Listening And Respect In IT Customer Service

By Don Crawley

In my last column, I mentioned how I always ask the participants in my corporate training sessions about the characteristics of the great customer service providers, IT or otherwise. In addition to technical competence, compassion, and empathy, two other characteristics are mentioned consistently.

In nearly every group, people mention the importance of good listening skills and feeling like they were treated with dignity and respect by the person providing the service.

The fourth and fifth principles of IT customer service success are being a good listener and treating everyone and everything around you with dignity and respect. In this article, you’ll learn how to improve your listening skills and how to treat people with respect, even (or especially) when you don’t feel respect for them.