Five Ways to Perfect Effective Questioning Skills

1. OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
These are questions without a fixed limit. They encourage continued conversation and help you get more information. Plus, they often give insight into the other person’s feelings. Open-ended questions draw more information. When you want the customer to open up, use open-ended questions that start with who, what, where, why, when and how. A few examples are:

• "What are some of the things you look for in a hotel?"
• "How do you feel the government could be more responsive to your needs?"
• "What are your concerns about this new program?"

2. CLOSED-ENDED QUESTIONS
Closed-ended questions have a fixed limit. They’re often answered with a yes or no, or with a simple statement of fact. Closed-ended questions direct the conversation. They usually get brief specific information or confirm facts. Here are some examples.

• "Do you have health insurance?"
• "Do you want the new brochure?"
• "Would you be interested in that?"

3. PROBING QUESTIONS
Sometimes you ask an open-ended question to get more information and you only get part of what you need. A probing question is another open-ended question, but it’s a follow-up. It’s narrower. It asks about one area. Here’s an example:

• "What topic areas are you interested in?" This is better than listing 50 topics to the customer.

• "Are you able to tell me more about the form you received?"
• "What did you like best about Paris?"

4. THE ECHO QUESTION
The echo question is a technique for getting more information. It repeats part of the phrase that the customer used with voice inflection converting it to a question and confirms the information that the customer has told you.

5. LEADING QUESTIONS
Many things can be good or bad. Take fire for example. Fire warms our home, cooks our food and does many useful things. Uncontrolled, it can burn down our houses.
This is the same as leading questions because they can be good or bad. If used improperly, leading questions can be manipulative because you’re leading the person to give the answer you want. But when used properly, you’re helping that person. Some examples of proper leading questions are:

• "You understand what I’m saying, don’t you?"
• "You’ll want to know about our same day delivery service, right?"
• "You’ll want to go ahead with this, wont you?"

They’re useful in helping someone who’s undecided make the right decision that’ll benefit them. You use a leading question ethically, when you help someone do the right thing.

When speaking with your customer, practice using a variety of different questioning techniques. It’ll help you to provide the very best customer service.

Source: Telephone Doctor