More than 90% of customers say they would switch to another company in the wake of bad customer service. More than 60% say they are willing to pay more for outstanding customer service.
There is a massive opportunity in these figures.
Empathy and emotional intelligence
Exceptional customer service is built on an agent’s empathy and emotional intelligence. These are learned skills, but they’re not easy to teach – a task made even more challenging with generational differences among agents and the customers they serve.
It’s only natural for humans to want to feel understood and heard, especially with the chaos and anxiety permeating the atmosphere these days. In order to successfully validate a customer’s wants and needs, empathy is a must.
Empathy is crucial for establishing healthy relationships and fostering compassion. It involves experiencing another person’s point of view, as opposed to just one’s own. It is a prosocial, or helping behaviour, skill that comes from within rather than being forced. From a customer service perspective, empathy is the ability to have a human interaction with a customer.
Responding to negative feedback
One bad experience with an agent can cause them to abandon you for a competitor. Worse, one bad experience can cause a lost customer to write a bad review or utilise word of mouth to criticise your business, but we all know that a negative customer review does not always have to do with your quality of customer service, and oftentimes, it is beyond your control. What you do have control over, however, is how your team responds to negative reviews. Resolving a complaint can be just as effective as preventing one in the first place. Responding to negative feedback in an empathetic manner can actually boost loyalty and overall brand image.
Exceptional customer service is at the heart of our Brighter Directions company culture.
