that person has a reason to give an 8. The trick is to understand why customers do not give a 7 or 9, for example. What goes well and what could be better? So never stop after asking for a report or recommendation grade. Look for the justification for that grade. Show that you want to get it. Engage in conversation and listen!

Finally, some practical tips on how to flesh this out:

• Do you ask your customers for feedback primarily through online questionnaires and want to get this feedback right? Call these customers back! It gives you valuable insights and customers appreciate it enormously.
• Call your customers according to a script as little as possible. This applies both to calling back in response to feedback and to any other conversation. Enter into the conversation with genuine interest, listen carefully and ask in-depth questions. This will give you much more information than working through a fixed script.
• Don't just listen to customers who give you low marks. It's just as important to understand why you get a 9 or 10. This gives positive energy and helps to get an overall picture of your service. And let's face it; listening to what goes well is also just incredibly fun and energizing!

Would you like to move from hearing to listening yourself and thereby make more impact in the area of customer centricity?

Read all about the trends and challenges in this area in the National Customer Engagement Monitor and feel free to contact me. I would love to help you further!

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