What is Listening ??

Listening approach There are three directional Listening approach: 1. Psychological listening (mind) 2. Physical listening (body) 3. Effective listening (soul) Listening is an art that involves our mind, body, and soul.

What is listening? Listening is an interactive process wherein spoken language is converted to meaning in the mind. Listening is more than just hearing. It is a specialized from of hearing. But Hearing is only an important component of listening. The most crucial part of listening process is thinking or converting to meaning what one hears. Hearing is a passive process where as listening is an active process.

Types of listening 1. Discriminative listening. (here the difference between the sounds is identified)

2.

Comprehension listening. (when the discrimination between sounds is achieved one learns to make sense of the perceived sound)

3. Evaluative listening. (It is called critical listening where we make judgments about what other person is saying) 4. Appreciative listening. (here the intention is to seek certain information)

5.

Empathetic listening. (when we listen empathetically we, seek to understand the believes, moods, emotions, and goals of other people)

6. Therapeutic listening. (this creates listeners deep connection in order to help the speaker understand, change, or develop in some way) 7. Dialogic listening. (it is about learning though conversation. It is about interchange of ideas and information)

Barriers to Effective Listening

Barriers to effective listening

1. Interruption: (it is an aggressive behavior and brings negative response from the speaker being interrupted) 2. Faking attention: (it is offensive and hurting for the speaker because it sends the message that the listener doesnt really care about what the speaker is saying.

3. Becoming emotional: (this will hinder ones ability to listen.

4. Jumping to conclusion: (most common and important barrier to effective communication) 5. Getting distracted: (often one has many other tasks to do, or there is a lot of other activities take place)

6. Pre-judging the subject: (listeners when assume that the subject is boring / dull or they already assume what would be the outcome) 7. Wrong focus: (when listener observe the appearance and the delivery style of the speaker instead of listening to what is being said)

8. Gathering only facts: (listeners focus too much on the facts where by they tend to miss the message intend to convey) 9. Inflexibility while listening: (when speeches are not carefully outlined or structured that diverts listeners attention. 10. Avoiding complicated subjects: (speakers lack interest when topic is not familiar, they lack interest)

Strategies for Effective Listening

Strategies for effective listening

Many ways to improve listening skill: 1. Maintain eye contact with the speaker. 2. Provide clues or indicate that you are actively involved in listening. 3. Focus on content, not delivery. 4. Avoid emotional involvement. 5. Avoid distractions of your mind. 6. Refrain from formulating an immediate response. (listen before you begin to speak)

7. Ask questions for better understanding.

8. Use the gap between rate of speech and your rate of understanding (your mind has the capacity to listen, think, write, and ponder at the same time, but it needs to be trained) 9. Be willing to accept revision. (dont defend) 10. Choose the right environment. 11. Stay active by asking questions for yourself. (e.g. What key points speaker making) 12. Treat listening as a challenging mental task: (make listening active and not passive)

Listening Activities

(A) Listening to an audio tape

(B) Listing to radio tape

Semantic Markers
this is the knowledge of social & psychological effects of language Note: A. Semantic Markers are used according to the functions they perform. While listening you need to pay attention to the use of semantic markers. B. They are the links between two sentences.

Semantic Markers
1. To indicate how ideas are being developed or to list the ideas: e.g.: primarily, secondly, finally, to begin with, first and foremost, next, etc. 2. For illustrations and examples: e.g.: for instance, for example, lets take for example, etc

3. To introduce an idea that runs against what has been said earlier: e.g.: but, nevertheless, yet, although, by contrast, on the other hand, however, in spite of, etc

4. To show a cause and effect relationship between one idea and another: e.g.: so, therefore, because, since, thus, hence, consequently, etc. 5. To show the speakers intention to sum up his message: e.g.: to summarize, in other words, it amounts to, etc. 6. To indicate the relative importance of different items: e.g.: it is worth noting, it is important to note that, the next crucial point is, etc.

7. To rephrase what has already been said: e.g.: in other words, put differently, that is to say, let me put it like this.
8. To express a time relationship: e.g.: then, next, after, while, when, previously, etc _______________________________________

Basic understanding of Listing Process

To avoid complexity of listening process we need to follow 5 separate steps: 1. Receiving: (physically listening and acknowledging and to keep all distractions at bay) 2. Interpreting: (as per your own values, beliefs, ideas, expectations, needs) 3. Remembering: (you need to store it in your memory for future processing and to avoid information to disappear from your think pad (memory brain) ) 4. Evaluating: (evaluate by applying critical thinking skill) 5. Responding: (your input for understanding)

Listening to Customer Complaints

Listening to Customer Complaints Facing customer complaints helps learning listening skill, speaking skill, and problem solving skill. (customers are different every time with different behavior)

You need to create a standardized method for dealing with complainers and turn them into your loyal customers.
One of the great tools used in this connection is the technique of BLAST

BLAST technique (Believe, Listen, Apologize, Satisfy, Thank)

1. Believe: When you receive complaints from customers, it is important to understand that your customers believe that your establishment has done some thing wrong to them. You must listen to the problem and show that you believe in what they say. (even though they are lying and incorrect) (the customer is always right)

2. Listen: Stop and engage in active listening. Dont quickly start thinking, how to respond to the accusation. Rather listen till the end.

When customer is venting, stay calm, and level headed.

In this process you will demonstrate your ability to the customer that you have heard and understood his problem.

Note: A patient and active listening is the best answer to satisfy even the most short tempered customer. (Never defend or justify).

3. Apologize: Always apologize even if you did nothing wrong because from your customers prospective, they have a legitimate complaint, and they expect an apology. This will diffuse a lot of frustration that the customer has. E.g.: (Im sorry weve caused you inconvenience)
Note: But remember, your apology on every issue may construed as an acceptance of guilt. Examine the situation and react. May be you need to refer to the systems and rules with specific noting.

4. Satisfy: Make all sincere effort to make your customer satisfied on business front. Be judgmental about what is fair and straight but also give them opportunity to feel empowered over the situation.
Set the problem right before the next call. Send a personalized message on the progress and apologize if a mistake at your end. Send all possible indication that you care for them.

5. Thank: Thank the customer for calling or making a complaint may it be at the beginning, middle , or end.
Customers complaints indicate their support in giving you opportunity to rectify the mistake and an invitation for them to come back to you again. Note: Customer complains only when he cares about your business and your success. Think and look at every thing positively.

Self assessment

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