Nov 04 2008
What You Say, What I Hear
Listen for the Hidden Message
Are you listening to your customers? Really listening?
Communication is an amazingly complicated transaction. Words, spoken or printed, are just the beginning. Conversations take place in a hidden web of experiences and emotions.
When a customer says, “Why is this so expensive?” they may mean, “Are you trying to rip me off?” Or they may mean, “This must be really high quality – give me a good excuse to buy it.” If you are nervous about your pricing and assume “rip off” is the unspoken message, your defensive reaction could lose the sale.
Maybe a customer says, “Do you have this in a different color?” If you exchange red for pink, without understanding that your introverted shopper wants to fade into the background, you’ve lost the sale.
Advertising has been built around the idea of triggering buried emotional responses that customers don’t even know they have. So it should be no surprise that something as mundane as shopping for office supplies can leave some folks shaking with trepidation while others linger to try out every single pen.
Your marketing materials – everything from your landing page to the throw-ins tucked in next to a packing slip – drift on this sea of emotion. Don’t just listen to the words your customers use – listen for the message behind them. And when your customer responds to your words in an unexpected way, take a moment to check your response.
What you say is not necessarily what I hear.
Photo by PhotoRita [Allstar maniac] Released under Creative Commons License
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- Customer Service – Do Your Deeds Match Your Words
- To Get A Good Answer, Ask A Good Question
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