Changing The Conversation

CtheC
I wrote this document to help the team managers in the contact
centre coach an improvement in the quality of the calls.
I called it CtheC which stands for Changing the Conversation. There
was a need in my contact centre to see a change in the conversation
we were having – due to a massive change in the business.

Much of what is written here is common sense and there is a lot
that people who work in the contact centre environment will
recognise already. Hopefully there may be some bits that inspire
people or give them an idea to what they could do with the coaching
in their own contact centre.

In the past many contact centres have found it difficult to get buy
in to ‘coaching’ or monitoring, and in many cases the call monitoring
simply turns into an audit function. One of the other intentions of
this document was to enable the team managers / leaders / coaches
to get more value out of their coaching sessions.

JEL - Changing the Conversation Oct 09 v3 1

C the C
The following pages are ideas, comments and suggestions about
Changing the Conversation.

There is a large focus on the Conversation Cycle

It is aimed at a Team Managers to use as a coaching tool, to
think about how they are coaching and what they are coaching.

One of the most important parts of your coaching is
ensuring that it is remembered - so it can be
implemented.

Remembering is vital – it is connected to desire. You
remember something if you want to remember it.

If people you coach remember what you have coached
them on – they can make a change.

In our contact centre we coach people for 1 hour per week, and
this can be standard in many contact centres, an hour is not a
long time, so it's vital that your coaching session has such
impact that it is remembered for the other 34 hours of the
week, when the coachee will be speaking to customers.

The use of the ™ logo is in part for comedy purposes (you
should always aim for a laugh in everything you do), but on a
serious point it's a little prod from me to say that all of this
stuff isn't out of a book - it's my creation! I haven't
registered them as trademarks - just playing around with the
idea!!!


I have tried to be as brief as possible (30 pages!!!), but in
reality I could write a lot more. If anyone wants to go into
more detail on a particular topic, or understand how I got the
cost of coaching, or want to know about the pressure equation
and all other good stuff - then get in touch.

The Prima Materia.
(The First [main] Point)

The conversation cycle:

Inform

Acknowledge Invite

Listen
It's all about getting back to basics.

The need for us to improve our approach on our calls.

Changing the Conversation to re-focus on Conversation Cycle.


It’s not just about understanding the conversation cycle – but
actively using it and hearing the impact in the call.

What you say or how you sound??????

JFK went to Germany in June 1963 and gave a famous speech in
which he said "Ich bin ein Berliner", intending to say "I am a
Berliner", essentially one of you, of your city.

In fact he said - "I am a cocktail sausage", or a donut -
depending upon which news article you read. What he said,
however, was unimportant compared to how it was delivered.

If you deliver anything with the right intention is can sound
great, and people can mis-hear the actual meaning. That is not
to say we should aim to say something different to what we
mean! In most cases it is actually to ensure we mean what we
say!

Human beings are very good at hearing human emotion, it
comes through, and even when we think it doesn't. You can only
sound helpful if you truly want to be helpful, you can only sound
like you care if you do actually care.

People (customers) don’t remember a
lot of what a person says, but they
do remember how that person makes
them feel.


How a customer feels is directly linked to how the contact
centre agent feels. So it is important to think about how we
feel about the calls we take.

Throughout all calls you should bring into your consciousness
the following feelings:

I call this list the "Desidero Listé" (list of desires!)

• Want to be here.
• Want to take the call.
• Have a genuine desire to speak to customers.
• Seek to enjoy your job as much as you can!
• Have fun speaking to customers.
• Want to help.
• Want to make a difference.
• Want the customer to leave the call happier than they
started.
• Want to add value.
• Want the call to be more than what it is.
• See's things in cinema scope! (The big picture!)

A lot of the emphasis here is on "want", as it ALL COMES
DOWN TO DESIRE!

Desire is the key for me – and it is important to ensure you are
coaching on desire. Avoid getting caught into the trap of
staring coaching sessions with ‘so what did you think about that
call’, or ‘tell me about that call’, it generally leads to a
conversation about perception, and can often lead to
disagreements.

Coaching on desire removes some of those perceptual barriers.


Consider what you are coaching!
P, B, D

Perception
This is the tip of the iceberg - it's only on the surface. You
could spend a lot of time coaching 'Perception', but you might
not actually change the results or behaviour. Listen to the
language used in the coaching - does it concentrate on what you
'think' happened on the call? Don't get bogged down in
conversations about perception.

Belief
This goes a bit deeper - it's below the surface. Here you can
discuss what you believe happened, often the coaching can
focus on what you believe to be the 'right and wrong' solution
for the customer. Coaching here also focuses on what the
individual believes they can or cannot do. As with perception
you can coach on belief but not necessarily see it translate into
action and results.

Desire
This is ultimately what you are coaching. Does someone actually
want to do it? If they do they will. If they don't, they won't.
It seems pretty simple - but it's the most effective way to
coach. Remember it's easy for someone to say they do want to
do something, but if they are not doing it, or you are not seeing
results - then ultimately they don't want to do it. Don't take
'yes' as a 'yes' without the action to accompany the 'yes'.


You cannot change
behaviour by coaching
down from perception.
You might change
perception, or even
belief, but unless the
person has the desire
the results will not
change.
If someone has the
desire - their belief and
perceptions will change
accordingly.


What you've got is what you want!
Tone of voice comes down to intention, how do you intend to
sound? How you intend to sound is how you want to sound!
Everyone knows that you should sound positive, professional,
polite, and friendly. Everyone knows you should build rapport
with a customer or that the greeting is the most important
part of the call as it sets the first and lasting impression to
the customer. Everyone knows that it is important to sound as
though you care and should want to help the customer.

So if everyone knows this - how come not everyone does it, all
the time?

That’s where desire comes into it. In the past its gone wrong
because we've talked about the good stuff we want to do on
calls and everyone has agreed to it, and we've even shown how
it should be done. For example people have been told to
increase volume and energy, to sound positive in their tone, to
create rapport by seeking to make the customer feel valued.
People have been given words and phrases, laminated bubbles
to help them along the way.

Where has it gone wrong? Basically it hasn't sought to address
the key issue - do people actually want to do it?

To get someone to sound like they care about something you
have to make sure they actually do care! If they do care you
don't need to coach them on how to sound as though they care
- because they WILL sound as though they care.

This point can't emphasised enough.


Look at the Desidero Listé, coach on that, and connect each
element to how they sound; don't just try to coach how they
sound without reference to the intention behind it!!!

As a basic rule - if a coaching session does not contain
reference to the Desidero Listé, then it's not adding value. It
will be about surface, perception, and not get to the detail. You
won't change people’s behaviour.

Sometimes in coaching you may think you're changing their
mind, and indeed you may do so, but ultimately a person
agreeing with you is no guarantee that they will do something
about it.

Their desire to change, their desire to actively pursue the
points on the Desidero Listé is the only thing that will make a
difference.

Free will - it is an amazing
human characteristic

We do what we want to do!

Therefore


What you've got
is what you want!

You're results are
what you want.

There is no escaping this,
no excuses,
no Blamé Virus™
So let’s dig deep into the conversation cycle, look at each part
and analyse how we would like it to sound.

It's common sense, but NOT common
practice!

That's why the desire is so important!


INFORMS
Should be specific, timely, concise, jargon free, appropriate,
professional, good levels of volume and energy, pace and tone.

That all seems basic enough! A lot of this can come down to:

Energy, Enthusiasm, Execution

The actual words and phrases are important here, such as
stating "What I'd like to do", rather than “What we need to
do", but that level of detail is only necessary and possible when
you've covered off the basics.

Telling the customer what you are doing and why is the most
important part of informs.

Say what you mean - and mean what you say.

What are you informing? (The words you use)
How are you informing? (The vocal talents you employ)
Why are you informing? (Your intention)

W.V.I

Words, Voice, Intent

The answer of each of those questions should be present in the
inform. So a good exercise is to ask those questions after an
inform that you've listened to as part of call coaching.

It has to be self contained in the inform itself, if it's not then
the inform needs work!!!!


You cannot say 'what the customer might have thought', or
'what I was meaning was...', or 'I didn't mean it to sound like
that' it has to be explicit.

Keep it grounded in reality!

INVITES
The questions you ask! The key point here is that the question
should be:

The right question, in the right place at the right time!

As with the informs this has to be apparent from what happens
on the call, the question should be understood from the
content of the call, not the content of the mind after the call!

All types of questions can and should be used throughout the
call, but an awareness of how effective a particular type of
question is should be displayed, this is evidenced through the
Questioning Funnel below:

Open
Fact Finding
Checking

Hypothetical


Summarising

Closed

Open questions - TED - tell, explain, describe & How. (why) to
be avoided if possible as it has negative overtones.
Open questions should be at the start of the call, to open up
the conversation. They are also great when you need to get a
lot of information.

Fact Finding - who, what, where, when - traditionally these
questions are what people associated with open questions, but
they are fact-finding as you want to obtain specific facts from
a customer.

Checking - what, how. Can I..., Is it OK to... Evidenced that
you've checked and understood the customer and what they've
had to say.

Hypothetical (sales questions), What would happen if? Would
you like to? How would you feel if...? These are great questions
for cross sales and getting the customer to think about their
circumstances or what you've presented to them. Also good for
establishing their feelings about something, especially
important when you are about to present solutions to them.

Summarising - Is that OK? Have I got that right? etc.
This is your opportunity to sum up the call and ask the
customer if that's OK. It is great service as it assures the
customer you have understood, and most importantly, that you
intend to take action.


Closed - Have you got everything you expected on today's call?
Is that all? Is that everything? Closed questions would
traditionally be at the "close" of a call. Be mindful of turning an
open question into a closed question by putting 'Can I' at the
front of it, example: 'Can I ask what you are calling about
today?', technically is a closed question. Whilst it is very
unusual - you can get the occasional customer who will simply
answer - 'Yes', forcing you to ask the open question, 'What are
you calling about today?' or 'How can I help you?'

Two types of questions to avoid:

Leading & Multiple

Leading are when you ask the customer but indicate or lead the
customer to the answer, this can be in your intention or the
actual words used.
Multiple are asking more than one question at once - this is
more common than you would imagine, listen out for it!!!

LISTEN
Possibly the most difficult, and correspondingly the most
important, part of the conversation cycle. So many bad calls
and conversations are a result of poor listening skills.

There are two types of Listening:

Active & Passive

Passive Listening is the physical and biological act of 'hearing'.
Someone who is passively listening can physically 'hear'
someone or something, but they are not necessarily taking it in
or engaging their mind.


Active Listening is just that - engaging the mind. It is NOT
making verbal acknowledgments, you do not demonstrate active
listening by simply sounding like you are.

You actively listen if you want to listen!
If you want to listen to a customer you will pick up on
everything they say, especially at the beginning of the call. The
customer will reveal a lot about what they want and how they
feel, and it's important to pick up on this.

The customer will reveal a lot in a little way, it could be the
tone of their voice, an expression of frustration or
disappointment in the words they use. Equally they could be in
a jovial mood. They will tell you what they want, but sometimes
not explicitly.

Listening and aiming to take in all of this information and DO
SOMETHING WITH IT, by ENGAGING your mind will enable
you to wow the customer.

Customers feel very valued if they feel
you have listened to them!
You cannot underestimate this, listening to a customer and
taking in the smallest of detail and then USING that with the
customer can be a massive WOW factor!

On a basic level it will help the contact be as efficient as
possible without cutting corners.


Being efficient on calls is not about how quickly you can type or
speak, it is about how quickly you can understand the customer
and let them know you've understood. This is about listening!

The fastest and most effective contact centre
agent doesn't need to touch type, they actively
listen to everything the customer has to say!

Listening is also crucial to sales and building rapport. Rapport
will be defined later in more detail. Listening out for life
events and acting on them is key to broadening and deepening
the customer relationship.

Life events include things like: Marriage, Divorce, Having a
baby, Moving Home, Moving Job, Change in Circumstances,
Change in Bank. This list is far from exhaustive, but it
represents some of the common types of life events that
customers will refer to in their conversations; many of them
are the real reason the customer is calling you. For example – a
customer may call their bank to change their address, but the
reason for calling could be a change in job that meant they
moved for example.

These life events are the key to opening up the conversation,
to change it and make it more valuable to both the customer
and the organisation.

Practically every organisation wants to be ‘customer centric’,
i.e. putting the customer at the heart of everything they do.
Well the contact centre is the ears of the organisation and has
the opportunity to really listen to what customers want and
help shape the business around the customer.


Seek to wow the customer with how you've listened to them,
how much attention you've paid to what they have said.

Challenge yourself and each other on calls to get the best
examples of listening, these would include not having the
customer repeat anything about their enquiry & picking up on
the small detail of the call; life events and customers emotions!

Barriers to listening!
Some barriers to listening are easy to overcome - i.e. someone
is making noise near you - tell them to stop! The physical
barriers to listening are often overcome very quickly and
easily.

But what about the psychological barriers? These are more
difficult to overcome, primarily because you may not be aware
that they exist! Here is a short list of some of the common
barriers to listening.

• Assumptions: One of the most common barriers to
listening, making assumptions about what the customer is
actually saying or wanting. When listening back to a call
ask the question 'Why was I saying that?', was it relating
directly to something the customer said, or was it
relating to something you assumed they had said /
wanted. Overcoming assumptions can be really difficult;
you have to be open to the fact that the customer could
want something different to what you think. Raising your
own awareness of the common assumptions you make
about customers if the first step to overcoming this
barrier.
• Listening to disagree: A common one for complaining
customers, only listening out for the things people get
wrong; or listening out for those times when you can slap


customers with 'it's in your terms and conditions' or 'you
signed for it'. Do you ever get satisfaction from
'winning' the argument with a customer? You might have
been unaware that you were not 'listening' at all.
• Rehearsing: This is a very common barrier, especially in
contact centres. This is practicing what you are going to
say to a customer as they are speaking, it significantly
limits your ability to actively listen to what the customer
is saying.
• Pseudo Listening: This is when you are pretending to
listen, perhaps you don't actually want to listen to the
customer - this could be common amongst complaining
customers. Think about the next time you have an
argument, you are probably pseudo listening!
• Mind Reading: This is when you are trying to predict what
the 'customer is really thinking', it is similar to
assumptions.
• Cherry Picking: Just picking out what you want to listen
to! How much you could miss of what the customer is
saying by just picking out what you want to listen to?
• Judging / Prejudice: We judge people without realising,
we do this based on all sorts of factors. When face to
face with a person we make assumptions based on
whether they are male or female - and this happens
within the first few seconds of meeting someone. Over
the phone the same can happen with customer’s voice. You
may pre-judge the customer and their enquiry or status.
This will mean that you only listen to certain aspects of
what the customer is saying - those aspects that conform
with your believes that have built up in your mind. Don't
under-estimate this one. All of us would like to believe
that we don't judge people and that we don't allow
prejudice to get in the way; but as a lot of that is in your
sub-conscious you won't even be aware of how it is
effecting your listening. You start working on this one by


being open to the fact that it could happen and actively
taking on the feedback when you are coached on calls.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
These 'listening nods' are very important. They help the flow
of the contact by ensuring that the customers knows you have
listened to them and that you intend on doing something.

They are a great way to control your contact as it gives the
customer a positive impression that you are there to help.

They complete the conversation cycle

They should be appropriate, varied and timely, A.V.T.!!!

Here is a list of acknowledgements that can be used during the
call.

Certainly
OK
That's great
Brilliant
Excellent
Thank you
Right
Fantastic
Elvis (huh-huh)

The list is not exhaustive, but it can help sometimes to have it
close at hand. It's very easy not to use acknowledgments, to
think of them as unimportant - but you would be surprised what
a difference they can make.


They finish of the cycle and lend the call an air of
professionalism.

They are particularly useful in ensuring the call does not sound
like an interrogation, especially on security when you are asking
the customer several questions in close proximity.

An appropriate acknowledgment is one that fits the purpose,
i.e. you would not respond to a customer complaint or upset
with 'That's great, brilliant or fantastic', you would use a more
calm and neutral acknowledgement such as 'OK, right, thank
you'

Varied means using more than one word - don't get stuck using
'right' or 'OK' all the time, it can sound officious and dull!

Timely is just that! An acknowledgment should follow
everything the customer tells you, especially after you've
asked a question. If you ask the customer for some information
and they provide it - acknowledge it immediately, don't pause
to think and then acknowledge.

One of the best acknowledgements to use at the start of the
call is

Certainly!
It's positive and tells the customer you want and will help.

Even if you are unsure as to the customer’s request you can use
this, or adapt it slightly:

I'll certainly look into that for you...


This tells the customer you are going to help, but enables you
to establish through excellent questioning and listening what
the customers enquiry is and offer the most appropriate
solution.

RAPPORT
Rapport is about being "in sync" with someone else, being on
the "same wave length".

Essentially it's getting on with someone!

It's quite simple really.

Don't over complicate things, don't try too hard to create it,
by trying too hard to create or 'build' rapport, this will only
make it appear false. If you are too friendly with a customer it
can lead them to think that you want something - 'what's in it
for you to be so nice', i.e. 'what are you going to try and get
out of me, what are you going to try and sell me'

You could actually build up a customer’s defences and create a
barrier to your sales and service by being overly friendly, or
friendly in the wrong places. Consumers are so used to being
sold to all the time and they have begun to associate the
overtly friendly nature with a sales pitch and can start
preparing their objections before you’ve even started!

You should aim for Shibumi in the call. Shibumi is a Japanese
word that usually describes art or sculpture. It is about
simplicity, and seeks to create beauty in its simplest form. Use
this to try and coach and create rapport in its most basic form,
how can you create it without too many frills. How can you get
to the point that the customer feels listened to and
understood, that you are intent on helping and supporting


them? Do that in the quickest and simplest ways and you will
have achieved Shibumi of Rapport™!

There are two types of rapport:

Natural Rapport & Constructive Rapport

Think of Natural Rapport as the human side, your ability to get
on with someone. To see things from their point of view, to
understand them, to be friendly and natural and strike up a
feeling of common ground. Some people find this difficult - so
they have to work at building Natural Rapport.

When listening to calls you will be listening out for all of the
above, how was the common ground created, how was a friendly
atmosphere created? How did the agent show the customer
that they saw things from their point of view - that they were
"in sync" with them?

Natural Rapport is built through the Words, Voice, Intent, and
so as such will be mainly evidenced in the Informs section of
the conversation cycle, but it flows through all of the cycle. It
can be viewed as a thread that joins together Informs with
Invites with Listen and Acknowledgements!

Constructive Rapport can be thought of as business rapport.
It is Rapport With Purpose - RWP!

Creating RWP is done by using the Natural Rapport to take the
conversation to a new place. That new place is about ensuring
that we add value and actively seek to broaden and deepen the
relationship with the customer. Asking the following questions
about the contact might help understand if RWP was achieved.


Did we leave the customer happier than they came on the
phone in the first place?
Has the customer learned anything more about the products
and services available to them?
Do we know anything new about the customer that we didn't
know at the start of the call?
Was there a 'wow' factor? If so what was it?
Have we done anything to retain the customers 'goodwill' in
the company - i.e. have we given them a reason to feel good
about the company / service we offer?
Have we done anything to increase the customers 'goodwill' in
the company?

Rapport With Purpose is created by having high levels of
Natural Rapport and seeking to use that to enhance the
customer's experience and therefore increase their loyalty
and propensity to make future purchases from us - this then
makes that rapport Constructive.

As with ALL aspects of the call, Rapport has its roots in Desire
- do you want to create a great atmosphere for your customer?
A great thing to do is refer to personal examples of how other
companies have successfully built a special relationship with
you, how was it created? How could you re-create that
experience on a call?

Coaching should be focused on the Desidero
Listé, not simply what happened on that call!

Be Non-Linear & multi-dimensional

Focus on Emotions


Coaching cost money - you are investing in the
value of each employee. Approximately £50 per
hour, so that's £500 per manager per week. In
our contact centre that equates to £3000 per
week. £12,000 per month!

£144,000 per year!

Are you getting value out of that?

Are you getting a return on that investment?

How do you know?

Can you prove it?

How can we get more out of each contact?

How can we achieve Conversation Cycle
Excellence across all of the calls - ALL of the
time?

First thing you should do - is look at the
Desidero Listé, answer each question for
yourself, be honest with yourself!


Make it happen!

An action plan will be necessary to provide the right focus and
attention to it.

Building Conversation Cycle Excellence (CCE) is essential, not
only will it help with the quality it will improve productivity
through making the contacts more effective.

Having a group focus can provide a lot of energy and momentum
- so the entire management team focused on the same issue
will have massive impact.

Taking the conversation cycle and making it the focus for
coaching for 8 weeks, choosing to do intensive coaching on each
section for 2 weeks at a time.

Coach Informs in week one, and see improvements in week 2.
The opening of the session in week 3 can celebrate the
achievements in Informs as the coaching moves onto Invites
and the pattern continues.

This will ensure the learning's from this document can be
embedded in a structured and focused manner with key
milestones and outcomes.

At the end of the 8 weeks ALL agents and managers will be
fluent in their vocabulary surrounding conversation cycle.
Everyone will know about the W.V.I of Informs.

Everyone will know about the types of questions and where to
use them in calls.

Everyone will know about Active & Passive listening and about
varied and timely acknowledgements.


Everyone will understand Natural and Constructive Rapport.

All coaching will come back to the Desidero Listé.

Non-Linear Coaching™ will be the norm! N.L.C is about moving
away from starting at the beginning of the call, in fact it
abolishes the beginning, middle and end. It chooses to focus on
the overall emotion created and seeks to move the coaching
into value adding rather than an audit or a transactional act. A
fully explanation of N.L.C would be beneficial - but a
conversation is needed, it can get complicated to put it into
words!

By starting at the end or the middle it is easier to focus on the
W.V.I, or the Desidero Listé, without simply going into what
was asked for and what was delivered. This can result in
Vending Machine Calls™, basically the customer punches in a
number (asks for something from us) and we drop out a
solution, it's not focused on adding value - just delivering what
the customer asked for quickly and easily.

These are good characteristics on the call - but if the delivery
is no more than a machine could do, then why have a human
take the call? If you want Vending Machine Calls™ then cut the
costs of people and replace them with automated services,
internet and mobile phone self serve options. They are all out
there - but very few providers have eliminated people
altogether, in fact those that have highly effective automated
options have also seen voice contact grow! No matter how much
a business might prefer the model of automation for its huge
cost savings and reliability - consumers want to speak to a
person. We should celebrate the fact by making the contact as
'human' as possible.


If you find that your positive feedback about calls is around it
being 'efficient' and 'doing what the customer wanted' and
doesn't touch on how the relationship was built, how the human
touch was added to the contact - then perhaps it could have
been better fulfilled with an automated option and you have an
example of a Vending Machine Call™.
Speaking on your behalf...!

Imagine at the start of each call that the agent says...

"And today I'm speaking on behalf of (insert your name)"

Think about that, ponder on it for a moment! Speaking on your
behalf, representing you, your team, your brand, your business.
How do you want that service to be? How do you want it to
sound? What do you want it to do? What do you want it to
deliver?

If every single customer was taking your name away at the end
of each call - would that change how you currently feel about
your teams calls? Or do you still think it's the agent’s call, and
that if they are handling it in a poor way it's their problem,
their issue. If an agent delivers a poor service to a customer -
then YOU are delivering a poor service to a customer!

If the chief executive came down to listen to calls, would you
tell him to sit with whoever he wants? Or look around to see
who "just happened to be available" - when in fact you were
hoping your top person was in? When you sit the 'big cheese'
down would you allow the agent to just "get on and do it"
without giving them the "do your best job" nod? Would you feel
confident that they would represent you, your brand, your
business to the best of their ability - and that the 'main man'
was seeing a snap shot of how it really was every day on every


call - or would he just be seeing the polished article because he
is, after all, the 'headline act'!?

What do you want your calls to sound like?

How will they represent your brand values?

Do your team know?

How could they do it if they don't know?

So it all comes down to what you want to hear on the calls your
team take, it all comes down to:

What do
you want?


The following pages contain examples of
some of the ways you could focus on
creating CCE.

Either use them directly in coaching or
as a spring board for your own ideas.

Ensure that your coaching remains
focused on the Conversation Cycle and
its application in the call.

Focus on process if there is a need to
do so, but don't make that the focus of
your coaching.


C the C
Focus Sheet

Focus Informs

Words

Voice

Intent

Energy Enthusiasm Execution


C the C
Focus Sheet
Focus - Invites
(Listen to a call and tick and write examples next to each of the question types. Also
comment on the appropriateness of the question. Do you know why it was asked? Go by
what was said on the call. Or can it be only explained by the agent after the call? And
finally - was the question in the right place?)

Open
Fact Finding

Checking

Hypothetical

Summarising

Multiple Leading
Closed


C the C
Focus Sheet
Focus - Listening
(Think of this as a spectrum between Active Listening & Passive Listening. See the definitions earlier for the
full explanation. Each time you evidence some form of listening on the call mark where you feel it is on the
spectrum between the two. Write down your comments as to why. The evidence, of course, has to come from
the call - not your opinion! Back it up with facts. It's purposefully a blank piece of paper as it has to come from
your listening to what's happening on the call, not reading an instruction!)

Active Listening

Passive Listening


C the C
Focus Sheet

Focus Acknowledgements

Appropriate

Varied

Timely

Certainly - OK - That's Great - Brilliant - Excellent - Thank you - Right -
Fantastic - Elvis!


C the C
Focus Sheet
Focus - Rapport
(The aim here is to create Shibumi of Rapport™, how to get the best relationship with the
customer in the simplest and easiest way. No over doing it. Basically listen to the customer and
respond. This ensures that you have Rapport With Purpose. RWP is created by using Natural
Rapport to build Constructive Rapport. Aim is to create a smile - see below)

Think of Natural Rapport as being Above the Line, and
Constructive rapport below the line.

You would always start the call using Natural Rapport - i.e.
being friendly, take it into the realm of Constructive Rapport
and always end with the friendly touch.

Natural Rapport
Start End
of Call
of Call

Constructive Rapport

The size of the smile depends on how much Constructive
Rapport was built on the call.

Listening to the customer - making them feel understood,
valued and important.

Wowing them - giving them an unexpected "feel good factor"
about you and the company in a short and effective manner is
Shibumi of Rapport™


Changing The Conversation

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