Unit 3: Applying Interaction Skills for Information, Advice or Guidance

Questioning Styles

Closed Questions

Closed questions are used to obtain a one-word answer.

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• Closed questions can simply require a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer, for example:  ‘Do you drive?’, ‘Would you like a glass of water?’
• Closed questions can require that a choice is made from a list of possible options, for example: ‘Would you like to see the classroom based or online course options?’, ‘Did you travel by train or bus today?’
• Closed questions can be asked to identify a certain piece of information such as: ‘What is your name?’, ‘What dates are you available?’, ‘Where did you go to school?’

Open questions

Open questions allow for longer and more detailed responses which can help you to gather more information. There are lots of different types of open questions:

Funnel Questions: This technique involves starting with general questions, and then drilling down to a more specific point in each. Usually this will involve asking for more and more detail at each level. It’s often used by detectives taking a statement from a witness:

• “How many people were involved in the fight?”
  “About ten.”
• “Were they kids or adults?”
  “Mostly kids.”
• “What sort of ages were they?”
  “About fourteen or fifteen.”
• “Were any of them wearing anything distinctive?”
  “Yes, several of them had red baseball caps on.”
• “Can you remember if there was a logo on any of the caps?”
  “Now you come to mention it, yes, I remember seeing a big letter N.”

Using this technique, the detective has helped the witness to re-live the scene and to gradually focus in on a useful detail. Perhaps he’ll be able to identify young men wearing a hat like this from CCTV footage. It is unlikely he would have got this information if he’s simply asked an open question such as “Are there any details you can give me about what you saw?”

The Funnel questioning process is good for finding out more detail about a specific point: “Tell me more about Option Two.” and gaining the interest or increasing the confidence of the person you’re speaking with: “Have you used the IT Helpdesk?,” “Did it solve your problem?,” “What was the attitude of the person who took your call?”

Probing Questions

Asking probing questions is another strategy for finding out more detail. Sometimes it’s as simple as asking your respondent for an example, to help you understand a statement that they have made. At other times, you need additional information for clarification, “When do you need this report by, and do you want to see a draft before I give you my final version?” Or to investigate whether there is proof for what has been said, “How do you know that the new database can’t be used by the sales force?”

Probing questions are good for gaining clarification to ensure that you have the whole story and that you understand it thoroughly. They can also be used to Draw further information out of people who are trying to avoid telling you something.

Leading Questions

Leading questions try to lead the respondent to your way of thinking. They can do this in several ways:

• With an assumption – “How late do you think that the project will deliver?” This assumes that the project will certainly not be completed on time.
• By adding a personal appeal to agree at the end – “Lori’s very efficient, don’t you think?” or “Option Two is better, isn’t it?”
• Phrasing the question so that the “easiest” response is “yes” – Our natural tendency to prefer to say “yes” than “no” plays an important part in the phrasing of questions: “Shall we all approve Option Two?” is more likely to get a positive response than “Do you want to approve Option Two or not?” A good way of doing this is to make it personal. For example, “Would you like me to go ahead with Option Two?” rather than “Shall I choose Option Two?”
• Giving people a choice between two options – both of which you would be happy with, rather than the choice of one option or not doing anything at all. Strictly speaking, the choice of “neither” is still available when you ask “Which would you prefer… A or B?” but most people will be caught up in deciding between your two preferences.

Note that leading questions tend to be closed.

Leading questions are good for:

• Getting the answer you want, but leaving the other person feeling that they haven’t got a choice.
• Closing a sale: “If that answers all of your questions, shall we agree on a price?”

Rhetorical Questions

Rhetorical questions aren’t really questions at all, in that they don’t expect an answer. They’re really just statements phrased in question form: “Isn’t John’s design work so creative?”

People use rhetorical questions because they are engaging for the listener – as they are drawn into agreeing (“Yes it is and I like working with such a creative colleague”) – rather than feeling that they are being “told” something like “John is a very creative designer”. (To which they may answer “So What?”)

Rhetorical questions are good for:

• Engaging the listener.
• Getting people to agree with your point of view.

Thinking about the different questioning styles. Can you think of a time when you have used one of more of these with a client? Share your experience of using different questioning styles to encourage communication with clients and submit this as a comment in the comment box.