What is the average rate of listening efficiency for most adults in the United States why is this significant in a customer service environment?

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Connecting with listeners through every word you speak and every movement you make requires observation and practice. Research reveals the average person listens at only about 25 percent efficiency. Observing your listeners actions while you speak is essential in learning whether or not you have the ability to influence them to act upon what you have to say.

Related: 15 Ways to Lead With Effective Communication

While body language is an effective way to sense a listener's engagement and understanding of a message, there are several others factors to be considered. Whether you're involved in a simple interaction with one person or presenting to a high-stakes crowd, there are five signs that listeners will show when they are truly connecting with you and understanding your message.

1. Body positioning

A study by UCLA indicates 55 percent of communication comes directly in the form of body language. Listeners reveal a lot about their understanding, connection and engagement simply through their body posture. An open body stance, with uncrossed arms and feet pointed toward you, reveals friendliness, agreement and acknowledgment of the verbal exchange.

Take note of how your listeners are standing or seated and if they have a relaxed, open body stance. An engaged listener also will likely lean his or her body inward toward the speaker, demonstrating a desire to hear the message being shared.

Additionally, observe the overall movement in your listener's limbs. Body stillness is indicative of an actively engaged mind undistracted by internal dialogue. Stillness also demonstrates that the listener has temporarily forgotten any internal distractions or feelings and is, instead, fully committed to your message.

Related: How to Know If You're a Bad Listener (And How to Fix It)

2. Physical acknowledgment

When listeners are connecting to a message, they often mirror expressions demonstrated by the speaker. Because facial expressions often trigger a corresponding response, actively engaged listeners will emulate smiling, raising or furrowing eyebrows, and opening or squinting their eyes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found the average engaged listener's brain activity mirrors the speaker's activity with a delay, and also often exhibits predictive anticipatory responses.

Postural echoing is also often seen when listeners are engaged in a message as they may change their body position to match that of the speaker. It can also be witnessed when the speaker shifts body weight or body position, only to have the listener respond by doing the same. This subconscious act indicates the listener is connected to the speaker on a physical level and agrees with the message.

Other physical attributes of an engaged listener include nodding of the head. This is most evident when a listener is in agreement with the points shared and is acknowledging an understanding of the message. When listeners tilt their head to one side, they are demonstrating curiosity and attentiveness.

Another physical sign of attentiveness is a decreased blink rate, which can be observed in listeners within close proximity of the speaker. This slowdown in movement is indicative of postural echoing, as well as the mind's need to slow physical responses to process the message being shared.

Related: The 4 Levels of Listening: Why Every Good Entrepreneur Should Talk Less

3. Participatory affirmations

Research indicates just two months after listening to a talk, the average listener will remember only about 25 percent of what was said, forgetting one-half to one-third of it within the first eight hours. Participatory affirmations can indicate whether or not listeners are connected to a message, and understanding it enough to remember.

During smaller conversations, connected listeners will often acknowledge a message by reacting to specific high points. For instance, people showing a genuine interest will affirm the message through verbal acknowledgments such as "uh-huh" and "mm-hmm" noises, indicating an understanding and agreement of the information being shared.

While larger groups of listeners may not verbally acknowledge points within a message, they will nod their heads simultaneously or shift their body position at the same points throughout the presentation. This type of group response indicates your message is resonating with the audience as a whole; therefore, they react as a singular unit in their participatory responses.

4. Question relevancy

A recent study published in Harvard Business Review revealed participants perceive the best listeners to be those who periodically ask questions that promote discovery and insight. Engaged listeners ask questions to better understand points made and clarify the overall message. The questions will demonstrate their general understanding or curiosity of the subject being discussed.

Related: Dan Pink: You Suck at Sales Because You're a Horrible Listener

Disengaged listeners will often ask off-topic questions or request elaboration on previously discussed topic points. In order to determine question relevancy, give your audience an opportunity to ask questions before any pivotal topic changes in your discussion. This will provide insight into their understanding and allow you an opportunity to recapture any disengaged listeners.

5. Avoiding distractions

Distractions are often a speaker's biggest challenge as she competes for the listener's attention. Authors Bob Sullivan and Hugh Thompson conducted a study with Carnegie Mellon University and found that the mere possibility that one's phone may ring diminishes a person's listening ability and cognition skills by up to 20 percent. When a person is genuinely interested in your message, he will avoid distractions such as interruptions from others, cell phone calls and text messages. While some speakers may request devices be silenced before beginning a discussion, disengaged listeners will subconsciously seek other forms of stimulation to turn their attention toward, even in the absence of technology. When you captivate your listeners' attention, they will be less likely to engage in other activities, such as checking the clock, looking around the room, doodling or finding other activities to pass the time.

If you desire to become a stronger communicator, having more impact and influence in your message, consider these five signs of a connected and engaged listener. So, the next time you are presenting to a crowd, conducting a meeting or simply interacting with a colleague, you can be aware of how they respond to your message. These reactions provide insight into their level of engagement with your message, as well as their connection to you as a speaker. Only then will you know if you and your message have the degree of influence necessary to get others to act on what you have to say.

Related Video: Get Out of Your Own Way to Become a Better Listener

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They say the key to any healthy human relationship is effective communication. This principle also applies to the relationship between a customer and a customer service or sales representative.

What is active listening in customer service?

Active listening is the foundation of effective communication. Active listening in customer service means being totally focused on the words that the customer is saying, understanding what those words mean and responding in a manner that validates what they’re saying.
The more empathy you have with your customers, the more they will value their relationship with you - and your products. #empathy #custserv #cx Click To Tweet

Why is active listening important in customer service?

Behind every customer call is a real person, looking for guidance or a solution to a problem. It’s critical to engage in active listening in order to make that person feel truly heard, understood, and served. The more empathy you have with your customers — the more you listen to them — the more they will value their relationship with you and the product and services you offer. People just want to be listened to. And customers do notice — nearly 50% of customers believe companies act empathy when delivering customer service.

Here’s why active listening is one of the best communication tools every customer service call center representative should master.

Customers Want to Truly be Heard and Understood

Vocalizing our thoughts and feelings, regardless of our gender is an innate part of our human experience. In fact, we even have a vocalization protein in our brains! As humans, we listen to far fewer words than we think about. On average, humans are able to actively listen to 125 to 250 words per minute but can think about words at a rate of 1000 to 3000 words per minute.

7 Tips for Success from Call Center Professionals

So, even though actively listening may be a challenge, it’s critical to providing a great customer service experience. In fact, research finds that 60% of business problems can be attributed to poor communication. And, since phone calls are still the consumers’ preferred method of contacting customer service, exercising the skill of active listening will reap valuable returns for any organization.

Customers Will Tell You What to Sell Them

If you listen to your customers, even if that’s just on social media or basic feedback surveys, you gather a wealth of information about how your customers view your product. And this may be wildly different than you think.
If you want to create 'raving fans', start by actively listening to your customer. They'll tell you how to impress them. #cx #custserv Click To Tweet
Many companies have made a success of pivoting to meet customer demands (ourselves included) and it is clear to anyone that the best way to grow your company is by implementing customers’ feedback. When you do that, existing customers will appreciate you even more, and that’s how you get raving fans. Actively listening to your customers is such a successful approach that more and more companies have switched to it over older models.39587

Actively Listening Means Asking Follow-up Questions

One of the best ways to reassure someone that you’re really listening is to ask a lot of follow-up questions. This keeps the conversation alive!

I can tell right away when my husband isn’t really listening to me, because he’s completely silent while I’m talking. Sometimes this means he’s taking in what I’m saying (rarely!), but usually it means he’s only half-listening. Ironically, it’s actually when he’s being more vocal – asking a lot of questions, following up on previous points, and engaging in dialogue, that I truly feel heard.

It can be really tempting to want to wrap up each customer call as quickly as possible and move on to the next person or ticket in your queue. But, the customer service representatives who truly understand effective communication know that each customer call needs time.

Customers shouldn’t be rushed. Asking follow-up questions makes customers feel that they are being given the time they need to voice their concerns and even ask their own questions.

One of the best ways to not have to rush a customer call is by giving the customer the option of receiving a call-back. This allows customer service reps to really take their time with calls, as they don’t have to rush through their queues. And, it makes customers feel as though their time is valued, rather than being wasted waiting on hold.

Active Listening Fosters Understanding and Empathy

Most people call or contact customer service if they’ve encountered a problem with a company’s product or service. That means, more often than not, call center agents have to exhibit a great deal of calm and patience as they navigate each customer’s concerns.

Active listening is especially critical in situations where customers are upset, frustrated, and perhaps exhibiting some hostility. By asking follow-up questions, relaying back their situation, and empathizing with their frustrations, customers feel truly understood and taken care of.

7 Things Great Call Center Managers Do Every Day

We can all relate to being on the phone with a call center agent who is clearly stuck on their call script and doesn’t seem to care about your concerns. The purpose of having real people at customer service call centers is to offer that personal touch and interaction for consumers, rather than them having to go through automated messaging.

Being able to have a real, authentic conversation is what keeps consumers engaged and coming back. Call center strategies that lose that authenticity ultimately lose customers.

There’s a reason our mothers drilled this saying into us, “you have two ears and one mouth; listen twice as much as you speak”.

Actively listening truly is the key to effective communication. Developing and using that skill in customer service calls means having the opportunity to win a raving, life-long customer.

Tips for Better Active Listening in Customer Service:

1. Focus on what the customer is saying, rather than what you’re going to say in response
2. Focus on what the customer isn’t saying – their tone of voice, body language and facial expressions (if you can see them)
3. Don’t interrupt – nobody likes to be cut off in the middle of a sentence.
4. Give the customer your full attention, and tune out distractions; definitely don’t multitask while talking to a customer
5. Take quick notes, but don’t let them distract you from what the customer is saying
6. Occasionally repeat what the customer has said back to them, to confirm you have the correct information, and to demonstrate your attentiveness
7. Don’t take it personally when a customer is upset – often they just want you to validate their frustration before you can move on to a solution
8. Check frequently that you are collecting the right information and understand the issue correctly
9. Do something about it later. This might seem obvious but you can do all the listening in the world and it won’t matter if the issue isn’t fixed.