Active Questioning & Listening Techniques

Question Types

Questions are a great tool in helping you to:-

a)Validate understanding (-i.e. check if you are on the Customer’s wave-length.)

b)Control the conversation (-i.e. keep it on track)

c)Gather relevant, factual information

Below, are a summary of the key question types along with some tips of when to use/not to use them:-

Open:-

Encourages Customer to speak and offer more than a one word answer. Often start with Who, When, Why, What, Where or How? Be wary of using too soon in a conversation with a passive or introvert Customer as this type of questioning may make them dry up. Assertive Customers love this type of question.

Closed:-

Encourages Customer to offer a yes, no or very short answer. A good way of getting a passive customer to gain confidence before ‘opening up’ to you. Also an excellent question type to control the conversation (-especially an escalated one) with an aggressive Customer.

Hypothetical:-

Pose a theoretical question to the Customer. Useful to use if you wish to validate the Customer’s understanding or check your understanding of their issue.

Probing:-

Exploration or checking for more detail questions. Excellent question type to use in conjunction with the active listening technique.

Leading:-

Use to gain acceptance of your views or understanding. Be wary of over-using this type of question as it can influence a response or be seen as manipulative.

Extension:-

Gets Customer to expand on what they are saying to explore the issues. This question type tells the Customer that you are genuinely interested and want to know more.

Active Listening

Active listening as a technique is used to improve mutual understanding and build a rapport with the Customer. It involves really engaging and paying full attention to what is being said by the speaker. It encourages the speaker to open up as they receive lots of validation to do so from the listener through affirmations, (-e.g. aha, mmm, nodding etc) and then the speaker accurately repeats back what has been said.

Steps to successful Active Listening:-

Filter out background noise/distractions

Concentrate fully on what is being said, not on what is going on around you

Do not interrupt the speaker – let them finish what they are saying

Benefits of Active Listening:-

It forces people to listen attentively to others

It builds trust, rapport and encourages empathy

It avoids misunderstandings as the listener has to confirm back what they think has been said

It opens the conversation up and allows for quicker solutions building