Customer Handling Skills

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression”

by Alan D. Winter, 14 July 2005

Body Language

Para linguistics

Who reads body language best, the man or the woman?

• female or male?

We influence customer interaction by...

Customers judge us by...

• our telephone manner,
• our parking,
• the condition of our car,
• the way we dress,
• the way we are groomed,
• the way we work
• the way we stand around on street corners, and so on.

• Your telephone manner - be prepared and be positive. Smile when you are talking, the person on the other end of the phone can tell.
  
• Your car - bearing in mind the weather, try to make sure your transport looks respectable. It is important you keep your number plates and lights clean, not just by law, but also for customer perception. Park correctly wherever you drop the customers near your presentation location.
• Be smart and if corporate policy, wear a business suit. If you look smart you will also feel smart. Take caution in bad weather though with the type of jacket you wear on top of your suit.
• Careful how much you carry, this will assist you to walk purposefully into premises. If you need to carry a lot of items place them in some kind of bag or case.
• Organise your workplace and respect the customers's space, and their property.

Customer Contact.

• Eye contact - Much here depends upon our personality, topic of the conversation and knowledge of the other person. Research has shown that we tend to look more at others when we like them! When in one to one discussions it is best to establish a comfortable eye contact with each other. Remember, if you are busy with some paperwork at the time, stop what you are doing and stand up.
  
  
• Facial expression - probably the most important area in non - verbal communication. The face conveys emotions and feelings with far greater precision than words alone. For instance, happiness, anger, enthusiasm, disinterest, puzzlement, fear, surprise, etc. Keeping your emotions and feelings under control will aid you keep your facial expressions under control.
  
  
• Postures and gestures - use of hand and arm gestures, body position and movements. Some of us are natural gesticulators and make great use of our hands and arms to illustrate what we are saying in conversation, while others make only limited use of gestures. Keep an open body stance with your hands in front of you at all times. And no hands in pockets!
  
  
• Personal biases and prejudices - appearance and what we wear seams to have become extremely important in recent years. Clothes, accessories, jewellery, hair and even physique have a powerful affect on how we are perceived by others. With this in mind we should be aware of our own prejudices in this area, for instance: real men don't wear earrings, red is an aggressive colour or women should not wear trousers at work! Appearance and grooming is probably the area many of us base our first impressions on. So, do not allow your own personal preferences or prejudices affect your judgement
  
  
• Personal space - careful you do not invade an individual's personal space as this will look aggressive. A good indication for determining good distance is to stand at the distance you would normally shake someone's hand. Never be afraid to shake someone's hand. Handshaking breaks down barriers!
  
  
• Orientation - make sure you face the person you are talking to. Remember that this along with good eye contact will show the customer you are actively listening to them.
  
  
• Observing what a person does while they are speaking has the most impact on message delivery of all the communication methods. So when listening actively in any interpersonal situation, not only are we using our ears but also our eyes. Of course we must always be aware that our interpretations of meaning in all the areas above are subjective.
  
  However, if we combine the use of effective questioning, active listening and observation, our judgements and contributions are likely to be more effective.
  
  We can all interpret body language but very rarely read the signals. Women do much better than men, and this is sometimes referred to as intuition. Most body language is conditioned, there is very little that is natural, body language that we are born with. The movement of the head to indicate “no”, and the eyebrow raised in surprise are two of the most obvious.
  
  Conditioned body language is what we generally see, body language that we are influenced to use whilst growing up. The nod of the head to indicate “yes”, the rubbing of the eyes to indicate lack of understanding and so on. So this means that there will be cultural differences in interpreting body language as well and we need to take this into consideration.

Signals we need to look for that we do not normally see

• Hand grasping a wrist shows the person has time constraints. Keep your conversation short or indeed ask if you could speak later.
• Arms folded with fists clenched shows someone that could be about to show anger. Keep to facts, lower your voice and keep emotions in check.
• Hand rubbing back of neck shows frustration. Make sure you ask questions to draw out their concerns.
• Finger on cheek and hand resting on the mouth shows evaluation. Give the person time to think about what you have said.
• Tugging the ear indicates someone that is undecided. Ask for their concerns.
• Rubbing the eye whilst moving eye contact away from you will indicate a lack of understanding. Clarify what you wished to say.
• Touching the nose with the bridge of the index finger (between the first and second knuckles) suggests that the person speaking may be deliberately inaccurate, embellishing a point or perhaps not being quite truthful. Never confront this signal, just be aware and be tactful. Ask them “what makes them say that?” Or similar...
• If someone is stroking their mouth with their finger, ask if they wish to say something - you may be surprised that they actually do.
  
  

Words

• Keep it brief. As US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said to his key staff,
  A good speaker will be brief be bright ... be gone!
  
• Keep your language simple. Customers may only require the facts rather than a complete history of events.
  Use familiar everyday words. Straightforward speech is an asset when talking about complex subjects. Simple familiar language is most important when discussing technical information with non-technical people. Avoid slang, jargon, or ‘technospeak’.
  What is commonplace language to you may be unknown to your customers. Avoid language that is vague or too general. Vague, tentative language can produce misunderstanding, frustration, and errors. Slang or profanity is neither correct nor effective when speaking to a customer.
  
• If the opportunity is there, plan your conversation. Each customer will have a certain knowledge level or experience level. They may understand the industry we work in. They may even have a certain social standing. Formulate your questions based on any information you have. Delivering a planned conversation to a level that will be understood will reflect a professional image by you to the customer.

Para Linguistics

• Tone/inflection - this can convey emotions felt by the speaker and can help identify the image a person wishes to project.
• Timing - short utterances can indicate shyness: pauses may also relate to length of speech or may be used to give emphasis.
• Speech Errors - “ummms”, “errs”, etc. may indicate anxiety or stress or simply someone buying time.
• Accent - indicate where the person comes from, so beware of your own prejudices. Choice of words adds interest to a conversation and can indicate education level, knowledge of the subject, attitude towards the subject or degree of formality perceived.
• Verbal mannerisms - frequent use of words or phrases that can indicate nerves, laziness, fashion or habit.
• Emphasis - accenting or emboldening words and phrases with your voice - for instance, louder, softer, faster or slower.

Personal thoughts and actions

Key Learning Points