Adam, like your paint tale, and the two before it are true stories from our experience! And what you say makes sense to me; thinking out loud is valuable in several ways: educating customers and co-workers, building trust, spreading knowledge. Seems like a great opportunity.

Thanks for sharing!

We need client-facing staff for the unique stuff that we can’t figure out for ourselves: the click-in floor that doesn’t click like it should, the weird rash on my cat’s leg that won’t go away, the paint that looked pale Post-It note yellow on the chip but is suddenly Mountain Dew electric lime green on my wall (true story). What we’re asking the client-facing people for, and in many cases what we’re *paying* them for through transactions (private sector) or taxes (public sector), is their tacit knowledge that isn’t written down somewhere handy. We’re seeking their breadth and depth of experience with a zillion past clients that we can apply to our own situation. If both colleague-facing and client-facing people did more of their thinking out loud and made it explicit or recorded somewhere that is easily searched, we can help ourselves to that knowledge by listening/viewing and saving the valuable interaction time for more complex or unique situations that warrant a person-to-person intervention. Does that make sense?

My questions are on the customer side. First, it sounds like you see the possibility of the wide-open “thinking out loud” compromising some competitive/business issues. I think I see your point, although I think that could probably be managed by setting a clear focus on what kinds of issues get stated out loud. So, for example, we think out loud about the customer’s situation, and needs, and problem, and alternatives, but we don’t think out loud about pricing or competitors.

The other question, though, is more of a case-by-case situation. I’m kind of thinking the way you are – I’d like to hear how the customer service person is working through my problem. Others, though, either because they have a stronger background in the products, or because they’re in a hurry, or because their personalities are different, may not want to hear all that. So the caveat I’d add is to watch the customer’s expression while you’re thinking out loud, and be prepared to summarize if you don’t see an interest in what you’re saying.