Active Listening

Objectives, Types and Practices.

Created By : Roopesh Sekhar

Active Listening
The purpose of this is to present techniques that

will allow you to provide feedback to the speaker in your business conversations. Customer service professionals, sales representatives, and anyone who communicates with people in a business environment will benefit from this course.

Learning Objectives:

1.
2. 3.

4.
5.

Differentiate between the three types of listening. Define and demonstrate the following Active Listening Skills: Acceptance Response Repeating Paraphrasing Clarifying Summarizing

Types of listening
1.

2.
3.

There are three types of listening; Content Critical Active

Content
It deals with understanding and retaining

information. The objective here is to understand the content of the message and retain it.

Critical
The objective here is to evaluate or analyze the

message and figure out what is important or what is not, so that you can proceed to deal with the situation at hand without spending time on what's not relevant.

Active
Used to actively provide verbal and nonverbal

feedback to the speaker about your understanding of what is being communicated.

Active Listening Skills

Acceptance Response Using an acceptance response is inserting simple verbal utterances or words into the conversation. Nonverbal communication can also be used. This provides a mechanism to communicate that you are listening without interrupting the speaker's flow of thought and speech. Examples Okay, I see, I understand, uh-huh, yes, etc.

Repeating
The purpose of repeating is to highlight key words or phrases that indicate you have identified the most critical components of the message. The Customer says, "The phone number where you can reach me during the day is area code 800-5517355. Tone of understanding 1-800-551-7355 Tone of expectation for additional information - 551.

Paraphrasing
Is stating, in your own words, your understanding of what you heard. Customer say I sent in the check two weeks ago, and when I got my statement, I found that the amount was not credited. Paraphrase : So, you made a payment two weeks ago, and it hasnt reflected on your statement. It is important to paraphrase when you want the speaker to know that you understand him or her.

Clarifying
Is used to gain a clearer understanding of the

speaker's situation and to move the conversation from broad generalizations to specific facts. Customer says I sent in a check a few weeks ago, but it still hasnt been credit on my latest statement. Clarifying question When did you make your last payment? or What was the date on your statement?

Summarizing
Assures both the listener and speaker that a

complex message was received and understood. To summarize, restate the key components of the conversation. Example Okay, lets put all this together. Your check was sent on the 25th of the month, and you just received a statement that does not reflect your payment.