Listening Skills

Listening Vs Hearing

When a door closes, we hear it. When we put our ears to the closed door to find out what’s happening behind it, we start listening. When you sit in a training session you can hear the sound of the a/c, the sound of the birds chirping etc.
Hearing is a physical, biological act. Listening is a conscious act.
Listening = hearing, receiving, understanding, comprehending and then responding appropriately.
First, ensure you can hear everything clearly; secondly ensure that the other person knows you are listening. Affirmative verbal nods - e.g. "‘I see", "Okay", "uhuh", "mmm"," go ahead ","please carry on"and so on, help the customer continue the conversation. Don’t let the silence break down the conversation, forcing the customer to ask, "anybody out there?" Short statements like "I get what you mean" and "‘that’s clear" gives a feeling of assurance to the caller that he/she is being heard.
Listening is a skill.

There are 2 types of listening.

* Active
* Passive