There are many good reasons to listen -

1. To be responsible for what you hear-
   How can we look after a situation if we don't know exactly what it is?
2. To find out other people's needs (internal and external customers) -
   How can we resolve people's needs if we don't hear what those needs are?
3. To be valued and trusted -
   Think about how much you value another person who listens to you. It happens rarely enough that it makes a great impression. Isn't that the impression we want to leave with all the people we touch?
4. To maintain a flexible attitude -
   To show great customer service, we need always to be flexible and we can't do this if we haven't listened closely to discover how our own flexibility can help.
5. To show empathy and understanding -
   And without active listening, it becomes impossible to completely understand or show empathy.

Great listening skills make us valuable assets to our company. We help the company by –

1. Understanding problems -
   We're not assets to our company if we do not understand the problems of our customers.
2. Sustaining attention -
   We can't help our company to achieve customer service greatness if we don't pay fantastic attention to what we hear from our customers.
3. Retaining information -
   If we don't listen completely, then we won't remember completely and that discounts any good solution for our company's customers.
4. Clarify procedures -
   We need to be clear about how our company does business and what's expected of us. Listening to what we're told is essential to clarifying company procedures.
5. Building relationships -
   We'll find it impossible to build a relationship with co-workers or with customers if we don't listen to their words.
6. Helping our company to thrive -
   Without great listening skills, we become a detriment to our company and we cannot help our company to thrive.

Great listening skills are also important to us. Listening helps us personally because –

1. People like us when we listen to them -
   We all know people in our lives who don't really listen to us. And we know that we're not really fond of them. We don't want to become one of those people.
2. It helps us respond more efficiently to other's needs -
   If we're going to be personally involved with the people in our lives, we need to respond properly to their needs. And we'll never understand those needs if we don't listen.
3. Intelligent responses are easier when we listen -
   Did you ever not quite hear what a person was saying and then guessed at the correct answer? We've all done that and we usually give the wrong answer! That can often seem like we're not quite as clever as we want to be.
4. Our own self-confidence is improved when we listen-
   And if we have a good sense of self-confidence, then we're a lot happier in both our business and personal lives.

Like all great customer service, it's that simple.