Lesson 2: Communicate partnership
We know that your business has great things to offer its customers and that you’re eager to find out how you can increase your sales and grow your business. But before we can enact exceptional sales practices, we need to implement outstanding customer service. Before you can move forward with negotiations and sales, you need to communicate partnership.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
Communicating partnership means showing your customer that this is a relationship they can trust. You can do this through:
- Listening actively
- Speaking intentionally
Listen actively to engage what your customer is saying
Active listening is where you make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying, but, more importantly, the complete message being communicated. Engage in active listening by:
- Restating what the customer said in your own words
- Giving verbal cues of acknowledgment like “yes” or “mmhmm”
- Keeping your focus on the customer (no texting!)
If you listen more than you speak, you can pick up on important subtext. In particular, listen for ‘neon words’ throughout the conversation. Neon words grab your attention and communicate people’s motivation, connections and values. Neon words help you direct the conversation effectively.
LISTENING FOR NEON WORDS
“I have always wanted to start an at-home vegetable garden, my grandmother used to have one, and I want to help my family see the value and tradition of growing their own produce.”
When you’re listening for neon words (like the highlighted words in the example above), you want to focus on the customer’s process, connections, and values. In the example above, the customer expresses their trajectory with “wanted to start,” which lets us know they have not started and will most likely need startup products and services.
The customer also mentions their grandmother, so this is a great place to make a connection, like asking about other special memories they have with their grandmother. The customer identifies that the project is bigger than themselves by mentioning their family and they communicate their values by mentioning the importance of tradition. These would be great things to follow up on to further their vision.
Speak intentionally with your customers
To communicate partnership, we also need to speak intentionally because the words we use have an impact. As you prepare your response to what you’ve been listening to, show empathy to the customer’s experiences. Also, help shape perception through positive verbiage.
Be sure to tell customers what you can do for them instead of what you can’t do. In the customer service world, “can’t” is known as a “stop word”, because it stops the forward progress of the conversation or mentality of the customer. By intentionally stating what you can do, you create a more positive interaction while also letting the customer know what is outside of your ability.
At GoDaddy, we offer a wide range of do-it-yourself website builders. The DIY part includes designing the layout, uploading pictures, creating content, etc. Customers tend to call asking for help in designing their sites even though it is outside of the ability for our guides to do. Read through the excerpt below for a sample response that shows how we listen, show empathy, and then let the customer know what we can do to help them along their journey.
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE TO IMPLEMENT CAN VERSUS CAN’T VERBIAGE?
“You’re concerned and disheartened at this point. Designing your own website, even for the most savvy business owner, is not an easy task, or something that you would readily know how to do. The product that you’re working with does require some getting used to. Once you’ve spent some time with it, I’m sure you’ll really enjoy it.
In the meantime this is what I can do for you; I am going to send you some step-by-step help articles/videos that will walk you through some of the first steps you can take, and I am going to send you my email address so if you get to a point where you are still stuck we can talk about other options GoDaddy offers to get you a website you love while you focus on your customers and the growth of your business.”
We need active listening and intentional speaking to best service customers
As you listen actively and speak intentionally, you will communicate a partnership that builds trust with you and your brand. Don’t worry, active listening and intentional speech are skills that you can continually grow. You can improve by role-playing the conversations that are challenging to you, listening for neon words in all your interactions, and focusing on “can” versus “can’t” speech.