Open Features Questions: personalising efficiency
Personalising interactions in sales contact centres during a time when many customers are deprived of normal daily interactions is key to building rapport, forming bonds and improving loyalty. This week GRIST is focusing on the micro-behaviour of Open Features Questions and how they can be used to learn more about customers while improving efficiency.
Time is money. That is the belief behind many business decisions and this approach often trickles down through all levels of organisations until it reaches the front line. When this mindset dictates a sales consultant’s conversation with a customer, the result is a transactional and assumptive interaction, which interestingly results in longer interactions and a poorer customer experience.
The habit many contact centre staff fall into is making assumptions about customers based on lifestyle factors and a handful of closed questions, believing it will save them time. The danger with assumptions is they may be wrong, and they reduce the amount of trust built with the customer. E.g. If a customer doesn’t feel understood and listened to, they are less likely to accept a consultant's recommendation.
So how can consultants improve first call resolution, reduce average handling time AND have a more personalised conversation? Through open questioning.
GRIST’s annual survey of 60+ Australian sales contact centres found that 3 in 4 customers received a ‘by numbers’ approach with no open questions used to determine the features they required from a product.
Open questions prompt a conversation but counter intuitively they also save time. When it comes to learning about a customer, open questions go a long way as the customer does most of the heavy lifting. They build trust and rapport, by getting to know the customer and their needs, and make the customer feel understood and listened to.
Imagine meeting with a friend after returning from holiday and only being asked closed questions like “Did you see the Statue of Liberty?” “Did you eat pizza?” “Did you stay in Brooklyn?” rather than “Tell me about your trip”.
The below infographic shows the gap between the average customer experience and that being provided by the best performing contact centre.
The good news is that it’s possible to improve quickly, using a very simple micro-behavioural approach. Here’s how.
Micro-behaviour: Open Features Questions
What is it?
Closed questions can be answered with single-word answers whereas open questions (why, how, what is) prompt a deeper conversation. By using open questions to identify the customer's specific needs, consultants build trust and are better equipped to provide a more customer centric solution.
Why is it important?
Both styles of question (open and closed) have their place in the needs discovery phase, but starting with open questioning is more efficient and uncovers a more complete set of customer needs. This in turn leads to a more tailored solution and mitigates customer objections.
When?
Open questions can be used at any point throughout the discovery phase, but a good way to get the most from them is to approach customer needs discovery like a funnel; begin by asking very broad, open questions and then follow up with targeted closed questions to clarify specific details as you close in on a solution.
How?
Open ended questions are designed to start conversation. Here are a few ideas to get you going:
“What are you hoping to achieve by switching companies?
“Tell me what you’re looking for in a credit card”
“How would you like this policy to work for you?”
Mini execution plan:
Implementing this in your team is easy and can take as little as a week.
Day 1: Run a focus session to explore the What, Why and How of the Open Features Question micro-behaviour.
Set a goal: Ask the team to reflect on a customer conversation they have just had and estimate the number of open questions vs closed questions, make a note and come prepared to discuss these at the end of the day.
Day 2: Run a focus session to explore possible open questions based on the customer conversations heard during day 1. Practise real-life scenarios during the session.
Set a goal: Ask the team to use 1 open features question during the discovery phase five times during the day.
Day 3 to 5: Review previous day’s learning, identify and discuss the impact on the customer and conversation, and share best practise.
Set a goal: Gradually increase the frequency that the Open Features Question micro-behaviour is demonstrated.
End of the week: Review how far you have come and the impact the team is having on the customer experience (and themselves). Then celebrate because that feeling of success drives habit formation!
Check out our series of our micro-behaviour deep-dives to help your customers and teams:
Empathise and Enthuse: Improve customer experience with empathy
Benefits and Attributes: Letting the customer know how you will help them
[Photo by YIFEI CHEN on Unsplash]
