Active listening means paying attention, getting out of the way, and trying to understand another person’s point of view. It goes beyond simply hearing the spoken words. Active listening is a way to show understanding, respect, and care.
When leaders apply active listening skills in an organization, it can build engagement, trust, and innovation. And when contact center agents apply active listening skills to customer communications, it can lead to a better customer experience (“CX”) and greater brand loyalty.
This article will examine how to develop active listening skills and how they can benefit both leaders and contact center agents.
An article from the Harvard Business Review describes active listening as having three main elements:
Leaders who practice active listening skills are good for organizations. The Harvard Business Review found that active listening is associated with feelings of managerial support, leading to greater job satisfaction and higher engagement. And a study reported in Forbes found that employees who feel heard are nearly five times more likely to give their best efforts than employees who do not.
When leaders actively listen, they are perceived as showing respect and empathy. That creates an environment of trust where employees feel free to share insights, think outside of the box, and innovate.
One challenge in the age of social media is the prevalent use of platforms like Slack and LinkedIn. Just like email communication which lacks tone, body language, and non-verbal cues, social media messaging is a “cold” form of communication. This “one way street” model emphasizes being heard in a crowded space, instead of a dialogue. Because it encourages leaders to broadcast their views, and solicit support from employees with “likes”, “comments”, and “shares”, it can diminish listening and relating to others. Leaders need to focus on keeping their ears open and minds engaged for real active listening and feedback.
Active listening consists of specific skills, described in more detail here, that can be learned. Here are six active listening skills to practice:
It takes time to develop a full set of active listening skills. The good news is that any improvement will begin to unlock better communication and stronger relationships.
Contact center agents are your organization’s direct links to customers and clients. Improving active listening skills among agents has the potential to supercharge CX and drive brand loyalty – one customer at a time.
However, contact center agents have unique challenges in developing active listening skills.
The first is being consistent and keeping focus over the course of a day. Fatigue and distractions accumulate over the course of 50 or more customer encounters each day. But as agents improve their active listening skills, they will be able to resolve calls more effectively and with less fatigue.
Another challenge is that contact center agents lose many non-verbal cues that would be apparent in person. Here are a few tips to handle these kinds of encounters:
©Jerry Briggs all rights reserved.
Developing active listening skills can benefit your organization both internally and in customer-facing exchanges. If you would like to learn more about active listening, leadership development, or improving CX, please contact us.
