Listening to Customers Costs Nothing

Tonight I have been working on my computer for about 2 hours. During those 2 hours I have received 3 cold calls...well 1 cold call and 2 people surveying what their customers want. Why?

The answer looks obvious...to build into the products and services for the future?

I suppose...

But what I find strange is that - people pay people to work on a night to ask customers inane questions at a time that is not convenient - it is family time and most people don't want to be interrupted to help you. They don't even give you an incentive or reward for providing the answers...

If you have to spend money doing this as a leader I would be asking "Why spend money upsetting, interrupting customers during their personal time....when we could just listen to them when they are interacting with us! You don't need a telephone you need bigger ears...."

Persistance for Profit

I love this quote from Craig Newmark

" There's no genius behind it. It's persistence and listening to people"

Two wonderful qualities for a successful business.

Business is a journey, a winding journey that has many roadblocks and traffic jams....to be successful you need to have a desire to break through those blocks and find a new path to profit. Persistence is the fuel and listening ensures that you have chosen the right path.

3 Tips of Reducing Stress within your Team

People at work need to feel that they have a degree of control, remember outside of work they are parents, or adults running their own lives.....so if they don't feel they are in control at all then stress will follow. So here are 3 key management techniques that help reduce stress within your team.

1. Be approachable.....ensure people can come and talk to you about problems both at work and at home.
2. Remember your role is remove barriers which prevent them from doing a great job. To do this you need to be approachable, so that you know what the problems are!
3. You need to care about them as an individual, care that they succeed, care that they are feeling strong, care that they understand their role.

Key tools that you need to succeed with the above 3 points, and don't worry they are FREE -

YOUR HEART AND YOUR EARS

AND EVERY PERSON HAS THEM SO NO EXCUSE!

Perfect - see it as a warning!

If you ever feel that there is a great atmosphere, that you have reached peak performance, that there are no real issues, that morale is great...beware!!

Is it real or are you just not close enough to your customers or your employees?

Sometimes people tell us what they THINK we want to hear....when things are going well, stay on top of the issues, stay close, walk around, listen, talk, dig below issues, ask "We have made many improvements, how can we continue to drive forward?"

Customer Service

We all have suffered bad customer service. Here are 2 questions that I was asked this morning by a customer service agent who was handling a query with me

1. What would you like to see happen here?
2. How can I help you handle this right now?

This had the effect of switching me from complaining (!) to possible solutions, but also it gave me the impression that they were listening to ME.

Finally, the person took total responsibility, phoned me back after speaking to various other people and then phoned me back later to ensure that I was happy that the situation had been resolved. Wow, that made me feel a million dollars.....am I going to be loyal to them....you bet!

How to get more feedback

Yesterday I touched on the importance of pausing. Today I want to talk about starting your questions with "So, what...?"

In questioning ask - "So, what could you do to...?"

In listening say " So, what you are saying is........?"

In summarising state "So, what we have here is......?"

The "So, what" technique gives clarity, it is non threatening and simple. Try it and tell me if it helps!

The Key to Listening

So what is the key or art of listening. Forget all the books here is the key - a pause.

Often we are so involved in the conversation we talk too much, learn to pause before you speak. During that pause think about the following

1. What did they say?
2. What are the positives that you can build upon?
3. What is the key message - after laying aside the emotion ?
4. What is your emotional state and control it to ensure that you keep the dialogue going~?

A pause shows that you are thinking, that you have listened to what they have said. Your role then is to show that you have listened by picking up on the key message. Don't shout down the negatives, make sure that your first reply is about the positives.