Ten tips to improve listening skills on the telephone
Need to improve your listening skills within the call centre? Christine Knott of Beyond the Box provides us with her top tips.
Stay focused
Prevent yourself from being distracted by colleagues or external noises and concentrate on what your caller is saying.
Detect emotions
Listen to the emotion in your caller’s voice. Does it match or endorse the words they are using?
Ask questions
Ask questions to gain more information on points you need to clarify.
Don’t interrupt
You listen more effectively when you’re not talking, so refrain from interrupting your caller. Let them finish what they are saying, interruptions may break their train of thought.
Don’t pre-empt
Avoid pre-empting what your caller is going to say, chances are you will be wrong and miss some of the content of their conversation.
Recap key facts
Summarise and reflect back to check you have heard the key facts and content of the caller’s conversation correctly. It also lets the caller know you have understood them. Statements such as “What I’m hearing is…” and “Sounds like you are saying…” are great ways to reflect back and summarise.
Pen and paper at the ready
Have a pen and paper to hand and get into the habit of making short quick references to any questions you want to ask or points you wish to raise or comment on. When your caller has finished speaking refer back to your notes and take action. If you are thinking of answers and responses whilst the caller is speaking, you are not listening.
Say it again
If you are having difficulty listening, make the necessary adjustments. You might say, “I’m sorry I missed that last point. Please repeat that for me.”
Watch the stereotypes
Avoid stereotyping individuals by making assumptions about how you expect them to act and what you expect them to say. This will bias your listening.
Be aware of the barriers to listening
• We think we’re right and the other person is wrong
• We feel we have to provide help right away
• We prefer to talk rather than listen
• We are waiting for gaps or pauses to jump in with our response
And don’t forget to keep practising…
_________________________________________
Christine Knott is MD of specialist training company Beyond the Box (www.beyondthebox.co.uk)
We have tended to find that background noise and distractions in the room are one of the biggest barriers to listening skills.
We used dual ear noise cancelling headsets and this had a significant impact on the amount of background noise. also because there was less noise we found that agents tended not to speak so loudly.
Comment by jamesportcullis — 30 Apr 2008 @ 2:42 pm
Listening to the customers’ words is the point in understanding what kind of issue they are trying to describe .. and asking questions to make sure whether they were correctly understood by the agent is so vital … sometimes we presume that we know from the beginning what the customer’s case is about but we could be so wrong .. so then let’s people talk and agents listen !!!
Comment by Ann@ — 1 May 2008 @ 5:12 pm
Asking the right types of probing questions also help in listening, probing questions even though what the customer is saying me seem to be loud and clear, it may not be what he/she is trying to communicate. Ensuring agents understand the right questioning techniques and their uses is a big help to listening…
Comment by Thelma — 27 May 2008 @ 2:14 pm
This is a great article and I like the comment from Jamesportcullis.
I want to comment on this article as a customer as well as a contact centre manager because I have witnessed everything I mention (visually & audibly) and I have been on the receiving end of the same as a customer.
In my experience the two main factors in ensuring your employees’ listening skills are at the very best level is by first of all removing all distractions such as internet, email, desktop games and similar and make sure everyone answering the phone has a pad and pen. It is essential to be able to focus entirely on the customer’s voice and the customer file.
Wearing a dual ear noise cancelling headset helps me personally; this can be complimented by ensuring everyone in the call centre knows not to distract someone on the phone - you all probably think this is common sense but you have no doubt seen someone today distract someone talking on the phone by asking what time their lunch is, saying goodbye, etc. Even the smallest distraction culminates in a weakened call experience and can be the difference between keeping/gaining or losing a customer.
Call centre layout will also help, especially if you’ve adopted the use of call centre furniture with divides, etc.
While most mobile phones are banned from most companies, how many times have you seen the girls staring in their handbags or the boys rushing to the toilets on a frequent basis? Again it’s common sense not to have a mobile phone switched on while you’re at work but how many times have you caught someone sending a sneaky text? As a matter of interest, if you think there’s no way anyone has their mobile phone on in your office, why not try the Bluetooth challenge? Just simply check the airwaves from your Bluetooth enabled phone or laptop - funny to see the whacky names of people, if nothing else…
Distractions come in all shapes and sizes and there isn’t enough time in the day to list them all here.
So to summarise: By removing all distractions and having team leaders and managers focusing some of their time and energy on these factors will enable customers to receive the very best attention from your employees.
Comment by Darren Degiorgio — 11 Aug 2008 @ 4:30 pm
[...] Darren Degiorgio for his comment relating to tips to improve listening on the telephone [...]
Pingback by Who won a Birthday Present? | Call Centre Helper — 20 Aug 2008 @ 11:31 am
Fantastic article!
I find it useful especially to overcome STM (short term memory). It’s common in the call centre where people tend to ask “May I have your name again?” while customer has given their name at the begining of the call…
Comment by Phoebe — 8 Dec 2008 @ 5:54 am
Thanks, the tips is very useful!
It reminds me that LISTEN attentively should come first & it is very crucial if we want to HELP customer efficiently without asking customer to REPEAT the same info twice.
Repetition will kind of like reflect the customer service agent is not attentive & still in “not ready” mode to serve.
Comment by Jeremy Ng — 8 Dec 2008 @ 8:47 am
Listening to customer is a way to show respect to them and the “we care” attitude. We need to ask customer for info again if we are not sure rather then we make assumptions. It is important to let customer feel that we are listening not just hearing.
Comment by Marv — 8 Dec 2008 @ 5:01 pm
I am having a difficult time hearing my customers. I work for a bond company. We have the old standard black phones. I do not belive that our company will ever get a head sets for the office. Then the next best thing for me is to get some ear plugs. We do not have cube’s, I do not belive they are practicle for our office because many times we a have to interact together because we get more than one caller at the same time calling on one client. But your website does give me tips that I will impliment when I go back to work. Thank you.
Comment by Sandy — 28 Jan 2009 @ 6:20 am
Thanks so much for all the tips & comments, i have really learnt from them.I am just two months old in the call centre and presently we are given training on telephone etiquette, what is a call centre, handling customers complaints et cetera.
This article has really made me to love call centre work more.
Thank you, Ruth
Comment by Ruth Asuquo — 29 Jan 2009 @ 6:00 pm
i am preparing for a telephone interview.This article is quite helpful and detailed.
Comment by oluseyi — 19 Feb 2009 @ 8:26 pm
i have just gained a position in a call centre and found these tips very usefull, thank you.
Comment by samantha — 8 Jul 2009 @ 11:23 pm
I agree about the name. If someone tells you their name it is important to remember it.
Comment by Monica B — 30 Aug 2009 @ 6:03 pm
my shift just got over but i found this article superb as an agent.iam going to follow all tips from tomorrow.added this page as favourites…thanks
Comment by saurabh sundariyal — 3 Sep 2009 @ 8:43 pm
pls,send me tips for improve listening power
Comment by Rajeeb lochan parhi — 5 Jan 2010 @ 9:53 am
Great tips
Comment by Dave — 1 Feb 2010 @ 9:30 pm