If you had to find one thing that all organizations must have, topping the list is communication. Without it, there are no sales, no customers and no reason to exist.
If you Google “human communication theory” you get 57 million choices of reference material.
If you are in Customer Service, you only need one theory.
It's called the "Get It Right" theory of communication.(GIR) (I didn't see this one listed on my search)
This theory has one premise and one outcome. If you listen to everything a customer is communicating to you, you have at least a 100% chance of getting a GIR value of 100.
If you don't listen to everything a customer communicates, you have at least a 100% chance of a GIR value of zero!.
So, to increase your chances of getting a GIR value of 100, what could you do to improve yourself?. I recommend first understanding how we communicate:
The 3 V's
Visual
Verbal
Vocal
We have two information gathering devices located at the front of our head. We take in about 60% of our world through our eyes. (visual)
We get another 25-35% from our ears (vocal) and the other 5-10% from the actual bits of information that are being transmitted. (verbal)
The actual nuggets of factual information equal only 5-10% of the communication process. Is there any wonder why the person that takes the time to totally understand everything the customer says has the best chance of increasing their GIR value to 100?
You can increase your Get It Right value by paying less attention to the manner of delivery and more to the content. In other words, "Just the facts ma'am."
This is not saying do not recognize emotions, or don’t practice common courtesy or any other tried and true methods of delivering Professional Customer Service. BUT you need to concentrate on the items that are most important to the customer.
When you concentrate your efforts on the "what is" and not the "what isn't", you will raise your GIR value to 100.
