The 4 Things Customers Really Need Most businesspeople are aware that meeting customer needs is critical to business survival. Customers come to us because they need something, and if they didn’t need it or we were unable to provide it, we would have no business. The key to excellent customer service lies in partnering with customers to help them achieve their goals, solve their problems, and address their needs. At its most basic, good customer service involves solving the customer’s practical problems and meeting the customer’s business needs. However, our customers aren’t just numbers – they are also people, and as such, we must also make efforts to meet the customer’s personal needs. Every customer is human, and in our dealings with them we should keep in mind that our customers have four specific human needs that we need to address: 1.The Need to Be Understood Those who select your service need to feel they are communicating effectively. This means the messages they send should be listened to carefully and interpreted correctly. 2.The Need to Feel Welcome Anyone doing business with us who is made to feel unwanted will not return. People need to feel that their business is important to us and that we care about their needs and issues.They want to be seen as people, not problems. 3.The Need to Feel Important We all like to feel important. Anything we can do to make a customer feel special is a step in the right direction – and that means we don’t ignore, minimize, or discount what they have to say. 4.The Need to Feel Comfortable Customers need to feel comfortable. While we should try to see to their physical comfort, they also need psychological comfort; the assurance they are safe in our hands, and that they will be taken care of properly. They want to feel confident that we will meet their needs. How to Listen To meet these needs, we have to really listen to our customers. Most of us think we already know how to listen, but the truth is that there’s a big difference between the mere act of hearing and the real skill of listening. Unless we are skilled listeners, we will have difficulty identifying our customer’s true concerns and needs, or responding to those needs with appropriate solutions. If we truly want to consult with our customers and ensure that they feel understood, welcome, important, and comfortable, we must start with active listening. This means that we: Listen with our heart, not our ears. Stop talking, and don’t interrupt. Listen to the customer’s situation and perspective without getting defensive orpassing judgment. Mentally summarize the ideas we hear. Focus on what our customer is saying right now, not on planning how we are going to respond afterwards. Acknowledging and Empathizing There are two important communication techniques that we should use throughout any customer service conversation: acknowledging and empathizing . Acknowledging shows that we hear and understand what the customer is saying. It is an effective indication of concern, and one of the best ways to help the customer feel heard and understood. An effective way to express acknowledgement is to restate the facts the customer has expressed using a paraphrase. Not only does this communicate to the customer that we heard what they said, it allows them an opportunity to expand, clarify, or correct points that we may not have completely understood. Empathizing is effective when you want to show that you understand how the customer is feeling about their problem or situation. Often, the customer simply needs to articulate their feelings and know that they are heard and understood. Expressing empathy can be as simple as saying, I know this must be very frustrating – I would feel the same way.Empathizing helps build a relationship with the customer by showing that we care about them as a person. When the customer expresses strong feelings verbally, or when non-verbal cues tell you that they are experiencing emotions, empathize with the customer. Being Helpful and Staying Positive As customer service professionals, we want to project openness, helpfulness, and a positive attitude towards our customers. This helps ensure that we meet their need to feel understood, welcome, important, and comfortable. A customer reads our attitude in several ways, through both verbal and non-verbal cues. If we don’t know what you’re signaling to others, we may have a problem we don’t even know about. We need to be aware that signals such as facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language can openly tell others exactly what we are thinking and feeling. When we are speaking with customers, the most important thing to remember is to always use language that demonstrates openness and helpfulness.Avoid using judgmental or negative language.Keep things simple, without using jargon, specialized vocabulary or convoluted sentence structure. To some degree, we should match our speech patterns to our customer’s – this puts us on the same level and increases rapport, helping the customer feel more comfortable and welcome. In general, we should use positive language and words that convey authority and self-confidence, and avoid seeming tentative or vague. Finally, we can’t always say yes to everything – but we can always start by telling the customer what we can do rather than what we can’t. Baker Communications offers leading edge customer service training solutions that will help you address the goals and achieve the outcomes addressed in this article. For more information about how your organization can achieve immediate and lasting behavior change that will uncover new opportunities, drive revenue, and boost your bottom line, click here . 4 Feb, 2016
