What makes a good conversation?
Sure, witty banter, interesting topics, and an animated conversation partner help. But the key part of a conversation is being heard.
There is nothing worse than having a conversation with someone and you can tell that they are just waiting for you to stop talking so that they can say their piece. In fact, you wouldn’t even call it a conversation as you know that person is not interested in what you have to say. You certainly don’t want to give your clients that same feeling.
Listening is every bit as important as talking when it comes to communication with your clients.
These are just a few of the things that listening can help you achieve.
A Big Part Of Communication Is Listening…
Listening Builds A Relationship With Your Customers
By listening to your clients you can show them that you both value and appreciate the relationship with them.
When you listen to their feedback and the questions they ask, you can get to the root of the problem they are facing. They do not have to volunteer direct feedback for you to learn about their needs. Simply listen when they speak and ask questions to round out your understanding.
Once you identify their problem, you can show them that your business is the perfect solution. When you provide a solution, you create trust. And trust is the key to any good relationship.
Listening Gives You Feedback to Review
Feedback is a value thing in any business. Positive feedback lets you know that you are doing a good job and serving your clients well. But negative feedback can be a good thing too. If you take it constructively, you can use it to improve the parts of your business that aren’t working so well.
Listening Increases Customer Spending
The more you listen to your customers, the happier they will be. That has a direct benefit for your business as happy customers are willing spend more. They will return to your business again and again, often increasing their spend each time.
Listening Creates Brand Ambassadors
When customers are happy, they also tell their friends all about your business and how you can help them. They become your brand ambassadors, promoting your business and doing your marketing for you. The greatest thing about word of mouth referrals is that they are far more powerful than any words you can write for your own business.
Plus, if you are given a referral by someone you trust, then you are more likely to listen up and go spend with that business when you need it. Effectively, that referrals removes a lot of the long process of building trust.
Listening Brings In New Customers
So you already have your word of mouth referrals flowing in as a result of listening, but you can also use it to nail your marketing message. By collecting feedback and talking with your customers, you can get to the bottom of what they really want from your business. They will have a certain problem to solve and you can speak to them in their own language about how you can solve it for them.
By speaking your language, you show how much you ‘get them’ and position your business as the obvious choice.
Listening Helps You Avoid Crisis
By paying attention to what your client and customers are saying, you can avoid crisis. It allows you to fix things before they become a problem, and also to deal with issues when they do arise.
Listening also involves monitoring your social media channels for comments and communication. Unfortunately, here are some trolls and keyboard warriors out there. The important thing to remember is not the negative comment they made, or the bad review they left you, but how you respond to the comment and the solution you provide.
A bad review can be left out of spite, or in an unreasonable fashion, but you can save the whole situation with a friendly and professional response that states the facts.
Remember that conversation is a two-way thing. A very large component of the conversations you have with your clients should be about listening. So make sure you are paying attention to the things they are telling you during your communication and use those things to your advantage!
We love listening to what you have to say! So feel free to get in touch and share your thoughts with us.