Active listening is one of the most powerful connectors you can use with your dental patients. Here is a surprising active listening conversation I had with T-Mobile service reps about a cell phone problem I had.

Recently I was astonished and pleased to hear T-mobile employees use active listening when they answered the phone.

I was calling with a problem with my hip top/sidekick cell phone. It has all sorts of bells and whistles like web browsing, text messaging, e-mail, games, my address book, calendar, cell phone and a few more.

They had all crashed. I felt helpless. I called T-mobile for help. The first person was in customer service. Our conversation went something like this:

“I have a sidekick cell phone and a few days ago it notified me that I needed my password to sign in. I typed my password and it said it was the wrong one.

I could make phone calls, but nothing else worked.

I was sure it was the right one, but I requested an e-mail confirming my password from you. Your e-mail confirmed it was the right one. So I created a new password and it still didn’t work. Only this time, no only did nothing else work, but I lost my address book and calendar.

What do I do?”

The customer service person replied:

“I am sorry you are having trouble. I know how frustrating that can be. Losing all your information can make you feel helpless. Let me see if I can find the problem. If I can’t I will forward you to our technical support and I am sure they can help you.

Can you give me some information?” He then asked for some information and found out he could not help me. He said “I don’t have the information I need to solve your problem. Do you mind if I forward you to our tech support?”

I said it was fine if he forwarded me. He then said “Thank you for giving me an opportunity to help and thanks for calling T-Mobile”.

He then forwarded my call to T-Mobile technical support.

After a short time of being on hold, the tech support person came on-line and said, “Thanks for waiting. I know it can be boring and annoying to be put on hold. How can I help you?”

I then gave the same explanation as above and she did some active listening that was very similar to the customer service use of active listening. We had a real conversation, not a sterile phone call.

She gave me some directions on what to enter and soon my problem was solved. I was relieved and happy. More than that, I was very surprised to hear a big company use active listening. Customer service and tech support calls usually are bland at best or rude at worst. Many times, I end up feeling like an idiot. I am sure you have had similar experiences.

My opinion of T-Mobile shot up and I am spreading the work about them because of my surprising encounter with them. Would I recommend T-Mobile to you? Yes!

Consider how you can use active listening in your encounters with your patients from your initial telephone conversation through your co-diagnosis process, to treatment and the post case consultation.

Your patients will respond to you as I responded to T-Mobile.

For more information on active listening, please see the “Related Articles” below.