3 Strategies to Positively Listen to Your Customers

Daily someone sends something to us that promises to get our message out there and insure we are heard above the competition for our customers’ attention.

It reminds me of trying to quiet my two-year-old daughter’s department store tantrums by yelling. The only attention I received was louder cries and suspicious glares of child abuse.

Are you abusing your customers by yelling your company’s features at them?

Instead positively listen to your customers. Yes, it’s counterintuitive, but it grows your bottom line and that’s what you want, right?

Here are 3 Strategies to Positively Listen to Your Customers:

Physically Listen
My two-year-old daughter wanted my attention while I read the paper. After repeating, “Daddy, I want to tell you something” three times, she smashed the paper. I leapt from my chair to stare at her. Her reply was, “Daddy, I want you to listen to me with your eyes.”

What do your customers have to smash to get your attention?

Our customers want someone to physically listen. Sure, they’ll use live chat, but somebody better be there to pay attention and respond accurately, i.e., listen with their eyes.

Want to get your message out there? Put yourself in a position to physically listen to your customers whether it’s across a counter or a Twitter DM. You build an openness to communicate as you do.

Mentally Listen
There’s a great line in the movie, Pulp Fiction: “Are you really listening or just waiting to talk?”

You know when you’re on the phone and the person is multi-tasking. You can hear them typing an email or a text. An awkward pause when you ask a question.

You also pick up on the relative unimportance of what you’re saying when they start talking about themselves or their business features.

Your customers can, too.

Listen for how they say what they say. The excitement of a rapid speech pattern. The frustration in their tone of voice. Their hesitation in knowing what to ask.

Yes, you’re in business to make money so the conversation is about your profitability. Remember who gives you that money.

Listen and mentally focus on the customer. Make it about them. You build awareness as you do.

Emotionally Listen
So you’re physically positioned and mentally focused to listen. When it’s your turn, how do you respond?

By launching into a features-driven monologue about how great your business is? That’s like trying to have sex on the first date. Good for one night only and leads to buyer’s remorse.

The path to perpetual profitability for your business is paved with asking questions like, “What do you mean by ___?” and statements like, “Tell me more about ___.” Such open-ended invitations prompt your customers to reveal more, thereby building trust.

Trust is the ultimate currency of exchange. It’s more than transactional. It’s transformational.

As you respond with emotionally-engaged listening, you discover their desires and problems. Then offer your product or service as a benefit that complements it.

Your customers accept your offering and return with their family and friends.

Why?

Because you positively listen.