Customer Service Success

Empathy is one of the most important customer service skills. It allows you to understand how a customer is feeling and use that insight to find ways to make them feel better.  Our ability to empathize with a customer comes from having a similar or relatable experience. So the key is to draw upon your own experiences when serving customers. That’s easy to do if a customer makes a comment about filling out a lot of paperwork and you recently had to do the same thing. Other times, empathy is a bit more difficult. For example, you may find it hard to relate to the frustration a customer feels you know how easy it is to send a Behavioral Assessment.  Each situation is a little bit different, but these four steps will help bridge the gap and allow you to understand how your customer feels when they experience a particular problem.

1. Describe the problem.
2. Describe why you think the customer is upset.
3. Think of a situation where you had a similar feeling.  What was it like?  Recollecting that experience can help you understand the pain points of the experience.
4. What can you do to demonstrate empathy to your customer?  Showing a customer that you understand how they feel can validate those feelings.  You want them to believe that you’re there to help.

There are a couple of things you should always keep in mind when using empathy with your customers. First, expressing empathy is separate from solving your customer’s rational needs. The partner may still need to create the opportunity quote themself even if they don’t want to. That doesn’t mean the employee can’t empathize with the customer in an effort to make them feel better. Second, empathy must be sincere. There’s a world of difference between someone sincerely saying, “I’m sorry that happened,” and saying, “I’m very sorry that happened” just because that is what a script tells them to say.  Finally, it can be difficult to empathize with a customer when we’re concerned about ourselves. Let’s say you’ve had a long day and have a splitting headache. You’re tired. And all you can think about is logging off and crawling into bed. The very next customer you serve may need your empathy to feel better but it will be hard to do if you’re concentrating on your own needs. Empathy isn’t always easy, but it’s one of those skills that’s often the difference between good and outstanding customer service.