Learn how to be a better listener and you’ll automatically improve your customer service skills, you’ll build better relationships, and you increase your wisdom, all from being a better listener. In this blog post, you’ll learn 5 techniques you can use right away to be a better listener. Also, check out this infographic on 5 Ways to Improve Customer Service Listening Skills.
It’s More Than Just Being Silent
Being better at listening well is much more than just being silent while the other person is speaking. It involves asking questions for clarification and working to remember what the other person is saying. It pays off at work, at home, and with your friends. Check out our list of the top 10 ways to be a good listener.
A Better Listener is Cooperative
Most people think they’re good listeners, but the reality is they’re not. According to the Harvard Business Review, good listening is an intentional process in which you build up the speaker’s esteem and engage in a cooperative conversation. In Professor Paul Grice’s Gricean Maxims, a conversation is a process of respectful give and take. The speaker respects the listener’s time, intellect, and integrity, and the person listening pays close attention.
A Better Listener Focuses on the Speaker
When the other person is speaking, a good listener focuses on them. They aren’t thinking of their response, they’re focusing on understanding and remembering what the speaker is saying. They use their active listening skills to honor the speaker, even when they don’t agree. They ask relevant and open-ended questions, they maintain reasonable eye contact, and they may even take a long time with their responses.
One of the best ways to be a good listener is to quiet your mind while the other person talks. Then, when they’re finished, ask thoughtful and relevant questions to ensure you understand the meaning of what the other person said.
A Better Listener is Aware
TThis requires you to be aware of when your attention wanders, to be aware of when your focus is on yourself, and to be aware of when your prejudices and judgments (we all have them) start to influence your understanding of what the speaker is saying.
A Better Listener is Intentional
Once you are aware of your responses, you can then become intentional about managing your listening. You intentionally focus on the speaker, you intentionally suppress your past judgments and prejudices to keep an open mind, even when you disagree with what is being said.
It’s a Way of Showing Respect
Being a better listener is a great way to show respect to another person. When you listen carefully and respond thoughtfully, the other person will feel heard. In any form of human interaction, that’s important. In customer service interactions, it’s even more important, and in IT customer service interactions, it’s critically important.
For MSPs, VARs, and other IT businesses, when your customer feels heard and respected, they’re more likely to sign long-term contracts and refer business to you. For corporate, government, and educational IT departments, when your end-user feels heard and respected, they’re more likely to complete favorable evaluations and come to your defense behind your back.
By working on your listening skills, you open a whole new world filled with new ideas, creative approaches, and innovative solutions to problems. You learn to recognize old patterns that don’t serve you well and find ways to replace them with new, more successful techniques. It helps both professionally and personally as you build deeper, more fulfilling relationships, based on understanding.
Remember the wisdom of the Dalai Lama, “To be a good listener, stop talking. When you speak, the only thing you hear is what you already know. If you want to learn something new, stop talking and listen to others.”
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