Active Listening in Customer Service: 6 Ways to Implement It

Recall the most memorable conversation you have ever had. Whether it was with a friend, a colleague or a brand representative, chances are that the person you engaged with didn’t just hmmm, aah or smile politely at you. Rather, it must be a two-way dialog led by genuine curiosity, probing questions and shared experiences - termed as “active listening”. In customer service, active listening lays the foundation for long-term customer relationships and positive brand perceptions.  

A simple shift from transaction-led to customer-led interaction handling is all it takes to foster customer satisfaction. Customers are human: they don’t want to be just a ticket on your queue. They want to be heard, understood and validated. Catering to these emotional needs can help influence 95% of customers who make purchase decisions based on emotions alone.   

The benefits of active listening in customer service aren’t limited to long-term customer loyalty and retention. A company that listens with the purpose of understanding its customers better gets a treasure trove of insights that can be leveraged to improve offerings, streamline processes and innovate ahead of time. It’s a win-win! 

In this blog, we’ll share six ways to develop active listening skills in your customer support teams alongside practical examples of organizations that listen actively.  

What is active listening?  

Active listening is a multifaceted communication technique that involves fully concentrating, understanding, engaging and remembering what a person says. It goes much beyond just hearing the words – an active listener must empathize and respond appropriately.  

In customer service, active listening plays a vital role in establishing trust between customers and brands. For more than 50% of retail customers experiencing urgent issues, call centers remain the preferred resolution channel and they expect agents to listen to their issues actively. By going beyond predefined call center scripts, agents can identify the root cause of problems and provide solutions that actually work. It’s a surefire strategy to drive customer centricity and competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace.  

However, be careful to not confuse active listening and customer empathy. While active listening involves empathy, there are subtle differences between active listening and empathetic listening, which are worth exploring.  

Empathetic listening vs. active listening in customer service 

Importance of active listening in customer service  

Now that you’re familiar with the concept, let’s get into the benefits of active listening in customer service.  

Active listening for customer service is what a foundation is for a building. Without it, the whole edifice is at risk of collapsing. The benefits of it in customer service have far-reaching impacts both for customer satisfaction and for your bottom line.  

When customer service agents actively listen, they can provide more accurate and personalized responses. Customer experience statistics show that a high degree of personalization can lead to a 1.5x increase in brand loyalty compared to those who don’t provide it. Moreover, positive customer experiences can reduce customer churn by almost 15% and boost win rates by 40%. That says something about satisfied customers, doesn’t it? 

Also Read: An 8-Step Plan to Deliver Personalized Customer Service  

Active listening also helps address customer-specific concerns and makes them feel heard. This, in turn, can soothe frustrated customers and is effective in conflict resolution as well as in problem-solving. A study among credit card users showed that a frazzled customer who speaks to a skilled and empathetic contact center agent is less likely to abandon their credit card usage.   

As for your bottom line, 94% of customers with prior positive customer service experiences are more likely to purchase from you again. Happy customers are also willing to shell out more: 42% of customers will pay a premium for warm and welcoming services.  

To summarize, instituting active listening as a core element of your customer experience strategy is no longer negotiable if you want stronger customer relationships, higher brand recall and long-term business success. 

Step-by-step guide to applying active listening skills in customer service  

Listening is a skill, not a talent. Active listening is a customer service skill that can be taught and improved over time with intentional practice. To encourage your customer service agents to engage better with customers, equip them with all the resources needed to become better listeners. Start with these steps: 

Step 1: Give customers your complete attention 

Any meaningful conversation requires the people engaging in it to be attentive. To be a good listener, you must listen to your customers with 100% attention and 0% distraction. Avoid interrupting them mid-sentence with solutions. Instead, pay heed to their frustrations and wait till they finish to give you the full picture.  

Example: A customer calls upset about a delayed order delivery. Instead of telling them to check the order status or your shipping policies, which they may have already done, wait for them to finish explaining their concern. Once you have the full picture, you can then suggest appropriate solutions. Fight the urge to rush them or give scripted responses. Attentive listening is a skill that needs rigorous practice and extreme patience.  

Step 2: Validate the customer’s emotions or concerns 

In customer service scenarios that involve conflict or negative sentiment, the first step towards active listening is giving validation. Validate the customer’s negative feelings instead of trying to reason with them or push the blame. This will instantly placate the angry customer and make them feel understood.

That’s where empathy comes in: use verbal or non-verbal cues for validation depending on the medium of communication. The former work well for phone conversations while the latter are appropriate for in-person or video conversations. 

Example: Circling back to the customer complaint about a delayed order, responding with “I can imagine how that is bothersome for you, especially when we promised a delivery within XX days,” can make them feel understood and de-escalate the issue a notch.  

Master these 13 Customer Service Phrases to Win Customer Trust 

Step 3: Ask appropriate questions 

One of the key skills of an active listener is asking the right leading or follow-up questions. Research says that people who ask more questions are better liked by their conversation partners as it signals interest and active listening. Lack of two-way dialog, on the other hand, signals apathy and disinterest. As a support agent, ask open-ended questions to gather more context about the problem. This will help avoid misunderstanding and give you time to craft more thought-through responses.  

Pro tip: Ask about the "What," "How," or "Why" of the issue, to encourage customers to share their experiences in more detail rather than simple questions that elicit "yes" or "no" answers.  

Example: If a customer complains about being unable to log into their account, asking a question like, “Would you be able to help me with what error message you’re getting on trying to log in?” will help you get to the bottom of the issue sooner. 

Step 4: Paraphrase to aid comprehension 

Before you jump into resolution delivery, take a minute to summarize the key points of the conversation. This will confirm that you have understood the problem correctly and give your customer the chance to correct you if you didn’t.  

Example: To clarify with the customer, you could ask a question like, “To confirm, the package was expected to arrive yesterday, but it did not, and the courier service shows that it has been delivered. Am I understanding that correctly?” This will ensure you have understood the key points.   

Scenario: Ken is a customer support agent at a SaaS company. He receives a call from a foreign customer. Due to her accent, he is unable to understand some of what she says. What should Ken do?  

Source 

Hint: If you want to be a better, more active listener, then ASK! Or paraphrase/ summarize and give the customer a chance to correct you.

Pay attention to your tone and body language while communicating. Avoid getting defensive and use empathetic statements. Also, make a note of critical events in the case history so that the next handling agent has complete context, which will prevent a scenario where the customer must repeat themselves. Consider leveraging the capabilities of generative AI software for notetaking.  

Sprinklr’s generative AI enrichment (Sprinklr AI+) allows you to generate call summaries that document key details, identify patterns and provide a concise synopsis of a conversation.  

Here, case history provides full context to previous complaints. This gives hand-off agents a starting point and saves time by giving context beforehand.  

Check Out Sprinklr AI+ 

Step 5: Provide thoughtful, personalized solutions 

Active listening in customer service is geared towards problem-solving. The goal of listening intently is to fully understand the customer's issue and provide solutions that are personalized and effective. After confirming the issue, provide tailored solutions. Avoid generic, templated responses that disregard the unique challenges of the customer.  

Pro tip: Provide the customer with multiple relevant options to resolve the issue. Empower customers with choices to make decisions that are more suited to their needs.  

Example: The customer with a delivery issue says they are going out of town for a week and need the package for the trip. In such situations, you could provide an alternative solution such as offering to deliver the package to a different address or changing to a product available nearer to the date can help. You will have to apply thought and consider the customer’s unique predicament, devising resolutions that work and show you’ve listened actively.  

Did You Know? 77% of consumers will choose to buy from a brand that provides personalized customer service. They will also recommend or pay more for such brands.  

AI and analytics can help customer service agents identify similar past cases resolved and recommend the next best actions that have clicked with such cases in the past. Removing the guesswork from the resolution process and giving personal attention ensures the support experience is memorable and positive. Check out Sprinklr’s AI-powered Agent Assist which does all of the above plus AI-driven smart responses to help deliver 50% faster resolutions. 

Step 6: Demonstrate accountability   

Customer service, especially in B2B and enterprise segments, is all about fostering sustained customer relationships. To go beyond immediate transactions, listen actively to customer feedback and stay accountable throughout the customer journey. 

There are two broad ways to do this: 

1) Once the customer has accepted a solution, immediately check whether they are satisfied with it. This reinforces your commitment to problem-solving and accountability. 2) After the issue is closed, follow up in a few days to see if they need additional assistance. Additionally, collect feedback on their experience. This will help us understand what could work for future interactions.   

Example: On the date of delivery of the delayed order, you can reach back to the customer with a message or an email that says, “Checking in to see if you have received your package. We apologize for the delay and work on avoiding an experience like this in the future. Hope our assistance was satisfactory. Let us know if we can help you in any other way.”   

Become Super Accountable with Automated Surveys  

Manual feedback collection can be cumbersome and prone to human errors. Consider implementing event-triggered customer surveys that are automatically sent to customers after pre-configured events such as complaint resolution. No hassle of survey creation or timing!  In fact, go a step further and use Sprinklr Surveys, an AI-powered solution that can accomplish more than event-triggered, automated surveys. With Sprinklr, you can: 

• Unlock fully automated insights using Generative AI and verticalized AI models 
• Validating survey results with comprehensive feedback from other channels 
• Combats low response rates with AI-powered conversational surveys 

If this is something that interests you, grab a personalized demo of Sprinklr Surveys and watch how Sprinklr optimizes your customer feedback management!  

Get a Demo of Sprinklr Surveys  

How to integrate active listening into your customer service strategy 

Once you have committed to providing exemplary customer service, it is time to make active listening a core component of your customer service strategy.  

The first step to doing that is establishing clear policies that prioritize active listening. Every team member, whether customer-facing or not, should be aware that your business values customers over and above all.  

For instance, look at Zappos. The company clearly states that it values customer service above all. Employees are trained to prioritize customers and their needs.  

Source 

This brings us to the point of agent training. Establish an onboarding process with active listening exercises, role-playing, frequent workshops, and other techniques. It is important to keep cultivating these skills in your call center agents so they never lose focus, regardless of their caseload.   

To ensure your agents continue to practice active listening, integrate it into quality management and performance evaluation. Some ways to measure how well your agents are using active listening in customer service are to monitor their call recordings and track customer feedback, recognizing and rewarding agents lauded by customers and peers for their active listening.  

Finally, lead by example. Leadership must embody the principles it wants its employees to practice — your top management should set an example of active listening for the entire team to follow.  

3 examples of brands acing active listening in customer service 

The best way to get better at something is to emulate someone/ something else who’s already done it exceptionally well. Of course, you can add your own spin to it. If you want to ace your active listening skills, you only need to take a leaf out of the book of some of the world’s best examples of customer service.  

Disneyland — The happiest place on earth 

No matter who enters Disneyland, they leave happy. That’s because the company puts its all into customer focus. “Cast Members” are trained to optimize a magical experience for everyone who enters its property.   

Here’s an example: Keith and Nancy Sharon took their two children, one of whom was on the autism spectrum, to Disneyland. Upon arrival, the boy took to a purple Mickey Mouse balloon. The parents promised to get him that as a present if he behaved all day. While the day ended up being the boy’s “happiest of his life,” the purple balloon was sold out. Nancy turned to a Cast Member frantically trying to find the balloon for her son. Instead of dismissing her, they found an extra one in one of the back closets. 

Many people have shared their stories about how Disney gives its all to ensure its customers are happy. Here’s one Reddit quote that showcases Disney’s commitment to active listening:  

Source 

Fenty Beauty — Beauty for all 

Rihanna’s cosmetic brand, Fenty Beauty, defines standards in the personal care industry. And now it's changing the idea of customer service too!  

Fenty Beauty was one of the first cosmetic brands to launch foundations in 40 shades to match all skin tones. By making inclusivity one of its top priorities, it automatically solved a big customer problem. After launch, it rolled out 10 more shades to fill gaps in skin tones its existing products didn’t match.  

The company also listens to its customers on social media, launching new products based on customer requests and improving many of its pain points such as delivery.  

Source 

Hostplus — Puts you first 

Hostplus, one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, noticed that it was attracting more young customers. Since customer experience is at the core of the fund’s principles, it wanted to cater to the new demands of the younger generation.  

To do this, Hostplus began monitoring online conversations and reviewing websites. It also leveraged smart routing to send calls to agents who could resolve issues promptly as they had experience in solving similar cases. Using Sprinklr Service, Hostplus could access customer cases and full conversation history to provide personalized solutions. With these solutions, Hostplus has been able to engage more closely with its younger customer base, improve customer satisfaction and business gains.  

Read the full story here 

Ready to reap the benefits of active listening in customer service?  

In today’s competitive world, you can’t afford to stay apathetic to your customers’ words. Active listening in customer service is so much more than hearing the customer’s words. Using an advanced AI-powered customer service solution like Sprinklr Service, you glean customer insights for a deeper understanding of their needs, equip agents with the necessary tools to be more present and personalize experiences. That’s why 9 out of 10 A-list enterprises trust Sprinklr.