Asking a customer questions can sometimes be tricky. We have to ask questions to get to the root of the problem, understand fully what the customer needs, and in general, to serve the customer. But very often, a series of questions can sound like an interview, or worse. If we’re not careful, multiple questions can come across as an interrogation.
Years ago when I managed a small contact center, I realized that my team needed to ask our customers 7 key questions in order to completely log issues into our system. Seven questions is a lot, as I discovered through quality call monitoring. Our customers were annoyed with our questioning. At times my people sounded robotic or rote. Friendliness and warmth were often undetectable in the line of questioning. So I began instructing my team to bridge to the questioning rather than simply jumping into a litany of questions.
We can buffer the questions that need to be asked by simply bridging to questioning. That is, make an opening statement to explain why you’re going to ask a series of questions before you launch them. Here are some good bridge statements:
- “In order to determine what happened, I will need to ask you some questions.”
- “Do you mind if I ask you some questions so we can figure out what has happened?”
- “So I can assist you, may I ask you a few questions?”
These bridge statements make questioning a little easier on your customer.
Another tip – Be sure to use please and thank you in your questioning. For example:
- “May I see your driver’s license please?”
- “Thanks. I have one final question.”
Since it is often necessary to gather information by asking pertinent questions, try to improve the overall customer experience by bridging to the questioning, and by using please and thank you. When you do, your questioning won’t come across as an interview or an interrogation. Whether it is on the telephone or in person, your customers will feel better about the interaction.
Myra Golden runs Myra Golden Media, a customer experience design company helping organizations deliver the best possible customer experience and positioning companies to completely restore customer confidence when things go wrong. She is the co-author of Beyond WOW and a highly sought-after professional keynote speaker.