CAN YOU KEEP QUIET LONGER THAN 18 SECONDS?

Providing excellent customer service starts with how well we listen and manage customer expectations. The highest form of respect we can show another person is genuinely listening and giving them our undivided attention. However, the listener also benefits dramatically, because it is only when we are listening that we learn, that new ideas arise, and that solutions are realized. Listening needs to be something we practice daily. There may be no better ROI.

Jerome Groopman, a physician, and Harvard medical school professor, wrote How Doctors Think. He asserts that the key to collecting useful information and solving the patient’s health puzzle is to let the patient say her or his piece. However, Groopman cites research that demonstrates doctors repeatedly interrupt the patient presenting their symptoms after just 18 seconds. Why? Because the average doctor (or consultant, lawyer, accountant, or financial advisor) feels he knows what the patient/client is going to say and is ready to give a professional recommendation before allowing the patient to finish explaining their problem.

*Order The Relationship Economy, Building Stronger Customer Connections In The Digital Age

Hijacking someone’s story or stepping on their message is a horrible habit that demonstrates a conversation is more about us than the person we are communicating with. Often, we do this by completing the other person’s thought. While we may think we are demonstrating that we are paying attention, the practice is rude; we are not allowing the other person to feel completely heard.

“Never miss a good chance to shut up.”

—WILL ROGERS

 *Related – Myths Of Being A Good Listener

WHY SOME CUSTOMERS NEED TO SPEAK TO A HUMAN BEING

Consider you are waiting for medical test results. Or you are anxiously waiting to hear if you got approved for your home mortgage or a critical loan your business needs to help with a shortage of cashflow. Certain organizations and industries have higher anxiety customers, at no fault of the customer. By not putting yourself in the shoes of your customer, it can lead to poor decisions that seem highly efficient but totally unempathetic to your customer. An article in HBR demonstrates how these types of companies are ‘funneling nervous customers to self-service technologies – kiosks, websites, and smartphone apps – isolating them at the precise moment when they’re most keen for connection.’

*Register for 2020 Customer Xperience Executive Academy

IMAGINE A FUTURE…

Where your brand’s reputation attracts and at the same time deters people from wanting to be part of your company’s culture. 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

When you've built a strong relationship, the customer will not be able to imagine a world without your business. You now have a brand evangelist, a customer who loves your brand and tells everyone they know how amazing you are. That is, better than any marketing you could ever pay for. - John R. DiJulius III

NEW DIGITAL PRESENTATIONS AVAILABLE (SLIDES INCLUDED)

HOW TO SPARK A FIRE THAT KEEPS ON BURNING by Brittni Walker

Most companies have more ideas than they know what to do with. But how do you go from great ideas on paper to consistently executed concepts? Brittni is an expert on developing and implementing customer service systems and employee engagement strategies, both at the consumer banking company where she serves as Director of Customer and Employee Experience, and at the organizations where she leverages her expertise as a consultant.

Brittni knows that becoming world-class does not happen in a single spark….it takes a slow burn. How do you start a cultural revolution that doesn’t fizzle out at your workplace? In Brittni’s breakout, you will learn: How to roll out your ideas with flair and spark a fire that keeps on burning; How to set a path, train on it, and stick with it; How to keep the flame alive and keep your ideas from becoming just the “flavor of the month”.