{"id":767,"date":"2015-05-04T07:15:39","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T07:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/csm210469\/?p=767"},"modified":"2022-10-21T14:12:36","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T14:12:36","slug":"difference-between-hearing-and-listening-to-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/difference-between-hearing-and-listening-to-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Difference between Hearing and Listening To Customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Make your communication with customers\u00a0more effective with these key points.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"TravelDuring my last trip to Monterrey I had the chance to confirm first-hand the big difference between hearing and listening to customers, and the power of the latter to create positive service experiences.<\/p>\n

Due to schedule reasons, I had to flight out and back in different airlines, which we shall call \u201cListening Airlines\u201d and \u201cHearing Airlines\u201d.<\/p>\n

I took off early in the morning and soon after a flight attendant from \u201cListening Airlines\u201d approached me offering something to drink.<\/p>\n

I asked for black coffee with no sugar, as usual. About 30 minutes later, he came over again: \u201cwould you like more coffee?\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that he had remembered my beverage amazed me, especially because he was serving at least other 40 passengers. I accepted and then he replied: \u201cblack, no sugar, right?\u201d What a surprise! I couldn\u2019t believe he could remember the very details of my preference.<\/p>\n

My experience was truly pleasant and far different from what one is used to when travelling by plane. The ability of this employee contributed to improve the image I had of this airline and set it apart from the rest, something that became apparent to me on my flight back in \u201cHearing Airlines\u201d that same afternoon.<\/p>\n

During the trip, a flight attendant came to my seat and asked if I wanted something to drink. \u201cAn apple soda with no ice, please\u201d, I replied stressing on the words \u201cwith no\u201d. Immediately after, the employee handed me a glass with my apple beverage with ice!!! It was beyond belief, but this person had forgotten my request in a split second \u2026evidently, she hadn\u2019t listened to me. Upset about the situation, I chose to remain silent.<\/p>\n

Two clear points can be made out of this story:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. When it comes to service, people make the difference<\/li>\n
  2. Hearing is not the same as listening; in other words, receiving sounds is not the same as paying attention to them.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In the case of \u201cListening Airlines\u201d, the flight attendant showed a genuine interest in offering an excellent service to make me feel special. He listened, remembered my words and acted using that knowledge in my favor. On the other hand, the employee from \u201cHearing Airlines\u201d did just the bare minimum to comply with her job, behaving mechanically and triggering negative feelings in me by showing she wasn\u2019t interested in serving me.<\/p>\n

    Life can be ironic, because while \u201cListening Airlines\u201d promotes rates or new destinations in its advertising, the focus of \u201cHearing Airlines\u201d communication is no more and no less than \u2026quality service!!!<\/p>\n

    In the world of service, listening is far more important than talking. Listening carefully yields both rational-tangible and emotional-intangible benefits.<\/p>\n

    From a rational\u2013tangible perspective, listening is the key to get to know customers better, understand their needs and get to the core of their problems. Listening helps us provide a better service by allowing us to focus on effective actions that generate the results the customer expects.<\/p>\n

    But emotional-intangible benefits are perhaps more important. Listening shows respect and humbleness. Listening is a way of telling the customer we care about him. Listening produces empathy and a feeling of acknowledgment \u2026Listening delights customers!!!<\/p>\n

    A study conducted in the United States and published in the book \u201cCustomer Loyalty: How to Earn It, How to Keep It\u201d (Jill Griffin, Jossey-Bass, 2002) reported that 87% of customers feel that the companies they have contact with don\u2019t listen to them good enough.<\/p>\n

    It seems hard to believe, but something as simple as listening is very hard to find in organizations nowadays. Most employees behave like the flight attendant from \u201cHearing Airlines\u201d, acting like robots and forgetting about their main responsibility: efficiently serving customers requirements and achieving total satisfaction.<\/p>\n

    For this reason, here we provide some simple tips that will significantly improve your ability to listen to your internal and external customers.<\/p>\n

    12 Ways to Listen to Your Customers<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Acknowledge the enormous power and benefits that stem from carefully listening to others.<\/li>\n
    2. When the customer talks, stop doing whatever you are doing.<\/li>\n
    3. Stay 100% focused on the customer. Do not allow yourself to be distracted.<\/li>\n
    4. If you face the customer in person, establish frequent eye-contact, but without making him feel uncomfortable.<\/li>\n
    5. If you deal with the customer over the phone, close your eyes or focus them on a fixed spot.<\/li>\n
    6. While the customer is talking, write down key words in a sheet of paper. This will help you retain the main ideas.<\/li>\n
    7. Never interrupt a customer! Be cautious and let him finish talking.<\/li>\n
    8. Keep your emotions in check. Sometimes we don\u2019t like what we are told, but if you get carried away, your focus will shift from what\u2019s most important: the customer\u2019s feelings.<\/li>\n
    9. Don\u2019t jump to conclusions until you have listened to everything the customer had to say.<\/li>\n
    10. Read the customer\u2019s body language and tone of voice. Sometimes they speak louder than words.<\/li>\n
    11. If something is not well understood, ask the customer to repeat it.<\/li>\n
    12. Rephrase and double check with the customer.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Try to implement as many of these tips as possible in your everyday life, as they will help you provide a better service, make your communication with others more effective, and afford a better understanding of what customers expect from your, making them feel more satisfied and content.<\/p>\n

      About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Fernando Krasovitzky is the Managing Director of Leventer Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Make your communication with customers more effective with these key points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35963,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions\/35963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}