Effective listening is hands down one of the most important customer service skills you can have. 

When most people ‘listen’ in their mind, they are preparing what they want to say next rather than actively listening (concentrating on what the speaker is saying while monitoring their body language and emotions for additional cues) because active listening involves more than just hearing the sounds coming out of someone’s mouth – it requires us to try to understand what that person is really feeling or is trying to communicate. Effective listening doesn’t just happen, it is an active process and takes a lot of thinking – and thinking can be a lot of work! But there really isn’t any other way to become a really stellar listener.

There are also some common pitfalls to effective listening.  Here are my top 3 along with easy ways to break down the barriers that stand in the way of meaningful customer conversations.

DISTRACTIONS

They interfere with your ability to pay attention. Computers, cell phones, back-round music, other customers, a fun conversation your co-workers are having or that pen you just dropped on the floor. We are surrounded by simple distractions every day. Appearing distracted tells your customer that you are not all that interested in what they have to say. My guess is that in not the impression you’re trying to give.  

Barrier Buster – Take the time to give the person in front of you your full attention. Make it your number one priority in that very minute. This will help you to understand them better and is the basis for building a good customer relationship.

EGO

Quite often we let our pride or ego take over during conversation.  We think we know more than the customer or are eager to show-off our knowledge about a certain subject. When this happens we are doomed to stop learning from our customers or anyone else for that matter.  Learning should be considered a life-long process if we want to continue to grow as professionals and human beings.

Barrier Buster – As soon as you let your ego get in your way and stop listening to other people, you’re done for because you’ve closed yourself off from learning. Keep an open mind while hearing someone out and you may expose yourself to learning something from a much unexpected source.

ASSUMING

Do you know why we interrupt people? It’s because we assume we already know what they are going to say even though the other person hasn’t finished talking yet. How rude! You may think that you are problem solving, but what you’re actually doing is building a wall of dislike  and distrust between you and your customer that you are going to have to work really hard to break down.

Barrier Buster – When your customer opens their mouth to say something…shut yours! Open your ears and eyes and give them your undivided attention.  Their train of thought may go down a different track than you thought it would