Guide to Finding a Suitable Listener

As members and guests, many of you come onto 7 Cups with the hope of receiving the best possible support that you can get and deserve. However, that may not always be the case due to incompatibility between your listeners and yourself. Sometimes it happens and this guide is born to help you take various factors into account when choosing your listeners, so that you will have greater chances of finding a more suitable listener for yourself and get greater support! Here are some tips that you might want to try out when getting yourself a listener! ^_^

General Requests
Indicating Topics
See a topic that you can identify within the list? Great! ^_^ It is highly recommended for you to indicate the topic that you need additional help with, so that listeners with greater knowledge and experiences in that indicated topic will be able to listen to you and help you better. :D Furthermore, as some listeners will prefer to know the topic before picking up a chat, you can actually shorten your queuing time by indicating the topic that you like to chat with. ^_^

Group Support Chatrooms
When you look around the group support chatrooms, you may find some passionate moderators leading discussions or some helpful listeners around. Through these chatrooms, you will be able to know more about the listeners and deem the suitability of the listeners for you. If the listeners are willing and able to help you in 1-1 chats, just drop them a message or have them pick up your general request (If you are a guest)!

*Note that all the chatrooms are locked for members only, with the exception of the Guest Support Room (Only applies to the adults side)*

Personal Requests/Offline Requests
Verified Listener Badge
A listener receives the Verified Listener Badge when they have successfully passed an evaluation by one of our high level listeners and it is a great indication that they have sufficient experience as a listener and is a highly skilled listener in our community! ^_^ You can spot this badge when you go to the individual profile of listeners and scroll down to see their list of badges- if you see the badge, it means that they have been verified and are good to go!

Ratings/Number of Ratings
The ratings are divided into 4 main criteria for evaluations- helpfulness, empathy, professionalism, as well as response time. They will be computed to give an overall rating of the listener to give you an impression of how the listener performs in chats. This is a good way for you to determine how good of a listener they are, but don't forget- human interactions may not always go right all the time and members may find that they are incompatible with the listeners and leave them with a low rating. Do remember to consider the number of ratings as well- it is more likely to reflect consistency in the star ratings as the number of star ratings increases to give you a better impression of how the listener actually is! ^_^

*Note: We do have many awesome new listeners around as well- do give them a chance too! ^_^*

Written Reviews
The reviews are left behind by members and guests whom the listeners have helped before and reflects on the listeners performance in chats- they show the listeners key qualities and the direct impact that they have on the members and guests. The reviews are definitely worth to read to know more about the listener and understand how they help and support those in need! ^_^ They will give you some ideas if the listeners style of supporting will suit you or not! :)

Specalised Topic
As much as active listening skills is important, the listeners experience and knowledge are very important when they help and support you in the chat as well. They can often direct how the conversation goes, affect their understanding and empathy towards you in the chat and therefore, it is important to take note of the topics that the listener specialise in- you can find them listed under Categories in their profile or in their listener bio. ^_^ Keep a look out for listeners who have knowledge and experience in your areas of concerns and get better help from them!

Listener Bio
The listener bio is a great way to provide more information about the listener- ranging from their experiences to their topics of speciality. By reading through their bio, you will be able to gather more information about the listener and you will be able to deem if the listener is suitable for you based on various factors that you feel are more important. ^_^ From here, you will be able to choose a listener that you are more comfortable and sharing your concerns with! :)

Cheers
The number of cheers that a listener has reflects the contributions of the listener to this site- you can find out how listeners get cheers here. As our listeners earn more cheers, it shows that they have helped out around the site in many different ways- chat experiences, group chats, forums etc and thus reflects their helpfulness and dedication towards the goal of the site! ^_^ Having a helpful listener supporting you is definitely welcomed! :D

Time of Availability/Time Zone
Sometimes even if you find a listener suitable for you, the differences in time zones can make things a little more tricky than you can think of. Its good to bear their time zones in mind by taking account of the country that they are from and the timings when they are available, so that you will be able to have a common time when you both are online to have a live chat! ^_^ It would definitely smoothen the process of finding a common time for live chats and avoiding chats at awkward hours. :D

*Pro Tip: Many listeners note down their available timings for live chats on their profiles as well, so its worth taking note of them. ^_^ In addition, many listeners turn to using youcanbook.me as a mean for members to book them for live chats- do remember to read through the YouCanBookMe Protocol before you proceed to book them for chats! *

Forums
The forums can be a great place to look for your potential listener- one of the best places to start finding a suitable listener for yourself is the Listener Classifieds, where the listeners put themselves up, explaining their experiences and skills in handling chats of different topics. ^_^ You may just be able to find a listener who is able to relate to your experiences here! :D Feel free to post in the Members Classifieds as well and wait for a suitable listener who believes that they are able to meet your needs to look for you to help you! Additionally, you may come across listeners providing support to members in other forum posts and they are great in helping you determine if they are the right listeners for you by observing their replies. ^_^ You may also chance upon a list of listeners providing 1-1 support in selected topics (For example, Borderline Personality Disorder), which gives you the opportunity to have an idea of the listeners who are able to help you in the topic that you need help with. :) All in all, the forums are definitely a great place to seek listeners and observe them to find the best listener to support you! ^_^

Congratulations on making through the entire forum post! ^_^ Remember that one factor alone will not allow you to select the most suitable listener for you and you will have to take various factors into considerations before making a decision. :) However, with that being said, there are some new awesome listeners around waiting to help you, so dont be afraid to give them a chance from time to time! ^_^ At the end of the day, listeners here have the aim to help you through your concerns and I sincerely hope that you will have a great experience with your listener! :D