Are you Really Listening to your Customers and Employees?
By Shawn T. Kiley

Aloha!

Most people in the hospitality industry would say that they listen to the needs of their customers and employees, and many do.  But are you teaching your staff to really listen to what you’re customers are saying?  You know, some customers are communicating with you by not even speaking. A lot of people believe that being a good communicator is being able to speak effectively, to get your point across.  That is definitely a component of good communication. But listening is the most important part of communication. Again, without quality listening skills, you are not a quality communicator.

There is a broad difference between hearing and listening. We hear noises, such as the wind blowing, a clock ticking, traffic noise. We hear noise. We listen to people. Listening is a proactive and acquired skill that takes practice and patience. Generally speaking, when two people are having a conversation, while one is speaking the other is picking up just enough to formulate their response. Many times, in a working environment,  people already know what they’re going to say back to you before you even finish talking.

An example is a customer complaint or dissastisfaction.  This is a perfect time to not only resolve their issue, but to win them over as loyal customers.  Unfortunately, too many times, the employee is immediately put on the defense simply by receiving a complaint rather than taking the time to listen carefully to help resolve the issue. Many times, just the customer feeling that they’re being listened to is enough to calm them down, help them feel understood or resolve the issue entirely!

Let’s take a look at five key points to the skill of listening and see if there’s anything we can improve upon.

Many times we just need to stop talking.
Try listening to someone while you are talking.  For instance, try to have an important phone conversation with a friend and listen to an intriguing newscast at the same time.  Can you do it? Of course not!  You simply can’t talk and listen at the same time.  It doesn’t work.  In order to effectively listen to another person, you must not be talking yourself.  Seems simple enough, but try this observation.  Watch people go through their day.  Observe your own behavior.  See how many times people are talking over each other. It’s impossible to talk and listen at the same time.

When you are listening to another person, avoid distractions.
How many times have you been engaged in conversation with someone, and they have been staring at a television or computer screen, reading a paper, looking over or past you, trying to quiet the kids. It happens all the time. Especially in the workplace. In order to effectively listen to another, there need to be as few distractions as possible.  If you do get distracted, simply say “I’m sorry I need to get my child from the middle of the street, but what you’re saying to me is important. Could you excuse me for just a moment?”  A work example would be “Pardon me, I have to take this phone call, if you’ll hold on for just a moment, we’ll get back to this conversation which is very important to me.” People are extremely sensitive to when they feel like they’re tot being listened to. They sense they’re not being listened to and you are losing relationship trust. If they feel like they can’t come to you as their boss, for instance, and get your undivided attention, the first time, then they more than likely will feel less inclined to come to you when there’s a very important issue that needs to be discussed. In order to listen effectively, you must avoid distractions.

Part 2 in June’s TIPS article.

In the meantime, here’s a something interesting called You opened your Banana Wrong!

Until next time... Shawn

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