What’s the key to delivering excellent customer service? There is no magic, one-size-fits-all solution. Each company requires a unique approach to caring for its customers, but a common quality all successful companies share is a focus on empathy.
Maybe there have been many times in your life when you reached out to customer support with a big problem and after a couple of minutes on the line with the agent thought to yourself, “This person really doesn’t care about my problem.” And how quickly after getting off that call did you swear you’d never spend another dime with that brand again? And now think of how many of your friends, family and co-workers you told about your awful experience.
Now, think about those times you had an issue that required assistance, and instead of getting the cold shoulder, you were connected with a warm, friendly individual who listened to you, responded kindly and worked through the issue to resolution. You felt like that person was feeling your problems with you, which is what empathy is all about. That brand probably still has your loyalty today.
According to a recent study, 96% of consumers said empathy is one of the most important elements of positive customer support interactions. Yet another study shows that too many companies are dropping the ball on the empathy front, as roughly 64% of consumers say companies are losing touch with what consumers want in a customer experience.
Why Empathy Works
Consumers have zero tolerance for being made to feel like they’re just a number. They want to be listened to, understood and assisted when they reach out to a brand for customer support. This should be viewed as an opportunity, as the brand is being given a chance to make it right and not only retain that customer, but impress them with a good resolution, which builds loyalty points.
Even the best organizations have upset customers, and when annoyance grows into anger, the customer support professional is almost always the person to take the brunt of their frustration. The empathetic individual knows the anger they’re experiencing isn’t personal. Instead of offering a retort, they listen, then take in the information they need to provide assistance and a solution. Skilled agents don’t become defensive; rather, they convey to the customer that they understand their frustration, because all good communicators know that feeling understood is a basic human need.
When an angry customer understands they are communicating with a person who conveys empathy, they settle down, almost immediately recognize they’re in good hands and begin to feel comforted. Customer service representatives in contact centers experience this daily and are given the tools they need to take a negative situation and turn it into a positive one.
Customer Expectations
Are consumers expecting more from their preferred brands than they did a few years ago? The data suggests the answer is a resounding “yes.” According to a study titled “State of the Connected Customer,” 51% of consumers say most companies they deal with are falling short of their expectations regarding the customer experience. And 54% of respondents said they do not believe companies have their “best interests in mind.”
Anticipating needs is something all great brands provide because 76% of respondents to the study said they expect companies to “understand their needs and expectations.” This means top-performing brands are invested in knowing everything they can learn about their audience, being proactive and getting ahead of potential problems and customer queries.
The “State of the Connected Customer” study found that 76% of customers report that they have no problem taking their business elsewhere, with one bad customer experience causing a consumer to leave a brand they were once loyal to.
For brands that pay attention, this represents a huge opportunity to step out in front of their competitors because they can partner with a customer service professional who gives consumers what they’re making obvious – that they want to be taken care of.
Where Are You Falling Short?
Genesys released results from a study that found that fewer than 10% of contact center agents believe empathy is their greatest strength. In some respects, this low percentage is understandable, as agents are often hit with questions throughout the day that run the gamut of consumer inquiries, from product details to shipping, warranties to troubleshooting, so many believe their biggest strength is knowledge.
It also highlights a problem in the customer service industry in that too few agents possess the skills to properly communicate with brands’ biggest asset – their customers.
Employee retention rates are quite low in the customer service industry, particularly where roles are related to the customer experience. Part of the reason is that so many of the agents hired to assist customers weren’t properly vetted before being offered a job. They simply don’t have the empathetic skills required to make a customer feel valued.
What happens is they jump into a role they’re not suited for and find out fairly quickly that they need to go elsewhere, simply because they have so many poor interactions with customers and feel like failures. A direct tie-in to this issue has to do with training. Too many customer service agents are poorly trained, so they’re underequipped with the knowledge necessary to provide customers with what they need, which is also frustrating and leads to churn.
Where’s the Human Connection?
Consumers aren’t looking for a best friend when they reach out to a brand’s customer service, but they do expect something more than a robotic experience. The bulk of consumers feel like they’re not getting the personalization they want: A study by PwC found that 64% of consumers feel like companies have lost touch with the human element in the customer experience.
While there is something to be said about the efficiency of a chatbot capable of tackling simple questions on the fly, are too many companies relying on emotionally devoid solutions for assisting customers? There is a space for automated systems, but consumers often have complex problems that require human interaction.
According to the Harvard Business Review, a recent study found that “emotional connection matters more than customer satisfaction.” According to the study, “Our research across hundreds of brands in dozens of categories shows that the most effective way to maximize customer value is to move beyond mere customer satisfaction and connect with customers at an emotional level.” This speaks directly to the need for empathy in customer-to-brand encounters that can be impactful both in the negative and positive sense, depending on the agent involved and their level of compassion, empathy and ability to effectively communicate.
The Science of Empathy
Psychologists have identified differences in emotional, cognitive and behavioral empathy. It all has to do with the ability to feel, understand and have compassion for what’s going on with another person.
Of course, a skilled agent doesn’t need to know the definition of each, but they must display their practical knowledge of it daily, as they employ their emotional empathy to connect with a customer, utilize their cognitive empathy to better understand a customer’s problem, and then employ their behavioral empathy skills by combining all that they’ve absorbed, using that information to take meaningful action.
The best contact centers seek out applicants with these skills. They know what to look for and only entertain interviews with people who possess these skills. While there is a need for onboarding people who have can succeed in the various educational programs regarding brand products/services, lacking the empathy factor can hinder an agent from providing top customer service.
At Protel BPO, we have developed a hiring practice that weeds out poor communicators and those who lack empathy. Our onboarding process includes rigorous educational programming that provides our agents with all the tools they need to succeed at their job, which is to service the customer.
After years of offering exceptional customer experiences, including to customers of such household names as J. Crew, we’ve developed a reputation as a nearshore contact center that delivers on all the cost savings nearshore centers are noted for, but our more important value position is in our ability to improve relationships between brands and customers.
Contact us and learn more about our process and how we act as an arm of the brands we represent – seamlessly and with complete buy-in of the company culture. Most importantly, our hiring practices carefully identify candidates with a high level of empathy, then we train agents to work as an extension of your brand, with the quality interactions you and your customers expect.