by Angela Taffs | Oct 2, 2018 | Business Success
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
This is a quote in Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People that I’m currently reading.
When I read this, a memory immediately came to mind that happened about 20 years ago. It was when I was in a meeting which was getting rather heated. I was one of the vocal ones (surprise surprise!) and when one of the other people in the room was in the middle of arguing with me, I was eagerly leaning forward attempting to jump in with my response.
Suddenly, the chair of the group stopped us. She turned to us both and said “I want you to both stop and listen to each other rather than waiting for your turn to reply. And I mean really listen!”
This stopped us both in our tracks. Well, it certainly stopped me. I realised instantly that I hadn’t really listened to anything the other person was saying as I was so intent in listening for a gap in the conversation to jump into and take over.
I have never forgotten this moment and when I have a strong opinion on something and want to get my point across, I now have a totally different stance. I now sit back. And listen.
Why?
Because I may just hear a different perspective that I hadn’t considered before, and this may just change my viewpoint. And if not, I can honestly and calmly say when I get the chance that I have listened carefully to all views put forward and would now like to put forward my own. This commands much more respect than being the one who shouts the loudest.
If you really want to get your point across, take a tip from Stephen Covey. Seek first to understand and then to be understood. It makes a huge difference, I promise you.
If you want to read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People you can buy it here on Amazon.
by Angela Taffs | Apr 16, 2018 | Business Success, Customer service
Do you ever have clients placing an order for your products or services only to cancel a while later? There may be a very good reason why.
Communication!
Yes, that simple act of keeping in touch and letting them know what is happening behind the scenes can make the difference between a happy customer and one who gets fed up thinking they have been forgotten and decides to take their business elsewhere.
There is no better example of this than when I ran my estate agents. Other agents were getting complaints and clients cancelling all the time to switch and coming to me. My clients stayed with me and the business was built on word-of-mouth recommendations.
Why?
Because I kept in touch. I put myself in their shoes and kept in mind how they might be feeling. Whilst my team were busy behind the scenes calling people about their property to book viewings and chasing surveyors and solicitors when a sale was agreed, the homeowner had no idea this was going on. All they had from other agents was silence. I made sure that every one of my clients had a call to update them every single week, even if there was nothing new to say. It made them feel important. They knew exactly what was going on and appreciated the call.
Yes, it took time and effort but the fact that my estate agency soared whilst others were struggling spoke volumes.
The key to stopping clients from cancelling
Take a moment to think about how often you keep in contact with your clients. Are you busy working behind the scenes on their behalf putting together their order or working on a project for them? Do they know this? Are you updating them? If not, then perhaps it’s time to think again about your communication policy. Set up a simple database such as CapsuleCRM to keep in contact with everyone and see how much they appreciate it. This simple step really could be the key to stopping your clients from cancelling and going elsewhere.
Just to finish, here are two current examples. Just this morning I cancelled an order with a local company for having a sign made as they simply have not kept in contact with me and not sent information to me as promised. I have chased them no less than three times and yet they have still failed to keep in contact, and I am now fed up. I have now contacted another company and transferred my order to them.
The other example is my husband’s laptop which stopped working whilst under guarantee. We took it back to the shop where it was purchased and they promised to fix it asap. That was six weeks ago!!! My husband has called on a number of occasions to get updates and then called again this morning. They said it was fixed and had been posted back. If this company had kept us updated and even let us know it was fixed and on the way back, we may have bought from them again. As they couldn’t be bothered to keep in touch, we have both said we will never buy from them again (and will tell others not to!)
Communication is key
Remember, whatever you do, don’t forget communication is key. If you don’t keep in contact with your prospects and clients, don’t be surprised when they go and buy elsewhere.
