Use questioning techniques when delivering customer service
Overview
This standard is part of the customer service competence area related to Customer Service Delivery. It covers using questioning techniques when delivering customer service. It includes customer service behaviours and processes that have most impact on the customer experience during Customer Service Delivery. Remember that customers include everyone to whom you provide products and services. They may be external to your organisation or they may be internal customers.
You use questioning both in planned patterns and in spontaneous conversation to understand what your customer wants and how your organisation can deliver it. You interact with your customers face to face, by voice technology or in online chats.
This standard is for customer service professionals who use questioning techniques when delivering customer service.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
- greet your customers using your organisation's guidelines to invite an open response
- use planned and spontaneous comments to show empathy with your customers
- request more detailed explanations from your customers
- listen to customer responses to understand their concerns
- use open and closed questions to connect with your customers and conduct detailed investigation of their needs
- identify customers reactions to the information you are seeking
- follow your organisation's planned question patterns to explore customer opinions in greater detail
- explore any customer concerns you have identified using spontaneous conversation
- explain why your organisation needs the information you are asking for
- use probing questions that build on comments or words used by your customers
- thank your customers for the information they provide and encourage further open responses
- record your customers' responses to inform future actions
- follow the legal, organisational, codes of practice and policies relevant to your role and the activities being carried out
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
- why establishing rapport makes it easier to draw information from customers
- the different ways to greet customers that build rapport with them
- the reasons for using planned question patterns and scripts to get the information you need
- the reasons for using spontaneous conversation in addition to planned questions and the type of information that is gathered
- the importance of active listening when seeking detailed information from customers and how to demonstrate this in your interactions
- the differences between closed and open questions and when to use them
- the importance of explaining to customers why information is needed
- why trigger questions are effective in gaining specific information
- how to question and respond to customers with the different communication channels and social media platforms that your organisation uses
- the legal, organisational, codes of practice and policies relevant to your role and the activities being carried out