Listening can be defined or interpreted to mean so many different things.
Some think it’s just hearing the words that another person is saying. Some think it’s being able to hear the words and then respond appropriately. Some think it’s just acknowledging the speaker often with nonverbal cues like nodding, or verbal cues like saying, “uh-huh.” To some extent, they are all partially correct.
I want to give you more of my view of listening to the message between the words. By this, I mean, listening to the subtle sounds, tones, the sigh, the delayed response or the quick response. These are just a few nonverbal cues, but they all tell you part of the story. They are all part of the conversation. What you choose to do with these cues will likely dictate the path your conversation takes. In the end, how well you pick up on the message between the words will determine if your conversation strengthens the relationship or not.
If you notice that your customer/donor is giving quick answers, you should hear the message that they are busy or in a hurry right now and acknowledge it. You can do this by getting to the point – or even verbally recognizing it by mentioning something about them being busy – and then telling them the purpose of your call. If you hear long pauses between responses, your customer/donor may be confused by what you are saying or somehow distracted by something else. Acknowledge that by slowing down slightly, make sure you are speaking clearly, but put extra compassion or inflection in your voice – making yourself even more interesting to listen to. You may also want to ask the distracted customer/donor a question or two in an effort to get them engaged in the conversation. There are as many tactics to effectively use the nonverbal cues you hear in a conversation as there are nonverbal cues.
Remember, nonverbal nuances in a phone conversation tell you the truth. They can arm you with the ability to progress your conversation into one that will strengthen the relationship. The key is to acknowledge them by taking the action that those nonverbal cues are suggesting. Maybe you shorten your conversation or maybe you go off-script for a short time. The true art of listening to others comes into play when you learn how to hear them and, next, what to do with them.
A question that often arises from many Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) at Incept, with things being finalized in our new Internet Conversational Marketing Expert (iCME) division, is this: “How do I get in?”
Many of our CMEs have additional talents – some that we try to spotlight in our video series, such as writing, filming, editing and blogging. I tell them the things that would make the biggest difference (from an outside perspective) and see where they stand with their ability or dedication to social engagement. I always tell people the things they need to do to prove they’re interested in joining the department prior to our next opening:
- Engage on the page. Incept’s Facebook page isn’t just the main channel of fluid communication, from the new CME still in training all the way up the VP of Contact Center Results, it also embodies our company culture in videos, photos, recognition and new updates. If any CMEs become a part of that engagement, they become a part of the content we engineer every day. Even our President was able to tell me how funny it is that when he walks through the contact center, he now knows certain CMEs by name simply from seeing their faces on the Facebook page.
- Create engagement driving content. Can you come up with an idea, statement, question or content that will ultimately drive another person to engage afterward? There are several different topics, approaches and visual affects that encourage engagement from various people. Being able to understand and leverage this for each business is an important step of lead generation.
- Bring ideas to the table. The best people to work with are the people that are overflowing with ideas, suggestions, possibilities and goals. Genuine enthusiasm to help the group (as a whole) always outweighs the individual that merely wants to become a part of the department because it’s something they would like to do. Staying open-minded and looking at ideas from every angle helps to uncover just who the linchpins are within an organization.
I began my Saturday morning shift by organizing my tabs in Safari based on the day’s priorities.
Dividing items by what is urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither of the two (at this time) gives me a constant balance of how the results of each day shift. Finishing a large video project can quickly turn into training the iCMEs in video editing. Engagement, conversion, acquiring and appreciating, retaining and re-activating, at any given moment, will achieve the best results. Fluid channels of communication through network emails or Incept’s Facebook page, which is now engaging the CMEs with a signup sheet (to be Incept’s profile picture on Facebook for a week with any of their friends in any place they find our logo branding), also help.
Once the action items and priorities begin to trickle down from several departments and levels of management, it becomes critical to know the order in which to accomplish tasks. As Nate Riggs told me, “The idea is not to work harder, it’s to work smarter.” Incept has been able to show me the best way, by following the same method they do in their “four square” daily assessments. Being able to prioritize tasks based on their urgency and importance – daily – always gives you the opportunity to reevaluate your position from the perspective of all the current short-term and long-term goals.
The 5 Tabs in My World have been reinvented and organized based on their priority, urgency and importance level.
The priorities that absolutely need to be accomplished today are moved to the front of my Safari tabs – in this case, they are my company emails (responding, initiating, and preparing for Monday).
The following tab is also my company email, but, today, the priority is to organize my inbox, move email replies and responses to designated folders to make sure each item has been addressed. Again, once Monday comes, there is a good chance my second tab will not be prioritizing my inbox but rather customized to how we are approaching Monday and the objectives for the week.
Then is the tab containing our admin blog page, allowing me to compose content, as well as read the content produced by others. Being able to write a blog post and read over the other posts written during the week gives me a better understanding of everything we produce, publish and have in reserve to organize the upcoming week’s schedule. It’s also a good reminder for engaging on other blogs by commenting.
The final two tabs today are HootSuite and Facebook: the engagement tabs. These are, most often, a pair in my mind. Even though I can utilize HootSuite to post on Facebook, it is good to get the widened sense of engagement by logging on to Facebook too. HootSuite is in front of Facebook because I am focusing on increasing my follower base today and then focusing on making sure to post content on our company page. Again, since it’s random and spontaneous engagement, it’s not urgent, but it is still important.
Having the ability to not only organize but to also prioritize, share and assess our daily tasks gives me a better understanding of the objectives ahead of me, while also keeping everyone in the loop each step of the way. Organizing my tabs is just an extra-minute time saver that can ultimately add up to several minutes as you efficiently jump from tab to tab in a continuous, fluid progression. With the way things continue to grow, develop and combine, don’t be suprised if there’s a Part 3 in the near future.
What do you and your organization do to make sure everyone’s individual tasks are being communicated on a priority level?
I’ve always been surprised by how many Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) here at Incept have selflessly given their time to spread joy within the contact center.
Whether it’s in the form of popsicles (on a day when the air conditioning is not working at its full capacity), well-wishes cards (when one of our CMEs has suffered a personal loss) or when one of our new CMEs decides to bring in something to share with everyone, the individuals working within this company have become a family – so much so that it literally shows through their actions.
Debbie Constant will go down in history as the CME who fed, cared for, looked out for, planned and initiated everything as a CME, for the CMEs – everything from your going-away party to your birthday party. We just leave her crock pots in the breakroom because she is constantly bringing in food for all the CMEs who may not have transportation or the financial ability to buy food for themselves.
Kristina Wurgler had a bet with one of our New Employee Results Coaches, Brian Wells, about how amazing her cookies were and even put her job on the line for a cookie taste test. She won, finding her way into one of our videos to document her compassion after bringing in her second batch of cookies. Kelsey Pike also made cookies, which we named ‘Compassion Cookies’ - the sole purpose of which was making them for any and everyone at Incept. She even put our Incept ‘i’ on each individual cookie.
Dustin Gardner is a pivotal member of the Social Media department. Once Incept bought a Flip camera for the department, it became an amazing asset for capturing content for both our Facebook page and company blog. Initially, during my first Highest Performer video, I was stacking the camera on top of boxes, phonebooks – anything I could find. But now, I’ve got it down pretty well. Such resourcefulness had become a standard for filming to prevent camera shaking (unless someone bumped the table, of course). It was then that I ran into Dustin who informed me that he had a tripod that would fit the Flip camera. Not borrow, have. Of course, I welcomed this content engineering lifesaver with open arms and will NEVER accept a compliment for having the tripod without thanking Dustin along with it.
When our Kodak camera was being used by another department, and we needed to take a picture of a training class, Dustin allowed us to use his Canon Rebel SX digital camera to take the photos. Of course, the content quality difference was overwhelming. When I approached Dustin about using his camera for Incept’s other activities in the contact center, he was more than happy to help – right down to handing me his bookbag, with the camera and five replaceable lens depths. So when Nate Riggs called me from his conference asking for any pictures of the contact center, if at all possible, it was now an easily accomplished task. Dustin has been so overwhelming helpful to Incept’s content engineering, both on and off the clock, that I felt he deserved a little more than a thank you. What better way to show our appreciation than to create content on our volunteer content engineer.
Who do you have at your organization that deserves more than a thank you?
Sometimes you really have to look at what matters.
We hire Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) because we know just how valuable a conversation with our customers can be, as far as strengthening the relationship. Sometimes our customers are blood donors, so the need to communicate appreciation through the phone is as personalized as it is customizable. Sometimes our CMEs will let the donor 
know how grateful we are for their continuous donations. Sometimes they will let them know how donating blood not only saves up to three lives but three lives in their local hospitals. Whether it’s before a holiday or simply during a time when a blood type is low, our CMEs constantly improve various methods of recognition and appreciation for those who understand the importance of donating.
Dave Walter is no different, when it comes to our Conversational Marketing Expert/Blood Donor Recruiters. There are two very important parts to being a blood donor recruiter. Firstly, are you able to schedule a solid appointment? And secondly, does your appointment walk through the door?
Scheduling 50 appointments suddenly loses significance if only two donors actually come in to donate. Compare that to the CME next to them who only scheduled 22 appointments, but saw all 22 donors come in, successfully donate and leave with a great feeling from phone to phlebotomist.
Dave knows this. So much so, that he has generated our Lifesaver Program, rewarding the individuals who have the most donors coming in to donate. When I asked Dave if he had anyone or anything in mind that he wanted to give recognition to, he immediately knew where to shine the spotlight.
http://www.vimeo.com/15607536
“In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped with a world that no longer exists.“ - Eric Hoffer, author (1902 – 1983)
“The times they are a changin’..“ - Bob Dylan, legend (1941 – ?)
The contact center industry has been in constant change since I joined it some 16 years ago. Unfortunately, some of that change was happening too slowly, illustrated most clearly by the overwhelming consumer response to the request for (and then adoption of) the Do Not Call legislation. We failed the consumers in this instance and are at risk of doing it again.
I just returned from attending the ATA’s Annual Convention in Orlando, and I am happy to say I am hearing more and more of my colleagues embracing change and charging ahead of the curve.
Previous legislation was required to make the industry understand that the consumers we contacted wanted to be dealt with on their terms. That change is happening again today but is happening in many ways other than via telephone.
More and more customers are turning to social media to tell their stories about relationships with specific brands. Whether it is a tweet about waiting on hold with a company ABC, or the delay with the luggage from airline XYZ, customer service, as we traditionally have known it, is moving online.
Are you listening?
The major difference is that today the reach of communication has grown exponentially. In the past a bad experience could be shared 5-15 times. Now, that same poor experience can be recirculated to literally millions of people. Our industry has been given another outlet to listen to the consumer and provide them the service they want, the way they want it.
How is your organization handling this change to keep the consumer happy?
Back in ‘95, my friend, Robert Anderson and I worked hard to become professionals. That’s no easy task for 4th graders.
But we knew, when making a movie, each camera angle had to be planned. Every closeup was purposive and every revised setting was premeditated, timed and intended. We did what any 9 year old would do when it comes to filming; we stuck with what what we knew, starting with stop animation with our Ninja Turtles action figures. This required not only a story to follow but also extreme patience, as stop animation requires you to record your video frame by frame – recording a frame, then moving a figure a small amount and recording the next frame to display movement. This was the old fashioned way.
Jump 15 years into the future with the production, direction, storyboarding, tripod angle, 2/3’s interview, white balance video training from the Ohio Center for Broadcasting and mix it with the listen and lead, personalized intelligence, relationship strengthening, conversational marketing training taught to me by Incept and you have a very passionate, well developed and keen eye for visual expression.
Now that I have successfully landed into a group of over one hundred talented, enthusiastic and motivating conversational marketing experts (CMEs) – who seem to increase each and every week – being able to give my story is the cherry on top of it all.
I talk too much anyway, but when you can make any production fun and enjoyable and can capture your Highest Performer video and a live extra footage outtake, it brings both the mission statement and culture of Incept into focus. CME Spotlight videos, CME-initiated content ideas and spontaneous questionnaires are means of boosting moral, excitement and engagement within the very booths our CMEs have continued conversations with our donors and clients.
Before filming each CME, I let them know what question I’m going to ask them (verbatim) and then explain more literally what we are looking for with a couple of examples to get the ideas flowing. For the people that get nervous in front of a camera, I always assure them that they can make direct eye contact with me and the camera will still be able to capture the desired shot perfectly. That way, not only does it ease the tension of being in the spotlight but it gives me the opportunity to provide them with nonverbal expressions to let them know they are doing well. The idea is to plan, prep and produce a video that looks, feels and acts completely real and unfiltered.
In the second part of this series I will take a closer look at the technical tips and tricks you can do to drive engagement visually. I wanted to focus first on the engagement involved in preparation for filming a video. What are some obstacles you struggle with to make your pre-video production transparent and effective?
They say that, as a society, technology has made us more distant from each other than ever.
However, I’m inclined to disagree. Back in the “good ol’ days” a single conversation could have taken months from beginning to end, sending letters back and forth; whereas now a conversation can be had within a few minuets. Technology is definitely making it possible to stay in touch better (and easier) than ever before.
The earliest ways to get a message from A to B were smoke signals and message drums. Both
methods could be used to communicate over vast distances, passing information from one party to the next. The first, smoke signals, were most famously used by the Native Americans. After a fire had been built, a blanket would be held above it then removed, sending up puffs of smoke. After a lot of practice, the size and shape of the puff could be controlled, therefore changing the message.
Talking drums operated on the same basic principle, using sound waves instead of smoke to cover the distance. These were used mostly in West Africa by such cultures as the Hausa people and the Benin, who developed extremely complex “languages” using the drum beats. Messages could even be sent to specific people with senders identified by their “drum name,” very similarly to how someone using a CB radio has a “handle” (or a name) used to identify themselves over the radio.
Then came the greatest invention of them all, the written word! Messages could now be written down and sent directly to the intended recipient. It only made sense to use horses to get messages where they needed to go.
Nearly everyone has heard of the Pony Express. It’s almost as much a part of the Wild West as the cowboy. Started on April 3, 1860 by William H. Russell, William B. Waddell, and Alexander Majors, the Pony Express covered nearly 2,000 miles from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California and could get a message through in a little over a week. It was an amazing achievement for its time.
The Pony Express depended on a relay system of riders and horses, passing mail off and switching mounts. Unfortunately, their amazing system would turn out to be short-lived. On October 24, 1861 the Pacific Telegraph line was finished and the Pony Express was rendered obsolete. While it wasn’t the only or even the first to use messengers on horseback, it was definitely the most well documented and most famous.
The next milestones for communication were obviously the telegraph and telephone, respectively. The electric telegraph was originally invented in England circa 1836 by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone. It used several needles to point to letters on a dial to spell out the message being sent. However, Samuel Morse took it one step further, inventing the Morse Code – a series of dots and dashes that signified letters.
As clever as the telegraph was, the telephone - invented on March 10, 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell – soon replaced it and is still a staple for communication today. Since then, we’ve upgraded to cell 
phones and my personal favorite, e-mail. In 1971 Ray Tomlinson sent the first e-mail, ushering in the modern age of communication.
Like I said, we’ve come a long way since the early days of drums and smoke. No longer are we at the mercy of distance or fair weather to talk to our family and friends. We’re only a click or call away. Who knows what the next breakthrough will be?
Initially, the goal of the CME Spotlight series was to shed some light on our Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs), who do more than just engage in productive conversations, schedule blood donations and strengthen relationships with our customers.
Some of our CMEs can sing, rap, play the flute, produce an Internet television series or even crochet for another CME in the contact center. That being said, the task that presented itself was to determine the best way to productively illustrate our company culture, boost engagement and generate a more active community around something that initially did not bring dollars in the door (at the time). So, to state it literally, we were uncertain how to plan ROI in the future for an expense in the present.
I’ve been with Incept for 4 years (this January), and have been fortunate enough to witness Incept’s amazing growth each year since, but this last year has undoubtedly been the greatest; It’s been a dream come true getting hired by an organization that pays you to share your talent, pays to interview you on how you do your job so well, pays you with vacation just for coming to work on time (and when your scheduled), and pays you a bonus for properly executing the duties of your job under the standards that are expected. There’s also a flatscreen HDTV, to boot, making Saturday, Sunday and Monday the most actively engaging days in the contact center during football season.
It’s no secret that Incept has (and shows) pride in their blood donor recruiters and conversational marketing experts. Case studies, brand innovations and our CME meetings (where the CMEs get to share their issues directly with our VP of Contact Center Results) are all examples of how Incept strives to go above and beyond for each of our employees every day. One our Program Results Coaches, Chris Sage, just initiated and held his own shoe raffle to give away a $100 gift card to any CMEs who were in need of a new pair (or pairs) of shoes, as opposed to buying a new pair for himself. The winner, Nancy Gillingham, was also the CME who organized, shopped for and distributed items for the School Supplies drive for our school-bound CME’s, young and old.
Listening intently to our clients would fall short if we didn’t listen to our employees. How could we be expected to include a positive note on each of our Conversational Quality forms if we don’t understand the importance of strengthening relationships? As I tell each of our new training classes, we don’t post weekly polls on Facebook to simply stay consistent. We post the polls so that each individual employee has a say and vote regarding the changes that take place within the contact center. This was no more evident than when we had our CMEs in the poll that determined the type of summer company picnic we would hold. Each of our Conversational Marketing Experts isn’t just a part that makes up this company, they are also the co-owners of Incept’s vision and future.
This was our first training class (that had the largest number of CME's), with the most passing to graduation!
What are some of the impacts you could see this having on inbound and outbound marketing?
It’s funny how around the contact center, all you need to say is “Dave” and everyone knows exactly who you’re talking about, despite the fact that we’ve hired several Daves to the team over the years.
This Dave, however, is the one that manages the results of the entire contact center. Simply put, results are anything and everything involved with the contact center, including what happens within it or as a result of it. He’s also in charge of hiring and training the supervisors – everyone from our Program Results Coaches to our Program Results Managers. Dave meets with the department heads, leads by example, and has a thorough relationship with clients and the clients results team.
Mind you, this is the same guy who repairs the chairs when they break, cleans the counters in the breakrooms each morning, picks up trash and helps repair or jump-start the cars of Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) in need. He even manages to start a pot of coffee every morning, despite the fact that he doesn’t even drink it (ever). But one thing he’s taking a step further, from the compassionate amount he’s doing now and about which I can testify on a personal level, is listening. I wanted to speak with Dave about his monitoring sessions to see what originally led to him getting started:
Dave stated two extremely prominent points for all of our CME’s on the floor. Firstly, listening is the foundation to a good conversation; secondly, after each conversation with our customers and donors, you should be aiming to strengthen the relationship. Even if you were unable to schedule a blood donation, was the donor still left with an overwhelmingly satisfied experience and positive impression of you and the organization you represent? When we are “calling on behalf” of any organization, it is very important that we do not underestimate the power of proper listening.
It’s through evaluating and re-evaluating these key foundations of conversational marketing that continues to drive Incept and its employees into being never satisfied on any level, even while continuing to produce increased results. It’s always a pleasure when I have the opportunity to listen to Dave and the vision he has for becoming “world-class” in this industry.
What are some opportunities you’ve uncovered via thorough listening that have given you a new view on the importance of strengthening your relationships?
Listening can be defined or interpreted to mean so many different things.
