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How Active Listening Transforms Customers Into High-Value Advocates
Why the difference between hearing and listening determines whether customers become advocates or churn risks
Clare Knight
June 05, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
I have worked with Ascendr to create an extensive customer onboarding checklist.
Download it for free and see how your onboarding stacks up against world-class standards!
It’s easy to follow a script.
It’s hard to read between the lines.
Last week, I talked about this in regards to emotional intelligence.
Read it here if you missed it.
It had such a good response that I want to elaborate on another related soft skill.
Active listening.
It’s the key to effective two-way communication.
And it’s incredibly important in customer onboarding.
Customer’s want to air their concerns, stressors, goals, blockers, and excitement.
Active listening is a systematic skill that can be taught, measured, and improved.
If your whole team improves this skill even by 1%, it will increase trust, advocacy, revenue opps, AND reduce churn.
Are you listening… truly? 😏 ↓
🧪 The Project: Lend An Ear
This is a broad topic to fit into one newsletter so I have taken inspiration from the technique and created this project.
It will enable an onboarding team to make customers feel heard, understood, and valued throughout their journey.
Step 1: Pause, clarify, confirm
Resist the urge to immediately respond to customer statements.
Instead, try this:
Pause: Leave space after a customer finishes speaking (get comfortable with silence, it creates opportunities for customers to naturally elaborate).
Clarify: "Let me make sure I understand correctly..." then summarise what you heard in your own words.
Confirm: "Is that accurate, or did I miss something important?"
This technique immediately demonstrates that you're processing their words thoughtfully rather than waiting for your turn to speak.
Your customers will notice this, even if it’s subconscious!