Five Habits That Lead to Poor Listening
The listening process is a combination of what we hear, what we understand
and what we remember. When you listen well, you learn more. Good listening
communicates to your customer respect and caring. Improving your listening
process means identifying and eliminating any bad habits you may have
acquired. Below is a list of five of the most common poor listening habits:
- Interruptions. Do you go through unrelated files or type on your computer
during phone conversations with customers? Do co-workers feel free to ask
you questions or interrupt while you're on the phone? These interruptions
say to the customer, "What you have to say isn't very important to me."
- Fear of not having all the answers. You don't need to know all the
answers to be a good listener. This bad habit can cause you to miss the real
questions, and sometimes what the speaker really wants isn't answers but
understanding.
- Believing that you know better than the speaker does. This habit can
cause you to dismiss the customer's message, or even to interrupt it with a
premature solution.
- Overreacting. When something a customer says pushes one of your "hot
buttons" perhaps you are offended by the customer's choice of language or
style of explanation. It's easy to stop listening. Instead, you begin
mentally disagreeing -- saying in your mind what you would like to say out
loud.
- Pseudolistening. Often listeners just pretend to listen, whereas in
reality they are focusing their attention somewhere else. On the telephone,
it's much harder to give feedback that shows that you are listening. You
must rely on the words you use, the questions you ask, and the "uh huhs"
and "mmm's" that replace head nodding and gestures.
-- From "Great Customer Service On the Telephone," which can be purchased
through the SOCAP International Resource Center Bookstore.
