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| Section 1: Introduction |
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To be able to determine the needs of your caller, you need to really listen to the caller, and then you need to ask the proper questions.
This introduction shows you:
- Why these skills are important
- The consequences of not practicing good listening and questioning skills
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| Section 2: Listening Skills |
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This section presents five skills that can make you a better listener:
- Make the caller feel welcome and at ease.
- Concentrate on what the caller is saying.
- Take accurate notes and read them back to the caller.
- Give verbal feedback to let the caller know you are listening.
- Keep an open mind - refuse to jump to conclusions.
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| Section 3: Practice Your Listening Skills |
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This is an exercise based on the five skills covered in the previous section.
In this section, you will simulate answering a telephone call by selecting the responses you would make to the caller.
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| Section 4: Questioning Skills |
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This section shows you how to use several types of questions to identify the caller's needs. The section focuses on two types of questions:
- Closed-ended questions can be answered in a few words, such as yes/no or today/tomorrow.
- Open-ended questions encourage conversation and allow you to draw out more information.
This section describes the differences between these two types of questions and shows you how to use each type effectively.
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| Section 5: Questions to Gather More Information |
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This section describes other types of questions and techniques. At the end of this section, you will be able to identify each type of question and determine when to use it.
- Probing questions help you gather more information.
- Echo questions are a form of verbal feedback that encourage your caller to continue talking.
- Leading questions help the caller come to a decision that you think is the best choice for the caller.
- The "And... Technique" is used to replace a series of questions that might make the caller feel somewhat uncomfortable.
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