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The Best Questions to ASK Customers, Employees, Coworkers and Kids!
| Guest post by: Christine Corelli |
Article Overview: One of the most important communication skills to master is asking questions. Without a doubt, it is the most effective way to build relationships, improve your ability to close sales, and uncover the wants, needs, opinions, ideas, problems, and concerns of others. Most important, it demonstrates that you genuinely care about people and helps to create a bond.
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Free Download - The Best Questions to ASK Customers, Employees, Coworkers and Kids! By Christine Corelli |
The Best Questions to ASK Customers, Employees, Coworkers and Kids!
If you If you've heard it once
you've
heard it a thousand times. No matter what you do for a
living or
what job-position you hold, your ability to communicate is
critical
to your success.
One of the most important
communication
skills to master is asking questions. Without a doubt, it
is the
most effective way to build relationships, improve your
ability
to close sales, and uncover the wants, needs, opinions,
ideas, problems,
and concerns of others. Most important, it demonstrates
that you
genuinely care about people and helps to create a bond.
Asking questions can benefit
you in
numerous ways. It can provide you with insights you might
not otherwise
discover. For example, you can learn what is most
important to a
potential customer, what a customer thinks of your level
of service,
what idea your employees or team members have that can
help your
business, or how you can resolve conflict with a
disgruntled employee
or coworker. In addition, asking questions gives you the
opportunity
to observe a person's personality and body language so you
can watch
how they react.
Create a list of great
questions to
ask, memorize and apply them in your day-to-day
interactions. Below
are a few examples to get you started. Modify and add to
them for
your specific application. Then memorize them and ask
away! When
you do, you'll see a big difference in how people respond
to you.
Always remember to sound genuine, sincere, caring,
empathic and
where appropriate--upbeat!
Questions to Ask Customers
in a Sales
Setting
"How's your business doing?"
"What's the most important thing to you about..."
"What, specifically, do you want to accomplish?"
"What challenges are you facing?"
"What has been your experience with your last provider?"
"What are the top issues facing your business?"
"What are your top three priorities regarding ______?"
"What is the biggest concern about _________?"
"What are your key business initiatives?"
"What are your long short and long term goals?"
"Have I answered all of your questions?"
"Are you comfortable with what we have discussed?"
"Do you have more concerns?"
"What would be convenient for you?"
"Is there anything more I can do for you?"
"How would you like to proceed?"
"Are you ready to move forward?"
"Shall I place the order?"
"Is there anyone you might suggest I contact who may also
benefit
from our product/service?"
"When would you like me to follow up?"
"Would it be all right with you if I touch base with you
from time
to time if I promise I will not impose on your time?"
"Do you have any more concerns?"
"Who besides yourself would be involved in the
decision-making?"
"Would you be so kind to tell me who I would speak to in
your company
who is responsible for purchasing?"
"What comments, questions, or concerns do you have?"
"Is there anything more I can do for you today?"
Questions to Ask Your Team
to Help
Improve Customer Service
"How are we viewed in the eyes
of our
customers?"
"What can we do to increase or add to the value of our
products
/ services so that we can become the preferred provider?"
"What more can we do to improve our level of service?"
"What can we do to make it easier to do business with us?"
"What have we done in the past to exceed expectations that
we should
keep doing?"
"What complaints do we hear most often?"
"How can we be more proactive in preventing them from
recurring?"
"What service flaws exist that I don't know about?"
"What have you been hearing from our customers?"
"Have you heard customers say, 'Why don't you' and what
are they
suggesting or complaining about?"
"What more can we do to support our sales team?"
"What guiding principles should we establish and agree to
adhere
to on how we will treat customers?"
"How, specifically, should we display the values of
honesty, integrity,
excellence, respect, teamwork, accountability, customer
focus, environmental
and social consciousness, health and safety and our other
values?"
Questions to Ask Your Team
to Help
Control Costs, and Improve Quality, Communication,
Productivity,
Morale and Safety
"How can we streamline
________________?"
"How can we simplify __________________?"
"Where is there wasteful spending in our company?"
"What can we do to control costs in this tough economy?"
"How can we improve our level of quality?"
"What might be holding you back from performing more
effectively?"
"Do you feel supported by your immediate boss?"
"Do you feel free to voice your opinion without fear of
losing your
job?"
"Do you feel fully supported by your team and if not why
not?"
"What can we do to increase productivity and morale?"
"How can our teams work together more effectively?"
"How about if I coach you a bit so we can get better
results?"
"What more should we be doing to prevent accidents from
occurring?"
"Have we had any safety incidents or actual accidents?"
"What can I do to straighten this out with you?"
"How can we work together more effectively?"
"What can I do so that we don't keep butting our heads?"
"What practices can we put into place to improve
communication throughout
the company?"
"I don't know…What do YOU think?"
"How can we make it more fun to come to work each day?"
"Are we forgetting anything?" "How did you like our
meeting?" "What
can I do to help you enjoy your job?"
Questions to Establish
Accountability
and Gain Support
"May I ask each and every one
of you
to be accountable for ___________?"
"Can I rely on you?"
"Can I rely on you to come in on time from now on?"
"What does accountability mean to you?"
"Where, specifically, should we be accountable?"
Questions to Uncover or
Discuss Problems
"Is there anything I should
know about?"
"Have you had any complaints?"
"What are you hearing from our customers?"
"Is everyone performing up to speed?"
"What issues exist between departments?"
Questions to Ask Customers
to Obtain
Customer Feedback
"How has my team been
performing for
you?"
"How would you rate our overall level of service?"
"How do we rate against our competition?"
"Is there anything you might suggest we do to improve our
level
of service? -What might make it better?"
"Would you say it was fairly easy to work with us?"
"What would make it easier?"
"Is there anything more I can do for you at this time?"
"What would make you say "WOW!"
Questions To Ask To Win The
Hearts
of Those You Lead
"What do YOU think
about_____________?"
"What do you say we here at "ACE" adopt a policy of
referring to
you as employees and change our written and verbal
communication
to use the phrase-"ACE Leader?"
"What would YOU recommend to make it work?"
"What ideas do you have?"
"What would you do if you were in my position?"
"How can we solve this together?"
"Is there anything I can do to help you?"
"Do you know how much our appreciate your hard work - even
though
I don't always say it?"
"How is your family?"
Questions You Should Ask if
You are
a Leader Who Brave Enough To Ask Them
"What would you do if you were
me?"
"How do I come across to people?"
"How can I be a better boss?"
Questions to Ask Kids
"You look unhappy. Would you
like to
tell me what's wrong?"
"If you could design the perfect Father, what would he be
like?"
"If you could talk to that kid who bullied you, what would
you say?"
"Is there anything I can do to help you to feel better?"
"Do you know that we don't live in a perfect world?"
"What's the right thing to do?"
"Do you know how very much I love and care about you?"
This list could go on and on,
just remember,
that people who communicate exceptionally well, write and
memorize
a matrix of questions to ask. Do the same, and ask away!
©Copyright 2009 - Christine Corelli &
Associates,
Inc.
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Related Forum Posts
Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT
- Hi David,
To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience".
Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
Re: Is it better to become an entrepreneur at an early age?
- The younger you are the better you are at learning.
I just posted a new thread that one of our teams won 2nd place at the FLL competition. these kids are at age 11-12, and they learned most of the skills by themselves.
They know how to read and write in English. Kids in Israel just start learning English at the age of 10. They learned programing skills, etc.
One of the kids learn how to use the Gimp program in one hour! That was amazing, all he knew before is how to work with windows' paint, and I downloaded gimp and he made posters for the team.
This is why there are many schools for 3 years old, teaching them English and math.
To answer you question, Kevin, I thing young is good, after you learn different skills, you can start at an early age. Kids in my country have a little advantage, they have to go to the army for 2 years, this experience is preparing you to life, and you have to mature early.
And the best thing about it the early retirement too. A good entrepreneur will be able to retire early, this is everyones dream.
Re: Ways to Boost Productivity
- 1. Give Employees More Than a Paycheck
2. Provide Better eSupport Channels to Promote Self-Service
3. Complete your most dreaded tasks first thing in the morning.
4. Outsource as much as possible
5. . Turn off the TV.
How to Do Great Marketing with (Amost) No Money
- I've given this presentation to CEOs many times. Now i can share it with you. But I cannot because I do not yet have 20 posts.
Jeff Ogden, President
Find New Customers
CEOs and Email - Slaves?
- I wonder if the emails they are responding to are filtered thru their assistants first 'cos they seem to spend a lot of their off hours responding to them.
True they are successful but I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay that price.
I'd be interested to know what's the in the typical day planner of Entrepreneurs on the Forum.
Entrepreneurs are a different breed than Paid Employees- so it would be interesting to view the contrast.
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