How to communicate with customers.

The trick to effectively improve customer communication skills

Recently, I heard some people say that "communication is simple", but I don't agree. Talking is very simple, but communication means exchanging opinions with others or enjoying them, which requires higher skills. Communicating with others requires us to listen and speak skillfully, rather than talk without scruple. It is even more difficult to communicate with those who are full of fear, angry or frustrated, because under the control of this emotion, we will be more helpless. But whether at home or at work, don't despair or give up on your communication obstacles! Even the best communicators are honed bit by bit. Here we provide you with some small tips for your reference.

even if the other person seems to be angry with you, don't fight him back. Other people's emotions or reactions are likely to be caused by fear or frustration just like you. Take a deep breath, then quietly count to 1, and let the other person vent his emotions until he is willing to say what he really thinks.

you don't need to know all the answers. It is also good to say "I don't know". If you want to know something, just say it, and then say what you think. Or you are willing to work with each other to find the answer to the question.

react positively to facts or feelings, and don't be antagonistic. For example, it is better to say, "Tell me more about what you care about" or "I understand your disappointment" than to say, "Hey, I'm working" or "It's not my job" (it's easy to get angry). Grasp every communication opportunity, because many times you may be alienated from others because of a little absentmindedness.

people want to hear whether you agree with them or not rather than what you think. Many people are complaining that people don't listen to them, but they forget that they don't listen to others themselves! You can give all your opinions to show that you are listening, and say something like this: A. "Tell me more about what you care about" B. "What's the matter with what you care about?" C. "I'm very interested in what you just said. Can you tell me what makes you believe it so much?" D. "Why are you so satisfied with something?"

remember that what others say and what we hear may lead to misunderstanding! Our personal analysis, assumptions, judgments and beliefs may distort the facts we hear. To make sure you really understand, repeat what you heard and what you thought and ask, "Did I understand it properly?" If you have an emotional reaction to someone's words, just say it directly and ask for more information: "I may not fully understand what you said, but I understood it in my own way. I think what you said is the meaning of XXX. Is that what you mean?"

frankly admit the troubles and mistakes you have caused. Make a commitment to a deadline. If you need others' help, use your energy to influence them. For example, if you want to update someone's computer and work in her office, you can say, "I know it's impolite to bother you at this inconvenient time, but I will appreciate your cooperation." Our maintenance work can restore your working system to normal. We will come to you at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and finish the work at 5 o'clock. "

if no one asks you, don't point fingers. It's really a headache to say something that you know will be good for someone, but you can't say it. Use euphemistic expressions, such as "It may be …" or "I have encountered this similar situation, and if you think it is useful, I would like to share more of my experience with you." All of the above is better than saying "what should you do".

seek common ground while reserving differences. What do you two like (try not to disagree as much as possible)? Speak your opinion to find out the similarities. For example, "I think this plan can make you successful."

remember that change will put pressure on people. Use your enthusiasm to influence your employees, and they will not change and get out of control. In this chaotic world, this can make our mediocre life more warm. So if you are around someone, or you need him to do something for you, tell him as much as possible when you need help. If possible, tell him you want to help him, too.

active thinking and concentration. We always look at problems from our own perspective, or give our experience according to the environment. Many people who are considered to be successful, including professional athletes and literati, have positive thoughts. Ask yourself, "What's good about this thing?" Or "What can I learn from this?" To stay positive. Don't forget to take different ways to reduce stress to make your work more enjoyable.

most people, including yourself, are self-centered. This is not a bad thing, which enables us to protect ourselves. Don't assume that anyone will know your selfishness. Say what is most important to you and ask others what is most important to them. This will lay a good foundation for your communication.

improve your listening skills. Many people think their listening is good, but the fact is that most people don't listen at all-they just talk and think about what to say next. Listening means asking good questions and eliminating distractions, such as what to say next, who to see next, what's going on outside and so on. If someone has a thorn in his words, it is often because he has hidden fear in his heart. All they want you to do is to have a real and friendly conversation.

People living in cities have a sense of alienation, because each of us has built a psychological wall to isolate each other and protect ourselves. We are eager to find a friend who will listen.

People usually only hear what they like to hear, or explain what they hear in their own way. Often this is no longer what the other person really means, so people can only get 25% of the true meaning when they "listen".

In order to improve people's communication, we should advocate "active listening". The so-called active listening means actively listening to what the other party is saying and grasping the real facts to solve problems, not just passively listening to what the other party is saying.

When customers talk, they know how to nod in the middle and clap their hands properly, just like putting a little soy sauce when eating, which will definitely make the food more delicious. If you want to be an outstanding person in the sales industry, you must work hard on listening. If the customer doesn't talk, your business will definitely fail.

if you don't understand what someone said, it may be because you are in a hurry and missed a certain point. If you don't listen attentively and actively, you will get the wrong message. Concentrate on what the speaker says and asks questions, and send a clear signal to show that he cares about what he says, which can ensure two-way communication.

when listening to people, you must communicate with them as much as possible, as if you are talking. You should listen attentively, but if you don't make it clear, it is impossible for the speaker to know.

if you don't respond, and no response is produced, the speaker is not sure whether you understand. Showing that you are interested in the content is a kind of feedback, which can encourage the speaker to continue talking. Here are some simple and effective ways to show that you are listening.

signal that you are interested

You can show that you are interested in what you are saying in the following ways:

Keep eye contact: When listening, you must look into the other person's eyes. People judge whether you are listening and absorbing what you are saying, based on whether you are looking at the other person.

Let people finish their sentences: Let people finish their sentences without interrupting, which shows that you value the content of communication. People always interpret interrupting others as respect for their own thoughts, but it is disrespect for each other.

Agree: Nodding or smiling means agreeing with what is being said, indicating that you agree with the speaker. People need to feel that you are listening attentively.

concentrate: put aside distracting things (such as pencils, keychains, etc.) that you can doodle or play with, and you will be free from distractions. People always interpret scribbling, fiddling with paper or looking at watches as being absent-minded-even if you are serious.

Relax yourself: Take a relaxed posture (such as tilting your head slightly to one side or tilting your body center of gravity to one side), and you will get the impression that their words have your full attention.

all these signals enable the people you communicate with to judge whether you are listening attentively to what they say.

Check your comprehension

Check whether you have heard the information clearly and understood it correctly (especially when you are on the phone). You can do the following:

Explain the information: repeat what you have heard in your own words, and you can be sure whether you have received the information correctly.

ask questions: by asking questions, you can check your understanding of the information and let the speaker know that you are actively listening.

The above two-way activities not only enable you to get correct information, but also enable the speaker to concentrate on what he really wants to communicate.

The principle of listening

Stand in the other person's position and listen carefully:

Everyone has his position and values, so you must stand in the other person's position and listen carefully to everything he says. Don't criticize or judge the other person's ideas with your own values, but keep an understanding attitude with the other person.

To make sure that what you understand is what the other party said:

You must repeat what the other party said emphatically to make sure that what you understand is consistent with the other party, such as "Did you mean what you said just now?" and "I don't know if I heard it correctly, but what you mean?".

Listen to the other person's words with sincerity and concentration:

Keep your eyes on the other person's eyes sincerely. Eyes are the windows to the soul. If you look around and look at your watch and look through the materials at hand when the customer is talking, your business is probably ruined.

Listening skills

When a salesperson listens to a customer's conversation, the most common weakness is that he only pretends to listen to the customer's conversation, and he can't wait for the opportunity in his heart. He wants to speak his own words and completely abandons the important weapon of "listening". You can't hear the customer's intentions and expectations, and your sales are like an arrow that has lost its direction.

joe girard sells a car to a customer, and the transaction process is very smooth. When the customer was about to pay for the car, another salesperson talked to Gillard about yesterday's basketball game. Gillard talked and laughed with her companions with relish and reached out to pick up the car. Unexpectedly, the customer suddenly turned around and left, not even buying a car. Gillard has been thinking hard all day, wondering why the customer suddenly gave up on the car he had chosen. At 11 o'clock in the evening, he finally couldn't help but make a phone call to the customer and ask the reason why the customer suddenly changed his mind. The customer told him unhappily on the phone: "I talked to you about our youngest son during the payment this afternoon. He has just been admitted to the University of Michigan, which is the pride of our family, but you didn't hear it at all and just talked to your partner about the basketball game." Gillard understood that the root cause of this business failure was that she didn't listen carefully to customers talking about her favorite son.

listening is one of the good ways to sell. Japanese sales king Ichihara said: "For sales, listening is more important than eloquence." Salespeople can gain more recognition from customers by listening.

how to establish effective communication with customers is a problem that has long puzzled salespeople. Are you pursuing short-term sales success? Or do you want to keep a long-term relationship with customers? Can you successfully sell any product as you wish? Or, do you know what customers need? Do you know the skills of communicating with customers? Which form of communication is the most effective? There are three different communication modes here-polite hospitality, skill promotion and personalized service. Which communication mode is more suitable for your company?

in order to better understand these three modes, here is a simple example. There is a dairy store with three service personnel, Xiao Li, Da Li and Lao Li. When you approached Xiao Li, Xiao Li smiled, took the initiative to ask questions, greeted you with the weather for a while, talked about the current situation of the children for a while, and talked about something unrelated to buying milk. Xiao Li's way was to be polite to guests. And big Li, in another way, said, can I help you? What kind of yogurt do you want? We offer preferential treatment to our long-term customers. If the temperature is higher than 3℃, you can come here for a free cup of yogurt every day. Do you want to take part in this activity? Da Li's way is skill promotion. Lao Li's way is more mature and sophisticated. He talks to you about your daily dietary needs and asks you what milk you drink, sugar-containing or sugar-free. Maybe you are a diabetic, maybe you are losing weight? And Lao Li will always find a dairy product that suits you best, and tell you how to keep the nutritional content of milk. Lao Li provides a personalized communication mode.

so, which of the above three modes is more suitable for your company? Which is the most effective way? What are the internal relations among these three models? The following survey may be quite different from your intuition.

one of the questions is whether the non-verbal services used by salespeople are always consistent with the verbal services. If the two are consistent, these three modes will play a very good role. Some studies show that skill promotion can bring more benefits to enterprises.

however, if the provided language and non-language service information are inconsistent, customers tend to believe the non-language service information. That is to say, if a salesperson is trained to look polite, but his body language may reveal that he doesn't like his job or deal with customers in his heart, then polite hospitality will lose its meaning. Similarly, skill promotion will not achieve the expected results because of the unfriendly or careless sales staff. Only personalized service can combine verbal and non-verbal information perfectly, which is because the salesperson and the customer have established a deep relationship due to long-term communication.

the most important oral communication of salespeople is opening remarks and closing remarks. Because it is easy for people to remember what happened at the beginning and at the end when communicating. Therefore, when communicating with customers, salespeople should pay special attention to the polite greetings at the beginning and the final conclusion.

Polite hospitality pays attention to immediate response, including time immediacy, space immediacy and language immediacy. The so-called instant time means to say hello to customers who come in in time. For example, as long as the customer approaches the sales window within 1 meter, it is necessary to say hello within 5 seconds so that the customer can feel your warm reception. Space instant is close to customers in distance. The degree of closeness varies according to the cultural background of different places. Language immediacy means that customers can respond quickly when they express problems in different ways, instead of saying, "That's not my department's business" or "I'm not the person you're looking for". Small language differences often lead to completely different results. Therefore, it is better to use positive language, such as "Let's see what the problem is", which is much more polite than using passive language "This problem needs to be pondered".