1. ANSWERS

KEY TERMS

The answers to the statements (Key Terms) are placed below the statements:

attendinglag time

biaseslistening

circadian rhythmlistening gap

closed-end questionsmemory

comprehending or assigning meaningobjections

customer needspersonal obstacles

employee assistance programs (EAPs)psychological distracters

external obstaclesrecognition

faulty assumptionsresponding

hearingthought speed

information overload

  1. Inquiries that typically start with a verb and solicit short, one-syllable answers and can be used for such purposes as clarifying, verifying information already given, controlling conversation or affirming something.

Answer: closed-end questions

  1. Reasons given by customers for not wanting to purchase a product or service during an interaction with a salesperson or service provider.

Answer: objections

  1. Typically start with words like who, when, what, how, and why and are used to engage others in conversation or to gain input and ideas.

Answer: open-end questions

  1. Motivators or drivers that cause customers to seek out specific types of products or services.

Answer: customer needs

  1. In communication, this relates to ensuring that verbal messages sent match or are in agreement with the nonverbal cues used.

Answer: congruence

  1. Factors outside an organization or the sphere of one’s influence that can cause challenges in delivering service.

Answer: external obstacles

  1. Refers to having too many messages coming together and causing confusion, frustration or an inability to act.

Answer: information overload

  1. Service provider projections made about underlying customer message meanings based on past experience.

Answer: faulty assumptions

  1. Benefit package offered to employees by many organizations that provide services to help employees deal with personal problems that might adversely impact their work performance.

Answer: employee assistance programs (EAPs)

  1. The rate at which the human brain processes information.

Answer: thought speed

  1. The term applied to the difference in the rate at which the human brain can receive and process information and at which most adults speak.

Answer: lag time

  1. The difference in the speed at which the brain can comprehend communication and the speed at which the average adult speaks in the United States.

Answer: listening gap

  1. The physiological 24-hour cycle associated with the earth’s rotation that affects metabolic and sleep patterns in humans as day replaces night.

Answer: circadian rhythm

  1. Factors that can limit performance or success in life.

Answer: personal obstacles

  1. Beliefs or opinions that a person has about an individual or group, often based on unreasonable distortions or prejudice.

Answer: biases

  1. Refers to mental factors that can cause a shift in focus in interacting with others.

Answer: psychological distracters

  1. A passive physiological process of gathering sound waves and transmitting them to the brain for analysis. It is the first phase of the listening process.

Answer: hearing

  1. The phase of the listening process in which a listener focuses attention on a specific sound or message being received from the environment.

Answer: attending

  1. The phase of the listening process in which the brain attempts to match a received sound or message with other information stored in the brain in order to recognize or extract meaning from it.

Answer: comprehending or assigning meaning

  1. The ability to gain, store, retain, and recall information in the brain for later application.

Answer: memory

  1. A process that occurs in thinking when a previously experienced pattern, event, process, image, or object that is stored in memory is encountered again.

Answer: recognition

  1. Refers to sending back verbal and nonverbal messages to a message originator.

Answer: responding

  1. An active, learned process consisting of four phases—receiving/hearing the message, attending, comprehending/assigning meaning and responding.

Answer: listening

ASSESSMENT CHECK

Learning Objective 1

Describe why listening is important to customer service.

  1. What is the primary means that customer service professionals use to determine the needs of their customers?

Answer: Listening effectively is the primary means to get to the needs and concerns of customers since many do not give that information directly, but provide it through inferences, indirect comments or nonverbal signals.

  1. Is it true that most people listen ineffectively? Explain.

Answer: Unfortunately, that is untrue. Many are complacent about listening and go through the motions of listening. One survey by Wolvin and Coakley found that 74.3 percent of managers surveyed perceived themselves to be passive or detached listeners. The average white-collar worker in the U.S. typically has only about a 25 percent efficiency rate when listening.

  1. If 1000 customers went to a store in one day and only 25 percent were served with action taken, how many customers would be dissatisfied?

Answer: 250 would be serviced properly and 750 would be dissatisfied.

Learning Objective 2

Define the four steps in the learning process.

  1. Differentiate between hearing and listening.

Answer: True listening is an active, learned process while hearing is a physical action of gathering sound waves through the ear canal. Those waves are transmitted to the brain where they are analyzed.

  1. In the attending process, what does the brain do?

Answer: Once the ears pick up the sound waves, the brain goes to work focusing on or attending to what was heard. It sorts out everything being heard. The effort involves deciding what is important so that you can focus attention on the proper sound.

  1. What is the meaning of memory and recognition?

Answer: The meaning of memory and recognition is what the brain does and comprehends and assigns meaning to what was heard. It has files of information which it sorts through. As it compares what was heard to what is stored, it tries to match the pieces. For example, when you hear a voice that sounds familiar, the brain tries to match the voice to a name or person you have dealt with before. This is called memory and recognition.

Learning Objective 3

List the characteristics of a good listener.

  1. When and why is patience especially important when dealing with customers?

Answer: Patience is especially important when a language barrier or speech disability is part of this situation. Your job is to take extra care to determine the customer’s needs and to respond appropriately. In some cases, you may have to resort to the use of an interpreter or written communication to determine the customer’s needs.

  1. What are five factors that researchers have assigned as characteristics of effective listeners?

Answer: Effective listeners are focused, responsive, alert, understanding, caring, empathetic, unemotional, interested, patient, cautious and open.

(Any five of these would be a satisfactory answer)

  1. How can you be objective in dealing with customers’ concerns, questions or related situations?

Answer: Listen openly and avoid making assumptions. Allow customers to describe their needs, wants or concerns, and then analyze them fairly before taking appropriate action.

Learning Objective 4

Recognize the causes of listening breakdowns.

  1. What factors may contribute to ineffective listening?

Answer: Many factors may contribute to it; some are internal but others are external and you cannot control those. Personal obstacles, internal and external obstacles, and the customer’s inability to convey a message are all factors that may contribute.

  1. How can you eliminate factors that cause ineffective listening?

Answer: The key is to recognize actual and potential factors such as personal obstacles, external obstacles and other obstacles that may be created by the customer’s inability to convey a message. You should strive to eliminate these factors or at least minimize them.

  1. How do office and maintenance equipment contribute to ineffective listening? Answer: Noisy printers, computers, copiers, phones, vacuum cleaners, and other devices can distract. Try to eliminate or minimize the use of these types of equipment to position yourself away from them as possible.

Learning Objective 5

Develop strategies to improve your listening ability.

  1. Describe the types of things that you should stop or not be doing in order to be ready to receive what someone has to say.
    Answer: You should stop reading, writing, talking to others, thinking about other things, working on the computer, answering phones, and dealing with other matters that distract you.
  1. What strategies are helpful in sending “I care” messages when done naturally and with sincerity?
    Answer: Smile! Don’t interrupt to interject your ideas or make comments unless designed to clarify a point made by the customer. Sit or stand up straight and make eye contact with the customer. Lean forward or turn an ear toward the customer, if appropriate and necessary. Paraphrase their statements occasionally. Nod and offer affirmative paralanguage statements to show that you’re following the conversation. Do not finish a customer’s sentence. Let the customer talk. In addition, focus on complete messages. A complete message consists of the words, nonverbal messages, and emotions of the customer.
  1. What does the expression “walking a miles in your customer’s shoes” mean?

Answer: The expression means putting yourself in the customer’s place by emphasizing, especially when the customer is complaining about what he or she perceives to be poor service or inferior products.

  1. What does the word congruence mean when applied to your verbal and nonverbal communication?

Answer: It means that even when you are verbally agreeing or saying yes, you may be unconsciously sending negative nonverbal messages. When sending a message, you should make sure your verbal cues (words) and nonverbal cues (gestures, facial expressions) are in congruence or that they match.

Learning Objective 6

Use information-gathering techniques learned to better serve customers.

  1. What are open-end questions and what approach do they follow?

Answer: They are questions that begin with such words as when, what, how, why, who, and where (the 5 Ws and 1 H). They are used to establish a number of facts and substantial information.

  1. Why is asking questions such as using open-end questions a good way to identify customer needs?

Answer: By asking questions, you can help determine customer needs, what he or she wants or expects. This is a crucial task because some customers are either unsure of what they need or want or do not adequately express their needs or wants.

  1. What method would be used to uncover a customer’s objections?

Answer: The reasons for a customer not wanting or needing your product and/or service can be identified through the uses of open-end questions.

  1. What are closed-end questions typically used to elicit?

Answer: Traditionally, closed-end questions elicit short, one-syllable responses and gain little new information. Many can be answered yes or no or with a specific answer.

  1. What can closed-end questions be used for?

Answer: They can be used to verify information (to check on what was already said or agreed to), to ask for a buying decision, to gain agreement, clarify information to help save time and reduce complaints.

Learning Objective 7

Additional Question Guidelines

  1. In order to generate meaningful responses from customers, why should you avoid criticizing in the way you ask questions?
    Answer: Doing so will keep you from sounding as if you are challenging the customer’s decision making. What customers choose is not your concern; your job is to provide excellent service.
  1. Why should asking direct questions help you get information?
    Answer: You generally get what you ask for. Therefore, being very specific with your questions can often result in your receiving useful information.

Being specific can also save time and effort.

  1. What is the best way to determine what customers want and expect? Answer: You will find no better or easier way to determine what customers want and expect than to ask them.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

Learning Objectives 1, 2, 3

  1. Explain briefly the importance of listening and how the steps to listening enhance the characteristics of a good listener.

Answer: Listening is the primary mans that many professionals use to determine the needs of customers. Listening is an active, learned process that consists of hearing/receiving the message, attending to what was heard, comprehending or assigning meaning to a message, and responding to a message. Listening effectively transposes into good listening skills that help you become a good listener—such characteristics are empathy, understanding, patience, attentiveness and objectivity.

Learning Objective 4

  1. Of the factors that may contribute to ineffective listening, which type can you not usually control?

Answer: Factors that are external are usually things you cannot control. Some of these uncontrollable factors are information overload, other people talking, ringing phones, speaker phones, office and maintenance equipment and physical barriers. You may be able to eliminate or minimize some of these factors and if so, do so. Another obstacle you can’t control is the customer’s inability to convey a message because of a language barrier, a speech or other disability, or poor communication skills.

Learning Objectives 5, 6

  1. Asking questions is a good way to determine customer needs. What type of questions will get you that information, and how will you pose those questions to be effective?
    Answer: Open-end questions establish a number of facts. They are often posed words such as when, who, why, what, how, and why to engage others in conversation or to gain input and ideas.

PRACTICE TEST ANSWERS

Multiple- Choice / Learning Objectives / Page
1. A / LO1 / 114
2. B / LO2 / 114-116
3. B / LO2 / 115-116
4. D / LO2 / 116
5. B / LO3 / 118
6. A / LO3 / 118
7. D / LO4 / 119
8. C / LO4 / 120
9. C / LO4 / 121
10. C / LO4 / 121-122
11. D / LO4 / 123-124
12. C / LO5 / 125-129
13. B / LO5 / 126
14. C / LO6 / 129-130
15. A / LO7 / 132-133
True-False / Learning Objectives / Page
1. F / LO1 / 114
2. T / LO2 / 114
3. F / LO2 / 114- 115
4. F / LO3 / 118
5. F / LO3 / 118
6. F / LO4 / 119
7. F / LO4 / 120
8. T / LO4 / 121
9. F / LO4 / 123
10. F / LO4 / 124
11. F / LO5 / 125
12. T / LO5 / 126
13. T / LO5 / 127
14. T / LO6 / 129
15. F / LO7 / 132

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