The Callers
He was one of those callers who knew a ton about fixing cars. He was talking about valves (specific ones), pressure tests (specific ones), and all the things that he had already tried. He was a car guy. The Car Talk guys – Tom and Ray - quickly abandoned their silliness and got down to business.
They match the caller move for move, idea for idea. They were talking about serious car repair – that 99% of their listeners would never understand or even care about. But, this caller cared and was asking a serious question.
They matched his seriousness with their own sincerity and knowledge. And the caller got lots of good information and ideas. He said Thank you and he hung up.
They provided some complements about the callers ability, then traveled back to their playfulness.
The next caller, a woman, asked about what to do when she gets “the look” (i.e. that she has no idea what she is talking about) from her mechanic while explaining that her brake pedal is going to the floor.
They had some good laughs, asked what she did for a living, used that to make some jokes, and then gave her some solid information about the severity of the situation.
The magic of Tom & Ray
In case you don’t know, these guys have a massively successful show about cars on NPR. It’s funny. It’s informative. It’s entertaining. And all this, it works whether or not you car a hoot about cars.
I figured out why it works yesterday while listening with my kids. Ready?
1. Expertise – they know what they are talking about. They really know cars and car repair.
2. Humor – they are funny and they like to play
But the thing that really makes the show work, makes it keep working, and makes it as popular as it is?
3. Empathy & Listening
They very quickly identify the car knowledge of the person they are talking to. And then they match it, brilliantly. They are just excellent at relating to the callers.
It’s like walking into the Apple Store – or really any computer store. Your experience is 100% dependent on the employees ability to talk to you in a way that you understand and not take you to LingoLand (unless you love going to LingoLand and are capable of going to LingoLand).
Click and Clack are masters of matching the language and knowledge level of their callers.
And it is this quality that makes them successful. Because there are lots of people very knowledgeable about fixing cars. There are lots of very funny and playful people.
But, there are not many people who excel at being able to be empathetic, listen, and then match their explanations/interactions to the capability level of the other person.
It is a massively valuable skill and will help you be successful in just about anything you do in life.
