One of the skills we practice in my onsite customer service workshops is how to acknowledge customer concern. That is, how to make the customer feel heard, respected and understood when they voice a problem or complaint. Here are some of the exact phrases I share in my training sessions:
7 Phrases That Convey Empathy to Customers
We have the 7 Phrases for Conveying Empathy in this 1-minute video that you can easily share with your employees!
So often when a customer voices a complaint, we go right into information gathering. We ask the customer for her name, date code, invoice number, date of purchase, and perhaps a half dozen other questions. The problem with this approach is it sounds like an interview or worse, an interrogation. You can improve the customer experience by taking a few seconds to build rapport by just expressing genuine empathy.
Before jumping into problem-solving and before asking any questions, take a moment to acknowledge concern through genuine compassion. When you do, you’ll put the customer at ease, establish rapport and improve the perception of your personal customer experience.
Here’s a short video I created to explain more fully what I mean by acknowledging customer concern. It’s important to acknowledge concern when you’re trying to convey empathy and also when you’re dealing with unhappy customers.
Watch this video. Share it with your employees.
In part 2 of this video, I give phrases that help your employees acknowledge concern.
I hope I don’t overload you with videos. Last one.
In this video, I talk about the best approach I have come across for getting employees to convey empathy. This idea came from a client of mine. Watch this.
For help in how to talk to customers, especially when it comes to conveying empathy, check out:
5 Ideas to Improve the Way Your Employees Talk to Customers – Use these free 5 tips (plus videos) to hold a 5-minute training session to help your employees sound friendlier and “warmer” in face-to-face interactions and over the telephone
Customer Service eLearning– 10 courses to improve the way your employees convey empathy.
Learn more about this customer service eLearning, with a focus on empathy, by going here.
Telephone Call Flow Strategy – Free 9-point guide (also with videos) to improve your phone customer experience
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