Are You “Listening Loudly”? 3 Steps to Increasing Customer Engagement

The following is a guest blog post by road map to revenue expert, Kim Pisolkar of Small Biz Big Breakthrough and the customer service expert for my upcoming Mastermind Group. 

I was reading an article in Harvard Business Review when I came across the term listening loudly. I love that phrase and it got me thinking about the process of customer engagement, specifically how business owners engage with their customers.

When I ask business owners what they do in the area of customer engagement, 9 times out of 10 I get responses such as I send newsletters, I blog, I post on Facebook and ask for comments. Those are all great, however, they would fall more into the category of speaking loudly versus listening loudly.

Keep Apprised of What People Are Saying About You

Listening loudly is having your ears open, in many places to find out what people are saying about you, your product and services, your company:

• What are people saying about you in social media? Online forums?
• What are your clients saying about you?
• What are your prospects saying abut you?
• How are people responding to your blogs, articles or other online presence?

When we see what is being said about us or to us in cyberspace, it’s awesome because at least we know and can adjust our business accordingly. Typically, though, it’s a little like crickets on a summer evening – too quiet.

This opens us up to a new opportunity- engaging in a dialogue by asking for information. In the online world we can ask readers to leave comments or questions on our pages to at least give us some information.

Engage in 2-Way Dialogue, Consistently

One-on-one dialogue is the way we are really given the chance to listen loudly and that begins with asking for feedback.

Asking for feedback can be difficult because, well, it feels so personal. This is especially true of you are a service based business where you are the product being evaluated. You probably already know what your organization is doing well (if not, this is a good opportunity to get both pieces of information). What you may not know is what people think you aren’t doing so well.

Questions you could ask include:

• What would make this service even more effective?
• What could we be doing that we aren’t?
• What would you like to see more of from our company? Less of?
• What would make your experience with us a 10 out of 10?
• If anything could have made your experience better, what would it have been?

Always Ask “Why Not?”

As uncomfortable as it may be, if someone does not purchase your product or service, ask why not. The real answer is usually never time or money. Typically there is a deeper reason that involves you not having met their need in someway or adequately relayed the value.

Sometimes, one question can have a major impact on your business. I had a client once who was sharing that he had a customer who only bought one product; all of the others bought multiple products from him over the course of a year. When questioned, he did not know why so I asked him to call that client and ask why. He was a little uncomfortable with this- what if this annoyed the customer, what if they stopped buying altogether?

But, he did make the call, “I noticed you only buy this one product, could I ask you why?” When the customer responded, “I don’t know what else you have that I need”, he was totally caught by surprise. He had given the customer a catalog previously so he assumed the customer was aware of the other products.

Armed with this information, the business owner met with the customer to understand their overall needs and educated them on what other products would be a fit for them. This resulted in new sales that would not have happened if the business owner had not made the call.

We are so engrossed with our businesses and know every nuance; it is easy to forget our clients (and prospects) are not as well versed.

Asking questions gives you insight into changes for customer service, product innovations, reduced costs, synergies, even insights into what your competitors might be doing. Plus people generally like to help and feel involved and involving your clients and prospects in the process is easier and less time consuming then dealing with complaints and people leaving you to work with your competitors.

Bottom line, asking questions and listening loudly is good for your organizations bottom line.

About the Author

The Big Breakthroughs coach^TM and founder of Small Biz Big Breakthrough, Kim Keefe Pisolkar leads clients to make more money and still have the freedom to do the things they love most. Small business owners and department heads in large organizations turn to Kim for inspiration, guidance, and support as they spark new achievements and growth, bridging the gap between what they have and what they really want.

Prior to starting Small Biz Big Breakthrough, Kim spent 13 years in human resources and organization development for private and Fortune 100 companies where she developed and implemented creative solutions to solve organizational and leadership challenges. As a result, her proven Big Breakthrough system now helps her clients to incorporate structure and systems into their companies, whether they’re running a one-person operation or a multi-layered organization so they can be more confident Chief Executive Officers. Her intuitive, creative and fun approach to seeing things from a new perspective leads her clients to embrace change and quickly move into action so they can finally have the results they’ve been striving for.

Kim is a contributing author in the Amazon #1 Bestselling Book, “Women Living Consciously”.

Kimberly Keefe Pisolkar, ACC
Kim@SmallBizBigBreakthrough.com
973-868-2061