Understand Where Your Customers are Coming From

There’s something about not being heard that drives us all crazy. When somebody isn’t listening to what you’re saying it makes you feel unimportant and disrespected. It’s infuriating and can make a bad experience even worse.

What if you’re doing this to your customers? It’s true. Try as you might, sometimes you irritate your customers by refusing to listen to what they’re actually saying. Even the best customer service reps can misunderstand the message, and once they have an idea in their head about what the customer is saying they refuse to listen to anything else despite pleading from their customers.

So how can you better understand your customers? Here are some ideas.

Truly Listen

As mentioned sometimes we think we know what the problem is although it’s not actually what the customer is saying. It’s like you’re heading down one path while the customer is on a nearby path waving and shouting at you to join them. Unfortunately, you have headphones on and aren’t paying attention.

You can usually tell when this is happening. Something in their voice makes you realize their frustration level is increasing even though you (think you) keep solving problems. You just KNOW you’re doing the right thing but they’re practically pulling their hair out explaining it and re-explaining it to you.

You shouldn’t be afraid of asking the customer to start from scratch. Undoubtedly there’s something you missed along the way. Instead of forging forward, see if they can start over for clarification. While they may be a little annoyed, it beats driving them away when they don’t get their issue resolved.

Don’t Just Hear What You Want to Hear

Part of the problem when this happens is you’ve likely heard a similar issue before. A customer might have contacted you in the past with an issue that sounded the same and you fixed the problem. When someone calls in with a similar issue, you immediately compare it with the other one and assume the solution you came up with before will work.

For example, your computer software may pop up with a bug that kicks people out after a certain period of time. Others have called up with the problem before and you’re used to dealing with it.

However, one day someone calls up and says they’re getting kicked out right after they start the program. It’s a similar problem, and you assume it’s exactly the same as the other bug. Even when the customer explains the differences you keep expecting the old fix to work.

You’re choosing to hear what you want to hear. Just because something worked in the past doesn’t mean it will work now. It could be a similar problem but the cause could be completely new.

Treat Each Call As Unique (just like the customer!)

It’s important to treat each call as an individual incident. While you can use the past as an aid, relying on it entirely can be a bad idea. Just like every customer is unique, so is every call/email you receive. Pay careful attention to what the customer is saying in order to ensure you are approaching the issue with a fresh perspective. It can also help to repeat the issue back to the customer in your own words, to ensure you are truly understanding what they are telling you.

Understanding where each customer comes from is vital to maintaining a happy, healthy customer base.