This post to the blog is a direct result of my personal experience with customer service reps this week. I am not much different from the rest of the world. There are times when I find it necessary to call a company and speak with a real person regarding some product or service challenge I am experiencing. This week it seemed that I needed more assistance that usual.
I discovered there are three specific types of customer service reps.
The first is the friendly chatter. This is, in my opinion the best. This is a true service oriented rep. He/she always speak to the customer like they are talking to their favorite aunt or uncle. They are very pleasant and very helpful.
The second type is the speed reader. This is a customer service reps who is reading from a script and will not or cannot be stopped in mid sentence or they will lose their place. God help you if this happens because they will start the whole script all over again. They simply will not be interrupted!
The last is the mumbler. This customer service rep starts out like to friendly chatter, good so far. Then the wheels come off the wagon. While they are researching the question at hand they mumble to themselves. They think they are having a conversation with when in fact they are completely confusing you, the customer. You are confused because you’re not sure if they are asking you a question, if you should answer or are they talking to someone else. Neither is true, they are trying to talk themselves through the navigation of the problem.
Almost all customer service reps begin their conversation with the same basic phrase, something like, “Hello how are you today?" Or, "How might I help you today?” most of them mean it, for others it’s something they’re supposed to read from the script. And still others have been counseled by their supervisor regarding their communication skills and think they are supposed to say this phrase to be “in” a conversation.
So, how can you tell which type of customer service representative you are speaking with? There are some basics of human communication “The Art of Visual Listening” that are important to keep in mind. If you own my book, “Don’t Look At Me In That Tone of VOICE!” read the section on page 26, titled “Perspective and Emotion: the GGNEE Effect©. If you don’t have your copy you can buy it from this blog today!
Here is an excerpt from the book;
“This diagram illustrates the GGNEE (pronounced “Jenny”) Effect© of how varying perspectives eventually narrow down to a universally-shared, emotion-based response.
Communication, with or without conflict, begins on the macro level of gender. This is the single most obvious and identifiable differential in any type of auditory communication. For the most part, a male voice is different from a female voice. Plus, the way men convey an idea is very different from the way women convey the same idea.
Within the first few seconds of a telephone conversation, we can easily garner some glaringly basic facts about the other person. Gender is one of the first facts we learn, followed by the approximate age of the speaker, and so on. “
Once your brain has taken all of this into consideration you have made some assumptions. By the way, all of this happens instantly and without your consciously knowing it is occurring. Now you begin to listen to the subtleties of tone, inflection, rate and numerous other factors. Tone, this will indicate mood. Everyone who has been or who has had an assistant has heard “Smile when you answer the telephone.” Why, because your smile can be heard on the phone. That's tone. Intonation is the emphasis placed on words or syllables, as in “Read my Lips!” Rate is the speed of the person’s speech. If they or you are nervous your rate will increase. If they are comfortable with what they are doping the rate will be more measured and thus a more easy/friendly pace.
I hope this help you the consumer of services and those that render support in speaking and listening better.
So, until next time, “The better we listen to one another, the better we hear one another…
Rik
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