Building rapport with customers is all about creating a common bond of trust, particularly over the phone.
So, you must learn to empathize with your customers to build rapport, have a genuine interest in their situation and make them feel valued.
This is so important to providing good service and increasing sales.
Key learning points on rapport building over the phone
- Remember that rapport is about being a friend.
- Use your active listening skills and become aware of your customer’s ’emotional driver’. It will be either a ‘movement away from pain’ or a ‘planned movement towards pleasure’.
- Excellence in communication can be achieved through putting conscious effort into your use of tonality. Be congruent in tone and words. Really mean what you say.
- Try a more upright sitting position, or even stand up to build rapport. It really works.
- Remember that ‘clean language’ is a quick win strategy for creating rapid rapport. Use keywords employed by the customer to reassure them that you have listened and are in tune with them.
- Rapport building acts as the foundation for the introduction of products and services that could benefit the customer. Without establishing rapport, you are unlikely to get the results you desire.
