The 3 V's, GIR and "Just the facts Ma'am" theory of communication


by Leonard Buchholz - Date: 2007-01-11 - Word Count: 541 Share This!

If you had to find one thing that all organizations must have, topping the list is communication. Without it, there are no sales, no customers and no reason to exist. So I thought I would take a brief moment and just talk about a theory I have in relation to Customer Service and communication.

If you Google "human communication theory" you get 57 million choices of reference material. (I recommend paying attention to Laswell's definition, found in Wikipedia)

If you are in Customer Service, you only need one theory.

It's called the "Get It Right" theory of communication. (I didn't see this one listed on my search)

This theory has one premise and one outcome. If you listen to everything a customer is communicating to you, you have at least a 100% chance of getting a GIR value of 100. If you don't listen to everything a customer communicates, you have at least a 100% chance of a GIR value of zeeeeerrrrooooooo. The Big O as in "O-fer." (GIR=Get It Right)

It's the greatest theory in relation to Customer Service, as each scenario guarantees a 100% chance of an outcome. You could not get better odds in Vegas.

So, to increase your chances of getting a GIR value of 100, what could you do to improve yourself?

I recommend first understanding how we communicate. The 3 V's. Visual, Verbal and Vocal. We have two information gathering devices located at the front of our head. We take in about 60% of our world through our eyes. (visual)

We get another 25-35% from our ears (vocal) and the other 5-10% from the actual bits of information that are being transmitted. (verbal) That's quite astonishing, isn't it? The actual nuggets of factual information equal only 5-10% of the communication process. Is there any wonder why the person that takes the time to totally understand everything the customer says has the best chance of increasing their GIR value to 100?

OK, I now understand how we communicate. Big deal. What can I do with that information?

You can increase your Get It Right value by paying less attention to the manner of delivery and more to the content. In other words, "Just the facts ma'am."

Let me say it one more time. Pay less attention to the manner of delivery and more to the content.

This is not saying do not recognize emotions, or don't practice common courtesy or any other tried and true methods of delivering Professional Customer Service. I am saying that you need to concentrate on the items that are most important to the customer. The reason they are on the phone or in front of you.

If you want to lower your golf score, do you practice your driving or your short game? You practice the short game. The object is to get it into the hole with the fewest strokes. Customer Service is the same.

When you concentrate your efforts on the "what is" and not the "what isn't", you will raise your GIR value to 100.

Hey, you have a whole set of new dynamic information gathering skills now, don't you! You know how we communicate, what a GIR value is and where to concentrate your efforts!

Put them to work for you right away and see your confidence grow and your Customer base increase.


Related Tags: cat, training, skills, service, eyes, train, skill, listening, odds, vegas, theory, cutomer

Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: