Skills for great calls every time
Every interaction and conversation with our customers should be treated equally as important as the last. Whether it’s by email, phone or in person, having the right conversations can make a real difference to the relationship that we build and grow.
There are three vital ingredients to having successful conversations with your customers:
In any conversation, the first thing you should do is identify the tone. Is the customer happy, inquisitive or angry?
01. Stop and Listen 02. Don’t take it personally 03. Make it human 04. Wear a smile
Set up the call for success from the start by setting the agenda. Acknowledge the reason for the call and lay out how you’re going to resolve or answer their question.
Lead with the right questions to delve deeper into the cause of the issue, and make sure you have the correct understanding of the issue from the customers perspective.
If the customer has an issue, focus on the resolution, allow them to give you all the information, actively listen, and read between the lines. Then set out the customers’ expectations.
Using these questioning techniques, you can move from an 'interview’ to a conversation.
Open-ended questions require more than a one-word answer. They allow your customer to elaborate and develop a conversation. An example of this would be “Tell me about your users…” as opposed to a closed question like “How many users do you have?”
We often want more information than we get when we ask a question. Probing questions allow us to delve a little deeper. An example of a probing question might be “Why do you think your users do that?” or “What exactly do you mean by that?”. Using the word ”why” will allow you both to develop your thinking.
Confirming questions are designed to confirm your understanding of what your customer has just said. They are also a great verbal nod to show that you’re listening. Start your confirming questions with phrases such as “So, what I’m hearing is….” and offer back to your customer the key things you had heard from them.
Leading questions try to bring your customer round to your way of thinking. With the business value prompter, these should be used sparingly to get a true reflection of how things are going. These questions tend to be closed and don’t allow you or the customer to elaborate.
When a customer calls we tend to listen for immediate clues as to why, and begin to shift our focus to how we will respond. We might even start looking up information or preparing what we’re going to say. But think about how frustrating it can be when we don’t feel we’re being heard.
Your customer deserves your full attention – so stop and listen!
Your customer will feel valued and understood. They’re also likely to be calmer, willing to listen to you in return, and more open to your suggestions or recommendations. You will feel better informed and more able to control the conversation. This will help you establish a rapport with the customer, allowing you to confidently make suggestions or recommendations.
Putting emphasis on a word can change the whole meaning of a sentence. Every single word in this sentence has the power to change its meaning. By actively listening to your customers, you can hear these minor inflections and gain a better understanding of the customer's point of view.
"I never said she stole my money” “I never said she stole my money” “I never said she stole my money” “I never said she stole my money” “I never said she stole my money” “I never said she stole my money” “I never said she stole my money”
"Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply."
- Stephen R. Covey
As human beings, we all interpret things differently based on our experience, our emotions and our influences. What is delightful to some is awful to others. We need empathy to build common ground with our customers, we need to help them feel that we understand their viewpoint.
Broadly speaking, the difference in meaning between these two terms is as follows:
Sympathy is feeling compassion or sorry for, or the situation that another person encounters.
Empathy is the ability to put oneself in another’s shoes, and understand the emotions, ideas and opinions of that person.
You’ll have learned a lot through the critical conversations masterclass about controlling the conversation you have with customers – asking the right questions, really listening to understand what the customer is telling you, and putting yourself in the customer’s shoes to imagine how you’d feel in the same circumstances.
Our aim is to make our customer offboarding experience better than our competitor's onboarding experience. We know that Webex is best in class but as the saying goes – absence makes the heart grow fonder.
With that in mind, we've created a Cancellation considerations checklist. Each customer will have their own set of considerations dependant on circumstances and products but the checklist is a great place for you to start.
And you never know you might just have one final save play up your sleeve.
Download the Cancellation considerations checklist
