OPEN - CLOSED QUESTIONS

Probing Points

Questioning

Productive probing skills are based on asking the right questions at the right time. There are two basic types of questions that you can use to gain information from your customers: open ones that get at the big picture and closed ones that focus on details. Effectively moving from one type to the other can keep the communication process under control and provide a means of solving problems more successfully.

Open Questions

• Allow the person to express feelings

• Ask for subjective (personal interpretation) responses

• Cannot be answered with only yes or no

• Allow for longer, more complicated answers

• Open up a subject under discussion to new areas

• Usually start with how, why, what

Closed Questions

• Request specific and factual responses

• Ask for objective (fact-based) responses

• Seek out required information

• Require short answers

• Focus in on specific topics

• Close out new areas for conversation

• Usually start with when, where, who

Directions: Think about some of your own customer interactions. Select one specific situation in which you had difficulty obtaining information. Provide one or two examples for each of the following statements and then commit to using the appropriate combination of open and closed questioning in the future.

1. Open question(s) you might use to gain general information at the beginning of the interaction.

2. Open question(s) you would use to encourage the customer to expand on the response to the initial probe.

3. Closed question(s) you would use to uncover more specific information.

4. Closed question(s) you might use to confirm your understanding of something the customer said to you.