The “Course Topics” series from Manage Train Learn and Slide Topics is a collection of over 4000 slides that will help you master a wide range of management and personal development skills. The 202 PowerPoints in this series offer you a complete and in-depth study of each topic. This presentation is on "Customer Relations".

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Customer Relations
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MTL Course Topics
Customer Relations
CUSTOMER CARE

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Customer Relations
Customer Care
MTL Course Topics
The Course Topics series from Manage Train Learn is a large collection of topics that will help you as a learner
to quickly and easily master a range of skills in your everyday working life and life outside work. If you are a
trainer, they are perfect for adding to your classroom courses and online learning plans.
COURSE TOPICS FROM MTL
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Copyright Manage Train Learn 2020
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Commons license.

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ARE YOU READY?
OK, LET’S START!

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INTRODUCTION
Of all the techniques available to the customer carer,
building rapport is one of the most powerful. When you
build rapport, you can transform impossible customer
situations into ones with potential; you can turn
uninterested browsers into keen prospects; you can get to
the bottom of customer needs, problems and preferences;
and you can acquire the ability to connect with others
instead of being like ships that pass in the night.

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RAPPORT
The sight of two people who get on well is like looking at
mirror images of one person. They sit in the same way, walk
in the same way, speak in the same way and use the same
words and phrases. When people hit it off, they find
themselves on the same wavelength, see things from the
same point of view, feel in tune. They have rapport.
Rapport is a semi-conscious feeling of being in harmony
with others which leads to liking and a greater willingness to
let others influence you.
Most of life's successful relationships are based on finding
rapport with others. We usually discover these relationships
spontaneously and naturally. When we work as customer
carers, however, we need to learn how to reach the same
result through the use of rapport techniques.

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BUILDING RAPPORT
Building rapport with others is one of the key qualities in the
profile of good customer carers. In his book, "Managing
Quality Customer Service", William Martin suggests that the
following ten attributes are essential in people who need to
get on with customers:
1. a genuine liking for others
2. sociable, friendly, outgoing
3. like to serve and help others
4. feel comfortable with strangers
5. able to control their feelings
6. able to show empathy with people's situations and
problems
7. trusting
8. high self-esteem
9. a track record of competence
10. a sense of being in control.

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RESONANCE
The state of being in rapport is similar to what happens in
musical resonance. If you strike a note on a tuning fork and
hold it near to another tuning fork, the second one will
vibrate even though they do not touch.
A similar effect occurs when people work and live in an
open, trusting and mutually helpful relationship. Each gives
and takes freely. They both listen and contribute, and see
the other person's problems as their own.
Resonance is more likely to occur when you focus on the
things you agree about rather than the things that you don't
agree about. It means avoiding anything that strikes a bad
note. Resonance is the aim of all customer relationships and
is the basis for meeting customer needs, maintaining
customer contact and solving customer problems.

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THE MIRROR EFFECT
We can build rapport with others by noticing another
person's psychological and perceptual state through how
they behave and then adapting our own behaviour to be like
them. The resulting "mirror" effect produces an unaware
harmony between us.
If your customer leans back in their chair because they feel
relaxed, gently lean back in your chair too. If your customer
speaks slowly, because she is unsure, speak slowly too. If
your customer asks lots of questions, because they need
reassurance, gently ask questions of them to find out why
they are worried.
The American psychotherapist Milton Erickson was an
expert at "mirroring". He could exactly match someone's
movements, muscle tensions, even their rate of breathing.
The result was that they felt like him and experienced a
deep sense of calm without quite knowing why.

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THE 3 M'S OF RAPPORT
When you instantly hit it off with someone, you've found
rapport without knowing it. At other times, you have to
work hard at it.
To create rapport, you need to distinguish between 3 types
or 3 M's:
1. Mimicking. Mimicking, or "monkeying", is the crude
copying of another person's words, voice or actions and
rarely works in building rapport. Don't ever do it.
2. Mirroring. Mirroring is the process of adopting another
person's body language in order to let them feel
comfortable with you. It can include obvious reflections
such as movement of hands and seat positions to more
subtle aspects such as distribution of weight and posture.
3. Matching. Matching is a moving version of mirroring and
the most powerful rapport-building technique. Choose 3 or
more features for the strongest effect.

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CUES AND SIGNS
Conflict in personal relationships arises when people are out
of sync with each other. This can happen easily in a
customer service situation. For example: the shop assistant
who has to explain a product's features for the hundredth
time and relapses into "patter" and technical jargon without
noticing what the customer is doing or saying.
Disharmony in relationships can be avoided if we see things
from the customer's point of view. One way to do this is to
notice their predominant representational system. A
person's representational system is their main way of seeing
and experiencing the world around them. For some of us it
is visual, for others auditory, for others through touch and
sensing, for others it is neutral.
If we notice the cues and signs of another person's
representational system, we can immediately lock into it
and so find a quick way to build rapport.

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THE VISUAL
You can recognise that someone's predominant way of
experiencing the world is visual when you notice them using
words and phrases, such as:
1. "I see what you mean"
2. "take a look"
3. "beyond a shadow of doubt"
4. "in the light of"
5. "I take a dim view of this"
6. "tunnel vision".
Other clues that show you are dealing with a Visual person
are...
1. fast speech
2. shallow breathing high in the chest
3. high-pitched, nasal, often strained voice
4. tense abdomen; extended neck; tense hunched
shoulders
5. lots of pointing
6. pale face.

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THE VISUAL SENSE
There are three types of people who experience the world
mainly through their visual sense.
They are...
1. people who have an internal image of their goals and
how things should be
2. people who like to understand situations through
getting the picture clear in their heads first
3. people who like to look good and who are impressed
with appearances.
One way to identify a visual person is to notice the
movements of eye pupils when they recall an experience. If
they are constructing the image for the first time, their eyes
will move up and to the left; if remembering it, up and to
the right.

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THE AUDITORY
A person whose predominant sense is the auditory or sound
sense is likely to use phrases such as:
1. "It doesn't sound good"
2. "that rings a bell"
3. "let me make myself clear"
4. "to tell the truth"
5. "word for word"
6. "hidden message"
7. "I hear what you're saying".
Other cues of an auditory type are...
1. a clear resonant balanced tone
2. even and deep breathing coming from the diaphragm or
whole chest
3. head to one side as if listening
4. slouched shoulders
5. folded hands or arms.

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THE AUDITORY SENSE
There are three types of people who experience the world
chiefly through its sounds and words.
They are...
1. people who like to make verbal contact with others as
their way of learning, working and relaxing
2. people who seek security, through questioning others
and hearing answers
3. people who are happiest when dominating others
usually through the sound of their voice.
You know you are dealing with an auditory person if their
eyes move horizontally when they recall an experience. In
constructing a sound, the pupils move left; in remembering
a sound, to the right.

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THE KINAESTHETIC
The words and phrases which a kinaesthetic person might
use are those which emphasise touch, feeling and physical
objects, for example:
1. "get in touch with him"
2. "I can't grasp the meaning of this"
3. "I don't follow you"
4. "pain in the neck"
5. "floating on air"
6. "it doesn't feel right".
Other cues of a kinaesthetic type are...
1. slow speech with long pauses
2. low deep tone
3. deep breathing low in the stomach
4. relaxed muscles
5. solid grounded posture, head square
6. upturned palms, arms bent
7. a lot of movement.

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THE KINAESTHETIC SENSE
There are three types of people who belong to the
kinaesthetic group.
They are...
1. people who feel things more intensely than most. These
may transmute their feelings into artistic ventures.
2. people who like to be happy, active and have frequent
new experiences
3. people who are inclined towards switching off, relaxing
and feeling at peace with the world.
When a kinaesthetic person recalls experiences they may
conjure up smells, tastes and feelings as well as other
senses. In this case, the eyes move down and to the left.
When they build an internal picture, the eyes move down
and to the right.

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WHAT WE SEE
Each of us has preferred ways of seeing the world that may
or may not coincide with the way others see things. For
example, if shown two squares and one triangle and asked
"What do you see?", some people will focus on the two
squares and some people will focus on the one triangle. This
is because when offered a way of seeing something, some
of us will look for similarities, while others of us will look for
differences.
These perceptual tendencies in how we see the world are
known as sub-modalities. In customer care situations, we
will be unlikely to build rapport if we see things differently
from our customers. We can however build rapport by
checking out their view first and then adjusting our view to
be like theirs.

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PREFERRED ACTIONS
There are many different types of thinking which determine
our preferred ways of acting in any situation. Here are nine:
Do you prefer:
1. Duty Or Pleasure: doing what you have to do or what you
want to do?
2. Self Or Others: working by yourself or with others?
3. Standards Of Success: judging yourself against your own
standards or others' standards?
4. Things to be the Same or different?
5. Leaping Or Looking: looking before you leap or leaping
before you look?
6. Once Or Often: needing to be told once or often?
7. One Or Many: sticking to one idea or having many?
8. In the Team or in charge of the team?
9. Away Or Toward: avoiding dangers or being attracted to
risks?

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OOPS!
The writer, Anthony Robbins, tells the following delightful
story in his book "Unlimited Power". It sums up the effect of
Matching.
A class of schoolchildren decided one morning to play a
prank on their teacher who was late in arriving. At a pre-
arranged moment when she reached her desk, all the
children dropped their books on the floor.
Noticing at once what was going on, the teacher put down
her chalk, picked up her book and accidentally dropped it
too.
"Sorry I'm late,” she said, picking up the book. "Let's start at
page 23" and she continued as if nothing had happened.
From that moment on, she had the children eating out of
her hand.

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BODY LANGUAGE
When we are in harmony with others, our body language
instinctively matches theirs. We laugh together, frown
together, walk at the same pace, even breathe at the same
rate. People who are close to one another can even come
out with the same sentence, sound or tune as each other.
If we want to build rapport with our customers we can
create closeness by copying, imitating and mirroring the
gestures, expressions, stances and movements they use.
Notice how a policewoman instinctively crouches down to
put herself at the same level as a little child who is lost.
The secret to successful body language matching is to do it
in an understated way so that it doesn't appear forced and
unnatural. If you already are interested in your customers'
needs and problems, you will probably match them without
thinking anyway.

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PACING
The following story shows how the simple steps of pacing
can help you to understand customers, their psychological
state and their care needs.
An old man was sitting in a hospital waiting room when he
was observed to take out a cigarette and put it to his lips.
Hurrying over to him, a nurse told him sternly that smoking
was not allowed in the hospital.
The old man made no move to return the cigarette to its
packet. At which another nurse went to the old man, sat
beside him and quietly asked...
"You look as if you need a cigarette. Is there something
wrong?“
The man explained that he had just been at the death of his
wife. They had been married for over 50 years. The nurse
was then able to deal with the old man in an appropriate
way while at the same time ensuring he broke no hospital
rules on smoking.

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PHONE RAPPORT
Phone calls require more rapport-building skills than face-to-face
meetings. That’s because we can’t get full feedback and we only
have the other person’s voice and words to go on.
Here are 7 ways to build phone rapport.
1. open with a smile; it makes you sound welcoming
2. use natural-sounding and sincerely-felt small talk, eg about the
weather where they are
3. slip in their name, though don’t overdo it or it will sound
artificial and have the opposite effect
4. empathize with their needs and let them know you
understand
5. mirror their words, especially any adjectives they use to
describe things
6. find something you share but don’t dwell on your experience,
focus on theirs
7. reinforce the bond, but don’t overdo it, eg “I couldn’t agree
with you more”; and “another reason I think you’re right is…”
Because people like you when they feel like you, they find it hard
to say No to any requests you make.

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THE CO-OPERATIVE MOOD
The following scenario takes place every day in countless
offices.
A manager is sitting at his desk writing an important report.
A member of staff knocks at his door and enters the room
saying excitedly: "Have you got a minute? I've had some
great ideas about the Thompson project." The manager says
nothing, carries on writing, and only after a long silence,
looks up and says: "Not now, John, I'm a bit busy. Later,
perhaps?“
The scene would have been more positive if, when John
came in, the manager had stood up, moved to where John
was standing, listened and said in the same interested tone
of voice: "Sounds great. Tell you what. Give me half an hour
or so to finish this report and then we'll meet in the
conference room to discuss it."

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BEHAVIOUR BREEDS BEHAVIOUR
Once you have built rapport with another person through
matching, pacing and mirroring their outward behaviour,
you are then able to do any of three things...
1. continue the rapport and so build affinity between you
2. subtly change your own behaviour and lead them also to
change theirs
3. break off an undesirable pattern of behaviour by changing
yours, eg an angry customer complaining about poor service
can be calmed down if you match their angry patterns and
then subtly shift into a quieter tone.
This way of relating to others is based on the idea that when
we build rapport with others, our behaviour breeds a similar
behaviour in those we are dealing with. This means that
customer servers have a powerful tool to influence others.

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THAT’S
IT!
WELL DONE!

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THANK YOU
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn