This document provides an overview of a customer service empathy seminar. It defines empathy as understanding another's feelings without experiencing them directly, while sympathy means sharing another's feelings. It discusses identifying customer cues that indicate frustration and providing empathetic responses to resolve issues and satisfy customers. The document emphasizes customizing responses to specific problems and personalizing responses from one's own perspective to act as a "hero" rather than providing zero empathy. It concludes with tips for displaying empathy, such as acknowledging customers' emotions, reassuring them, and avoiding interruptions.

1. Empathy Seminar Customer Service: From Zero to Hero

2. MODULE OBJECTIVES At the end of this module, trainees should be able to: Distinguish HERO from ZERO empathetic responses Identify common customer cues that reflect frustration Recognize customer frustration triggers Demonstrate effective empathetic phrasing in response to customer frustration scenarios

3. CONCEPT CHECK! What is EMPATHY ? the action of understanding and being sensitive to the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of another without having to experience these themselves What is SYMPATHY ? the act or capacity of entering into or sharing the feelings or interests of another

4. EMPATHY cerebral “ in the mind” SYMPATHY emotional “ sharing feelings”

5. Oh Empathy, Where Art Thou? What are some occasions when a customer can be frustrated? problem is not resolved in a timely manner CSR can not understand the problem waiting on hold a long time personal problems, e.g. sick, tired, long day, etc. job issues, e.g. laid off, lost job, job depends on this particular computer issue

6. recurring issue/problem customer thinks the CSR is being rude to him or her CSR is unable to provide a solution to the issue customer has been transferred many times customer has called many times before, regarding the same issue

7. How can you tell when a customer is frustrated? raise in pitch (females), lowering in pitch (males) “ syllabicating” (customer emphasizes each and every syllable) sighing customer says he or she is frustrated uses severe language sarcasm responds with short, curt answers or silence negative tone tongue-clicking

8. What are some occasions when the customer can be happy and desire an empathetic response? wedding, engagement, anniversary having a baby holiday, weekend or vacation coming up birthday retirement party

9. new job job promotion the issue was resolved excited about the credit card and/or its features high school/ college graduation winning a competition

10. How to Show Empathy: From ZERO to HERO The Empathy Equation Hero Empathy Statement + Reassurance + Action = CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

11. The Empathy Equation HERO 1 : by CUSTOMIZING remarks to the specific problem HERO 2 : by PERSONALIZING from one’s point of view ZERO RESPONSES OK. Alright. Uh huh. I’m sorry to hear that. Of course. Sure, I see. HERO RESPONSES I’ll try my hardest to fix it! That’s horrible! Of course we will fix it. Don’t worry, I’m on it! Oh dear. That would drive me crazy too!

12. Provide the appropriate HERO empathetic responses to the following: HERO 1: CUSTOMIZING Customer: The previous agent told me that it would only take four hours for my credit card to be activated. It’s been over seven days now and I still can’t use it! Agent: Customer: My card keeps getting declined! I don’t understand it; it was working perfectly fine yesterday! Agent: Customer: Not so good. My dog just died. Agent:

13. Provide the appropriate HERO empathetic responses to the following: HERO 2: PERSONALIZING Customer: Is it really going to take that long to have my credit card sent to me? Agent: Customer: I don’t get it. My account got compromised while I was sick in the hospital and now you’re saying that I have to do all that paperwork?! This is preposterous! Agent: Customer: I’ve changed numbers twice already and the card gets declined everytime I use it. Agent:

14. Power Tips! Never forget the “human touch”. Be sincere. Your tone matters a lot! Always involve the customer in the issue resolution process. Dead air is a ZERO RESPONSE, not a HERO RESPONSE. Use “listening sounds”. They give your customer the impression that you are really interested in resolving the issue. Acknowledge your customer’s emotions when appropriate. Reassure your customer that you will help him or her to the best of your ability.

15. Power Tips! Be patient. Never interrupt your customer. Avoid verbal collisions. When these do happen, never forget to apologize. It’s all about the timing! Delayed responses are worse than zero responses. Do not respond with “ok”, “alright”, “uh huh”, “yes”, or “right” when your customer is unhappy or really excited. Short (zero) responses are not empathetic at all! The mother of all tips: SMILE!

16. Let’s Role Play!

17. Be a Hero! Customer: I need to talk to the wedding planner to get the invitations and my phone’s not letting me call anybody! 2. Customer: I’ve been waiting on hold for ten minutes! What’s going on? 3. Customer: No! That’s not my name! It’s Suzanne, not Susie! 4. Customer: Look, I’m really sick of calling you people over and over about this same stupid problem. 5. Customer: I’m kind of freaking out. I just got this new job and I really like it and want to keep it, but I can’t contact my secretary! It’s my first meeting with the directors, and I need her with me!