Listening and Hearing Aren’t the Same Thing

By Sanya Weathers

Managing the relationship between a company and a customer involves listening. All too often, companies fall into a pattern of hearing without listening, and take action that jeopardizes their relationships. Here are three of the common pitfalls:

–    Topic Burnout. There are some topics that come up so often that the community team/customer service team/PR team just sort of… glazes over when the topic comes up. There are two problems with allowing this to happen. One, even if the customer is not saying anything new, the topic is new to that customer. The minimum response standard is polite referral to a FAQ if you’re short on time, and cut and pasting some relevant information from the FAQ if you’d otherwise be playing Minecraft.

The other problem with glazing over is that occasionally, the customer will be saying something genuinely new – either a problem in the topic category that you have not addressed, or an angle on the whole situation that will enable you to clear up the entire mess. If you kick this person to the FAQ , you will enrage him. If you kick him to the FAQ rudely, you will lose his business and create negative word of mouth.

So don’t hear a certain word and tune out – listen.

–    Emotions Kill Internet Communication. In the physical world, yous customer being upset does some good. It decreases verbal communication, but adds in a lot of other kinds of information that helps the listener… that’s you… to prioritize, to demonstrate empathy, and more. Online, someone who is upset just doesn’t make any sense. If you hear anger, don’t close and delete the ticket/email/FB post. This is your chance to prove that you can listen. Contact the user. Let them know you didn’t understand, but that you want to find out what happened and try to make it right.

This kind of problem is on the rise as more people feel technically connected and personally isolated. You can accomplish a lot just by being a human being in listening mode.

–    Listening Takes Longer. When you’re just hearing a customer talk, you’re not 100% engaged. That means you’re missing key details, and your response is going to be infuriatingly vague. In order to be a good listener, you need to close Minesweeper, minimize your NaNoWriMo file, and open up a notepad. Real or virtual, your choice, but either way you need to be taking notes. Let the customer know you’re taking notes by stopping him and reading back your notes, or asking him to slow down so you can catch it all. Ask questions. Just the act of being so engaged will turn the customer into an ally instead of an enemy.