Home
>
Small Business
>
Effective Customer Interviews Make Life Much Easier!

Effective Customer Interviews Make Life Much Easier!

One of the critical success factors for service-related businesses is our ability to understand a client's needs and requirements. Misunderstandings can lead to loss of repeat business, economic loss, and damage to reputation.

Although interactions in small business are often much more casual than those at the big end of town, interviews with clients differ from ordinary conversations even though they may appear to resemble them:

Friendly conversation

a. Not directed toward a purpose
b. Equal distribution of talking/listening
c. Fewer questions
d. Redundancy and repetition are drawbacks to conversation

Interview

a. Directed towards a purpose and therefore has a structure that must reflect its purpose

b. Largely questions from one and answers from other party (interviewer mainly listens while encouraging interviewee to talk)

c. Redundancy and repetition desirable in interviews

d. Interviewer needs to use a range of strategies to make sure interviewee has been fully understood

A good structure for an interview is:

1. Establish rapport
2. Get the big picture (general information gathering)
3. Gather specific information
4. Intervene (give information, advice, or instructions)
5. End, including feedback and summary

These stages may be interactive, occurring several times throughout the interview.Interviews go wrong in predictable ways. Approximately 40% of clients do not ask an initial question that explains their need in precise terms, so the purpose of the interview is to clarify the question. And that process can fall foul of one of five common causes of communication accidents:

i. Not listening

ii. Playing twenty questions (as opposed to open-ended questioning)

iii. Interrupting at inappropriate times

iv. Making assumptions

v. Not following up

To optimise the time spent in an interview, you can use a range of techniques:

1. Open-ended questions (as opposed to closed questions that invite 'yes/no' answers)

2. Sense-making questions ? these provide more structure than open-ended questions but are less likely to lead to premature diagnosis than closed questions. They also leave the interviewee in control

3. Reflecting content ? summarise and paraphrase what your client has said

4. Closure techniques:

i.To indicate that discussion of a topic has been completed, at least for the moment

ii.To focus the interviewee's attention on what has been achieved in the discussion (can be used when the conversation is wandering)

iii. To establish a good communication climate so that the interviewee looks forward to the next encounter

Your marketing, client knowledge of the industry in general and your services in particular, and those client's expectations of your service, play a role in ill-formed queries from clients, because they reflect those clients mental models of how your business and its systems work. Obviously, an individual's mental model of any system is, by definition, inaccurate and incomplete in relation to the conceptual model. It is the degree of discrepancy that is important.

Clients tend to phrase their initial questions in a way they believe meet the requirements of the system. Inadequacy of clients' mental models becomes greater as systems become more complex, so the potential for mismatch will be vastly different for a sandwich bar, for example, compared to a business which is part of a more complex industry, such as a financial services business.

Common generators of ill-formed queries include:

a. Request for something broad and general when the client actually wants something very specific

b. Request for something specific but there is a mismatch between the specific thing requested and what they actually need

c. Client asks a question based on a misunderstanding of how the system works, or to clarify a confusion

d. Terminology used is ambiguous

e. The question involves a reconstruction which the client has gotten wrong

f. The question contains an error or misconception

Small business operators, particularly those operating service-related businesses, need to be aware and take steps to check for discrepancies between interviewer and client mental models. The good news is that mental models change through an incremental learning process.

Jennifer Cram is a sought after Civil Celebrant based in Brisbane, Queensland, who credits her success to her capacity for 'inspired listening'. She has also had 30 years management experience in the public sector. For more information: http://www.jennifercram.com

Copyright ? 2005 Jennifer Cram. You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

shuttle to Midway Beardstown .. Lockport Chicago limo O’Hare

In The News:

Google’s scam detection features, powered by artificial intelligence, are a significant step forward in safeguarding Android users from fraud.

The FBI has issued a warning that scammers are impersonating doctors, police and banks using spoofed numbers as "smishing" texts surge nationwide.

Communities with unreliable internet service stand to gain after Amazon's Project Kuiper launched its first full batch of satellites into orbit April 28.

Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says unsubscribing from spam might actually backfire. Learn when to avoid it and stop junk effectively.

Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson talks about how the first nonstop beating heart transplant, called zero ischemic time, at Taiwan hospital changes surgery.

Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson: FBI warns of "time-traveling" hackers.

Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson talks about a soft, vine-like robot called SPROUT that aids safe survivor rescues in collapsed buildings.

Health insurance giant Blue Shield of California confirmed it had been sharing private health data of 4.7 million users with Google for three years without even realizing it.

Delta and JetZero’s blended wing body aircraft marks a meaningful step toward a cleaner, quieter and more efficient future for air travel.

Recent reports show many common passwords can be cracked in literally seconds. Kurt the CyberGuy explains how to strengthen your passwords.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

Iron, a robot that stands 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs 154 pounds, combines advanced artificial intelligence with human-like movement and exceptional vision.

Hertz, the rental car giant, recently confirmed that customer information was exposed through a cyberattack on one of its software vendors.

There are a number of features with AirPods you may or may not know about to take your listening experience to the next level. Kurt the CyberGuy explains.

These 35 Chrome extensions have privacy and security concerns. Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says to delete them now.

Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says 329,000 mph fusion rocket promises to be fast, disruptive and enable deep-space missions.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says a new autonomous AI is a game changer that also raises privacy risks. Is your data safe?

Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says robots and drones are revolutionizing fruit farming with faster picking and smarter handling.

Landmark Admin revises May 2024 cyberattack scope to show twice as many people were affected. Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson gives tips to help stay safe from an insurance data breach.

Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson talks about how Yamaha’s hydrogen outboard motor could revolutionize boating with zero emissions.

Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson reveals how to memorialize or remove a deceased loved one’s Facebook account and protect their digital legacy from misuse or scams.

Tech expert Kurt “CyberGuy" Knutsson says an Apple Watch saved psychiatrist Amanda Faulkner by detecting deadly leukemia early.

Scammers and fraudsters are increasingly targeting the most vulnerable, especially nursing homes and the personal data of their residents. Kurt the CyberGuy has safety tips.

Infected USB flash drives can spread malware among multiple organizations in ways that can easily bypass traditional security systems.

Effective Customer Interviews Make Life Much Easier!

Small Business