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Chapter 04 - Nonverbal Communication Skills
4-15
C. Seek Clarifying Feedback
• In many instances, people need feedback in order to adjust their behavior.
o They may be sending cues they do not mean to send or to which others
may react negatively.
D. Analyze Your Interpretations of Nonverbal Cues
• One way to ensure that one is accurately evaluating nonverbal cues given by
a variety of people is to analyze one’s own perceptions, stereotypes, and
biases.
o This is important because the manner in which one views certain
situations or groups of people might negatively affect one’s ability to
provide professional and effective service to all customers.
VII. Customer-Focused Behavior
Stand up, If Appropriate
• Depending on the layout of the work area, if service providers are seated
behind a desk when a customer arrives or approaches them, they could
stand up and greet him or her.
o These actions show that they respect the person as an equal and
are eager to assist her or him.
Act Promptly
• The speed with which service providers recognize and assist customers,
gather information, or respond tells them what service providers think of
the customers’ importance.
• If a service to the customer will take longer than planned or will be
delayed, service providers should notify the customer, tell him or her the
reason, and offer service alternatives if they are appropriate and
available.
Guide Rather Than Direct
• If customers must go to another person or area in the organization, or if
they ask directions, service providers should personally guide them or
have someone else do so, if possible.
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o They should not simply point or direct.
Be Patient with Customers
• Service providers should provide whatever assistance is necessary
without appearing to push customers away.
o They should patiently take the time to determine whether a
customer has additional needs.
Offer Assistance
• Service providers should offer to assist with doors, packages, directions,
or in other ways, especially if a customer is elderly, has a disability, has
numerous packages, or appears to need help.
o Similarly, if someone needs assistance in getting from one place to
another, they should offer to help.
Reduce Customer Wait Times
• If long delays are anticipated, service providers should inform the
customer, offer alternatives, and work to reduce the wait time.
• If service providers notice that customers routinely have to wait for
service, they should approach their supervisor about the situation and
offer any suggestions for preventing this in the future.
Allow Customers to Go First
• Typically, service providers should encourage and allow customers to
precede them through cafeteria lines or doors, onto escalators or
elevators, etc. as a show of respect.
o This projects an air of respect and courtesy.
Offer Refreshments, If Appropriate
• Service providers should take care of their “guests” the same way they
would at home.
o Service providers should offer to get customers something to drink if
they come to their office or if they are attending lengthy meetings.
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Be Professional
• Service providers should avoid smirking, making faces, or commenting to
other customers or co-workers after a customer leaves or turns his or her
back.
o Such activity is unprofessional and will probably make the second
customer wonder what the service provider will do when he or she
leaves.
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Class Activities and Sample Assignments
Then, do the following:
a. Ask them to provide feedback on the handshake of their partner. Was it firm?
Was it too firm? What did the handshake convey?
b. Then, ask students to shake the hand of their neighbor using a “cold fish”
handshake where the palms don’t touch. Ask the students how that feels and
what it could be conveying to another person.
c. Finally, ask students to shake the hands of at least four people around them
and tell them to provide feedback.
d. Point out that women tend to have smaller hands and this may impact how their
hand should be shaken.
e. Provide hand sanitizer!
3. To test comfort level of spatial distance, ask students to stand up at their own
4. Create a picture, play-dough sculpture, or something similar. Do not let students
5. Cut out the words in the following pages and put in cups. Ask students to break into
groups and give each group a cup. Tell them they are to act out the word on the
paper using any and all nonverbal cues they can think of (e.g., facial expressions,
handshakes, posture, props in the room, etc.). Once students have finished acting
out all the words in their cup, they can trade cups with another group. For a smaller
class, you can do this as a class activity and just ask for volunteers to be actors
a. Are some things easier to portray than others in nonverbal language?
b. Which emotions were easier to read? How can this knowledge help you in your
career?
Chapter 04 - Nonverbal Communication Skills
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Happy
Sad
Worried
Sympathetic
Concerned
Confident
Helpful
Overjoyed
Angry
Frustrated
Agreeable
Melancholic
Unconfident
Friendly
Calm
Disagreeable
Excited
Worried
Cranky
Open
Tired
Closed
Unfriendly
Relaxed
Chapter 04 - Nonverbal Communication Skills
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Discussion Opportunities
1. Ask students to discuss situations in which someone used a different rate of speech
2. In your most recent visit to a store or location where customer service is provided,
what kinds of nonverbal behavior did you notice? Explain your thoughts and
3. Is it possible to look professional while still being casual? Describe the type of
5. Name and discuss four specific strategies you can use to improve your nonverbal
Chapter 04 - Nonverbal Communication Skills
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In the Real World Notes
Retail—Field’s Auto Group
Fields Auto Group is a family-owned and run automotive business headquartered in the
Orlando, Florida, area with 30 dealerships in four states and Canada. The brand line for
this company runs a spectrum of quality cars that includes Mini, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep,
All employees go through an orientation program taught by Dan Fields. During the
orientation, policies, procedures, and legal issues are addressed, but a driving topic is
customer service and the culture. Another aspect of the culture is that, like many car
dealers, they measure their customer effectiveness regularly with customer satisfaction
surveys. In addition, they focus efforts on customer retention with a “hefty” amenities
program on which they spend a lot of money.
To help expedite the service experience for customers and to reduce wait times, Fields
has implemented the use of technology in a number of ways. One of these is to provide
iPads to sales staff so that customers can complete forms on them to speed up the
process during the credit approval and purchase process. They are also exploring
technology that would allow customers to check in when they arrive and be greeted.
They would then use the technology to summon a salesperson if they have questions or
are ready to take a test drive or make a purchase.
1. How does Fields Auto Group compare to other car dealerships that you have
experience with or have heard about?
2. What are some of the organization’s strengths related to customer service in your
mind and how do you think these might aid enhance a customer’s service
experience?
Chapter 04 - Nonverbal Communication Skills
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Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.
Students may list the following strengths:
• The organization believes that the employees should be honest with
customers at every stage of the buying process and that they should make the
buying process simple.
• The organization measures its customer effectiveness regularly with customer
satisfaction surveys.
3. What are your thoughts related to Fields’ use of technology in the service
experience?
4. Would you want to work for this company? Explain why or why not.
Chapter 04 - Nonverbal Communication Skills
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Work It Out Notes
Work It Out 4.1—Facial Expressions
This box asks students to look at several facial expressions and write what they think
answers. Afterwards, ask the students to get into groups of four or five to discuss. You
can follow up by asking why everybody didn’t have the same word listed for each of the
faces.
Work It Out 4.2—Gesture Practice
Most people do not know what kinds of gestures, facial expressions and other
nonverbal cues they give to others. After completing this exercise with your students,
conversation with someone they know well (such as a parent or close friend) to ask
what their mannerisms are. Then, students will have a basis to determine which
nonverbal cues they may need to work on.
Work It Out 4.3—Adding Emphasis to Words
This activity should make clear to students how much our tone and emphasis impact
our communication. To introduce this activity, you might consider asking students to
decipher the following:
• Say “that’s nice” in a sarcastic way
• Say “that’s nice” in a friendly way
Then, you can point out to them that the same words have different meaning depending
someone used an inappropriate tone even though the words seemed harmless.
Work It Out 4.4—Spatial Perceptions
This activity is great to help students see how uncomfortable it can be to stand/sit too
close to or too far from someone. Ask students to watch for the nonverbal cues of their
partner throughout this exercise. Most excellent customer service people will be able to
read cues about distance and adjust for the customer. For example, if the employee
notices that the customer keeps backing away, this customer likely prefers a little more
Chapter 04 - Nonverbal Communication Skills
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personal space. If the customer keeps moving forward, it would be appropriate to have
less space between the customer and employee.
Work It Out 4.5—Gender Communication
If you do not have access to a computer lab and do not want to assign this box, you can
also engage in a discussion with students about the box. Ask them what experiences
gender differences could just be personality differences.
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End-of-Chapter Material Notes
Key Terms
• Appearance and grooming (p. 138)
• Articulation, enunciation, or pronunciation (p. 136)
• Body language (p. 130)
• Clusters (p. 153)
• Emotional messages of color (p. 145)
• Environmental cues (p. 141)
• Etiquette and manners (p. 144)
• Gender communication (p. 146)
• Hygiene (p. 138)
• Impact of culture (p. 149)
• Inflection (p. 134)
• Interferences (p. 136)
• Malapropism (p. 137)
• Miscellaneous cues (p. 142)
• Nonverbal messages (p. 129)
• Paralanguage (p. 133)
• Pauses (p. 136)
• Perception checking (p. 153)
• Pitch (p. 134)
• Posture (p. 132)
• Proxemics (p. 140)
• Pupilometrics (p. 130)
• Rate of speech (p. 135)
• Semantics (p. 137)
• Silence (p. 136)
• Spatial cues (p. 140)
• Time allocation (p. 143)
• Verbal fillers (p. 136)
• Vocal cues (p. 134)
• Voice quality (p. 135)
• Volume (p. 135)
Review Questions
1. What are the six categories of nonverbal cues?
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2. What are some of the voice qualities that can affect message meaning?
3. What are some examples of inappropriate workplace attire?
4. How can grooming affect your relationship with customers?
5. What are the four spatial distances observed in Western cultures, and for which
people or situations are each typically reserved?
6. What are some of the miscellaneous nonverbal cues that can affect your
effectiveness in a customer environment?
7. What are some ways in which men and women differ in their nonverbal
communication?
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Some of the ways in which men and women differ in their nonverbal communication
are as follows:
8. What are some examples of unproductive communication?
9. List four strategies for improving nonverbal communication.
10. What are five examples of customer-focused behavior?
Collaborative Learning Activity
Many students have iPods and your library may have an iPod recorder you can lend to
students. Many cell phones also have recording devices (iPhone, Android, etc.), which
can make this a quick activity to do in class without a lot of preplanning on your part.
Consider having students work in teams to record but ask them to work alone in their
own analysis. Some students may feel embarrassed about analyzing their personal
nonverbal communication in front of another person. To combat this, you may want to
do the activity yourself first and then tell students what results you came up with
personally.
Face to Face—Handling Customer Complaints at Central Petroleum National Bank
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A banking representative works with a new customer and holds a finger up to an
existing customer, Mrs. Wyatt, to show he or she will be with her in a moment. She
leaves angrily and then files a complaint letter.
1. What did you do right in this situation?
2. What could you have done differently?
3. Do you believe that Mrs. Wyatt was justified in her perception of the situation?
4. Could Mrs. Wyatt have misinterpreted your nonverbal messages? Explain.
