Narrative 14-2 Canadian Tea Retailer David's Tea Has Struggled with Its Growth

Narrative 14-2
Canadian tea retailer David's Tea has struggled with its growth plans,suffering turnover in the C-suite (the most senior leadership group of the company) ,but one thing remains constant: the company regularly reaches out to customers to find out what they're looking for. Nearly all new product ideas come directly from customers through an in-store feedback program,and are tried out over a season to minimize risk.
One customer described his experience at a David's Tea as exceptional. When he went into a David's Tea store to ask for a "Japanese tea," the store associate started probing and asking what type of tea the customer wanted: sencha,gyokuro,or genmaicha,which are all varieties of Japanese tea. Once he'd finished probing,he offered several different varieties of tea to the customer. The associate benefited from extensive training on varieties of tea,which is provided to all new associates when they start.
-Refer to Narrative 14-2. Which step of the communication process is involved when the store associate seeks clarification on what the customer means by "Japanese tea"?

A) encoding  
B) channelling  
C) feedback  
D) sending