Self-evident, isnt it? You dont have to study for four years in Harvard to discover that. Yet I know and you know department store owners who will rent expensive space, buy their goods economically, dress their windows appealingly, spend thousands of dollars in advertising and then hire clerks who havent the sense to be good listeners clerks who interrupt customers, contradict them, irritate them, and all but drive them from the store.
A department store in Chicago almost lost a regular customer who spent several thousand dollars each year in that store because a sales clerk wouldnt listen. Mrs. Henrietta Douglas, who took our course in Chicago, had purchased a coat at a special sale. After she had brought it home she noticed that there was a tear in the lining. She came back the next day and asked the sales clerk to exchange it. The clerk refused even to listen to her complaint. You bought this at a special sale, she said. She pointed to a sign on the wall. Read that, she exclaimed. All sales are final Once you bought it, you have to keep it. Sew up the lining yourself.
But this was damaged merchandise, Mrs. Douglas complained.
Makes no difference[34], the clerk interrupted. Finals final.
Mrs. Douglas was about to walk out indignantly, swearing never to return to that store ever, when she was greeted by the department manager, who knew her from her many years of patronage. Mrs. Douglas told her what had happened.
The manager listened attentively to the whole story, examined the coat and then said: Special sales are final so we can dispose of merchandise at the end of the season. But this no return policy does not apply to damaged goods. We will certainly repair or replace the lining, or if you prefer, give you your money back.
What a difference in treatment! If that manager had not come along and listened to the customer, a long-term patron of that store could have been lost forever.
Listening is j ust as important in ones home life as in the world of business. Millie Esposito of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, made it her business to listen carefully when one of her children wanted to speak with her. One evening she was sitting in the kitchen with her son, Robert, and after a brief discussion of something that was on his mind, Robert said: Mom, I know that you love me very much.
Mrs. Esposito was touched and said: Of course I love you very much. Did you doubt it?
Robert responded: No, but I really know you love me because whenever I want to talk to you about something you stop whatever you are doing and listen to me.
The chronic kicker, even the most violent critic, will frequently soften and be subdued in the presence of a patient, sympathetic listener a listener who will be silent while the irate fault-finder dilates like a king cobra and spews the poison out of his system. To illustrate: The New York Telephone Company discovered a few years ago that it had to deal with one of the most vicious customers who ever cursed a customer service representative. And he did curse. He raved. He threatened to tear the phone out by its roots. He refused to pay certain charges that he declared were false. He wrote letters to the newspapers. He filed innumerable complaints with the Public Service Commission, and he started several suits against the telephone company.
At last, one of the companys most skillful troubleshooters was sent to interview this stormy petrel. This troubleshooter listened and let the cantankerous customer enjoy himself pouring out his tirade. The telephone representative listened and said yes and sympathized with his grievance.
He raved on and I listened for nearly three hours, the troubleshooter said as he related his experiences before one of the authors classes. Then I went back and listened some more. I interviewed him four times, and before the fourth visit was over I had become a charter member of an organization he was starting. He called it the Telephone Subscribers Protective Association. I am still a member of this organization, and, so far as I now, Im the only member in the world today besides Mr. -.
I listened and sympathized with him on every point that he made during these interviews. He had never had a telephone representative talk with him that way before, and he became almost friendly. The point on which I went to see him was not even mentioned on the first visit, nor was it mentioned on the second or third, but upon the fourth interview, I closed the case completely, he paid all his bills in full, and for the first time in the history of his difficulties with the telephone company he voluntarily withdrew his complaints from the Public Service Commission.
Doubtless Mr. had considered himself a holy crusader, defending the public rights against callous exploitation. But in reality, what he had really wanted was a feeling of importance. He got this feeling of importance at first by kicking and complaining. But as soon as he got his feeling of importance from a representative of the company, his imagined grievances vanished into thin air.