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In this section we're going to be discussing a model known as 123s of customer service.
I'm Pamela Unruh with Expert Village. Now let's discuss the other side of that coin
open ended questions. An open ended question remember it's a question that you ask that
is meant to get a lot of additional information. This is when you're trying to narrow down
a topic or find out what exactly what your customers issue is. I work in a service oriented
business right now and we have customers who use water treatment systems. If a customer
calls me and simply says my system is not working right I could go through an entire
list, is it using salt, is it making a funny noise, is it making your water soft. Each
of these questions the customer can answer yes or no but it's going to take a very long
time to go through an entire list of questions that deal with that specific piece of equipment.
Instead I would ask an open ended question what can you tell me about your system is
doing, maybe they would start to narrow it down a little bit. Well sometimes at night
I hear funny noises, what type of noise are you hearing, "well it sounds like wishing
noise", that helps me narrow it down the topic a little bit better. Then I would know what
my customer is issue is it helps me assist them and it helps the customer explain something
to me that maybe it's just a little bit beyond their particular expertise. So open ended
as oppose to close ended questions you use them in different situations but both very
effective tools in getting to the part of the matter to the customer.