July 4, 2008
Created in cooperation with the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers
by Donna Rynda, Owner and Training Consultant, Make It Matter, and a member of the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers (CHART)
As a consumer, have you ever received one of these answers to a question?
How did you feel? What did you say or do? How many others did you tell?
What if, instead, you heard one of the following responses?
Indeed, there are ways of saying "no" without alienating our customers and jeopardizing our reputation. Positive interactions are a win-win for both the customer and the organization. Let's focus on some simple, sensible strategies that can make this happen with every customer every time.
There are actually three ways that we impact others with our communications, and they are referred to as "The Three Vs": Visual, Vocal, and Verbal. Visual communications account for 55 percent of our impact upon others; vocal communications account for 38 percent; and verbal communications account for only 7 percent. Therefore, 93 percent of our impact upon others is based on our nonverbal communications -- which is totally in our own control!
Lesson: It's not as much about what we say as how we say it!
So, now let's look at "attitude." Have you ever wondered just how much our attitude could affect our interactions with our customers? Attitude affects everything we do -- and every interaction we have. Just as our nonverbal communications are in our control, so is our attitude. Those two attributes impact our customer relationships and our professional reputation more than anything else ever will. And they are, once again, totally in our own control!
Listening to our customers demonstrates respect. The "secret" to being a respectful listener is actually within the word LISTEN. By rearranging the letters in the word LISTEN, we create the word SILENT.
Listening has more to do with effective communication than does speaking. After all, we do have two ears but only one mouth.
The most effective kind of listening is active listening. Active listening involves asking open-ended questions instead of close-ended questions. It means having a dialogue with our customer instead of monopolizing the conversation with a monologue. And it means asking the five Ws and the H: who, what, when, where, why and how.
Question: Who is responsible for the majority of our marketing and advertising? Answer: Our employees and our customers.
Indeed, every time our employees interact with others within the community, they are representing our organization -- and marketing our reputation. And every time our customers share their experiences at our business with others within the community, they are also marketing our reputation.
Customers and employees who are treated with positive respect tend to "market" the organization with positive respect as well.
Overall, here are some of the simple, sensible strategies that have been effective at demonstrating a "YES" perception to every customer every time:
