Understanding Skills
Customer service is about helping people. That makes it essential to understand exactly what help people want and need.
Listening is a big part of understanding your customers. Merriam-Webster defines listening this way:
to hear something with thoughtful attention : give consideration
Understanding skills also include reading comprehension.
Email, chat, and text are all popular forms of customer service communication. Your ability to read and understand these messages is critical to outstanding service.
Active listening, as the name applies, means participating in the conversation. The goal is to learn more about your customer:
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How they feel
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What they need
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How you can serve them
Here’s an example of great active listening.
A software customer called the support department to ask if the software had a particular feature. It didn’t, but the customer service rep used active listening to dig deeper.
He asked the customer clarifying questions to understand why she wanted that particular feature. Once he understood the customer’s true purpose, he was able to suggest a better way for the customer to accomplish her goal.
Why is understanding essential?
Understanding helps us discover what help customers want and need.
Each customer is different. They have different personalities, needs, and expectations. Many don’t communicate their needs clearly.
Empathy is a part of understanding customer needs. It’s the process of being aware of and understanding another person’s feelings. That’s important because a big part of customer service is helping customers feel better.
How grow your understanding skills
Like rapport, most of us already use understanding skills in our personal relationships. This active listening exercise will help you identify some of those skills you naturally use.
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Find a partner. It could be a coworker or even a friend.
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Ask them to tell you a story. It could be about anything: their weekend, an upcoming vacation, or whatever else they want to talk about.
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Listen carefully for the main idea of the story and why you think it might be important to the storyteller.
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At the end of the story, give the storyteller a recap of what you heard. Ask your partner to tell you how close you came.
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Finally, reflect on the specific skills or techniques you used.
Do you tell your partner that you’ve included them in a customer service training exercise? That’s completely up to you. For them, it could just be a fun conversation.
This short video contains two additional exercises to help you build your understanding skills:
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Identify the real problem
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What’s my job?
