To be clear, nothing in the OP should be interpreted to mean things should be one-sided. If you’re trying to build a model of where words came from (or, more specific to your example, a customer’s intent), one of the most useful things you can do is gather more evidence. The person standing there talking to you is a readily-available source of such evidence, and you gather it by continuing to go back-and-forth with them.
(it’s just that gathering evidence of what the other person wants and asking yourself in what particular way the other person is trying to use you seem to be two different things.)
To be clear, nothing in the OP should be interpreted to mean things should be one-sided. If you’re trying to build a model of where words came from (or, more specific to your example, a customer’s intent), one of the most useful things you can do is gather more evidence. The person standing there talking to you is a readily-available source of such evidence, and you gather it by continuing to go back-and-forth with them.
(it’s just that gathering evidence of what the other person wants and asking yourself in what particular way the other person is trying to use you seem to be two different things.)