Identifying customer needs
Previously we have looked at identifying needs in a general sense. This section covers approaches that can be applied when you are speaking directly with a customer. A customer may know exactly what they need or want. In this situation, determining your customer's need is about asking a straight forward question and then carrying out what is required or taking the appropriate steps to achieve what is requested.
There are also customers who are unsure or do not know exactly what they require. This is where your skill as a service provider comes into play. To "steer" your potential or regular customer towards the right decision, you have to know how to ask the right questions, listen and observe.
Asking the right questions: Asking the right questions makes all the difference to an effective service encounter. Questions are tools that allow the service provider to probe further in order to identify the customer's needs and wants.
Generally if you ask your customer, "How may I be of assistance" or "May I help you?" you have made a good start. This will not always be enough, however. If a customer does not know what they want, the best way to find out their needs is to ask the right questions.
The right questions to ask are open-ended questions that encourage and allow the customer to provide a more detailed answer. Closed questions that require a simple one word answer are great for clarifying or summing up the needs of the customer.
Listening: As with questioning, listening forms part of many areas of customer services. We will later be covering listening skills in relation to customer service on the telephone.
However, we mention here one of the most important aspects of good listening: good listening is an active process . It involves much more than simply hearing the sounds being formed by a customer's lips, tongue and larynx. Listening involves interpretation of those sounds. You must make the effort to interpret what the customer is saying and check your understanding by repeating for the customer what he or she has just said to you.
The main benefits of good, active listening is that it helps insure that you have understood the needs of the customer. It assists in building rapport and also in building the confidence of the customer in your ability to determine and meet their needs. It also assists the customer to clarify and crystallise what they want.
Taking note and observing your customers: "Taking note" of your customers is really about putting together a rough customer profile through observation. We spoke about grooming and dress previously. Taking note of your customer can often give you a good idea of the type of product/service they might like. There are, of course, a couple of cautions. Be careful to avoid stereotyping or simplistic conclusions. The following example may illustrate.
- A well dressed, conservative-looking individual enters your servicescape. You may be tempted to anticipate your customer's needs by observing their current dress. Your customer may in fact be searching for a product/service for their "anything but conservative" son or daughter who is into heavy metal. This is where your skill at asking the right types of questions comes into play.
There are also times when you can anticipate your customer's needs, for example: suppliers that offer to use overnight courier (without being asked) when an order has been delayed; restaurants that ask if you would like a glass of water without you having to make the request; restaurants that are experiencing a busy period which is causing delays that offer you a complementary "snack" whilst you wait to be seated; clothing stores that notice you have tried on a garment that needs an alteration who offer to have the garment altered before you make the request; organisations who offer to telephone for your cab.
Think about this in relation to your unique work situation - we are certain that you have some of your own examples. These sorts of actions demonstrate to us that the organisation values our patronage and is making the effort to "think ahead". Such organisations stand out from their competitors.
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