What is empathy?

Before we dive into using empathy in a remote CX world, let’s first discuss what it is. In short, empathy is the ability to understand the feelings of another person with or without having experienced the same situation themselves.

When it comes to customer experience, being an empathetic customer service representative means actively listening to understand the customer’s problems along with the feelings behind their words. Empathy in customer experience doesn’t mean you have to agree with what the customer is saying - it simply means you understand where they are coming from.

Why you need to have empathy in remote CX

In order to have high quality customer experience that ensures customer satisfaction, empathy is a must. Being empathic helps a customer service representative respond appropriately to the issue at hand. Customers want to feel heard and understood when they contact your customer support and doing so helps promote customer trust and loyalty.

Empathy is especially important in a remote customer experience world because, as we’ve all experienced in the past year, many things are moving to contact-free or virtual. This means that communication and customer service needs to be treated as the most important aspect because customers have their CX magnifiers on and if you don’t meet their new standards, they will simply go somewhere else.

Did you know that 1 in 3 customers will leave a beloved brand after a single bad experience? Read more customer experience statistics here.

Empathy v sympathy

Empathy and sympathy tend to get confused since they sound similar, however they mean completely different things and only one of them is required for excellent customer experience.

Empathy - the ability to understand other people’s feelings as if we were having them ourselves (Grammarly)

Sympathy - the ability to take part in someone else’s feelings, mostly by feeling sorrowful about their misfortune (Grammarly)

As you can see, empathy is all about putting yourself into the customer’s shoes and imagining you were in that situation yourself. Truly understanding how a person might feel about the situation will only improve the interaction with the customer along with the outcome. Sympathy, on the other hand, is not necessary because then the live support agent will be wallowing in pity along with the customer - which won’t help solve the issue efficiently. Empathy allows your team to show the customer they care, while not letting their emotions get so involved they can’t easily resolve the customer’s problem.

Listen to your customer’s problems and concerns

A key part of communication (and problem solving) is listening to understand rather than simply listening to speak. As a customer service representative, whether on the phone or through email or chat, it’s their job to show the customer that not only does the agent care about them, but your company as a whole. When a person feels like the agent on the other end actually cares about the problem they have encountered, they’ll feel more at ease and less combative when working with the agent to find a solution. 

Sometimes the listening aspect of empathy in CX is reading (or listening) between the lines. Oftentimes, the customer hasn’t told the customer service agent everything they need to know about the situation, either because they don’t know that something specific could have led to the problem or they simply forgot a key point. This is when it’s crucial for your agent to be listening and actively working to find the root of the problem.

Focus on using positive words over being negative

Train your customer support representatives to always start the conversation on a positive tone. Phrases like the list below show the customer that they are in the right hands to resolve their problem.

• “Okay, I can help you find a solution…”

• “Let’s get this issue sorted out for you…”

• “Don’t worry, I’ll help you get this resolved today…”

Even if the solution isn’t completely what the customer was expecting to land on, it’s always better to convey the message in a positive tone rather than using negative language. 

Smile when you speak

In practice, this may feel a bit awkward but it’s true, you can definitely hear the difference in tone between someone smiling when they talk and when their face is neutral...it just sounds happier and more pleasant to engage with. 

Avoid making assumptions

Although we just said that finding and identifying any possible holes in the customer’s story can help find a solution more efficiently, it’s different than making assumptions without anything to back it up. There’s a good chance that if you show the customer you care about them and the issue at hand by listening carefully, you won’t need to make any assumptions. If there are in fact holes in the story that need to be filled, ask clarifying questions rather than making an assumptive statement.

Look for common interests

A key part in maintaining the human element in CX conversations, is to be just that - human! No one wants to feel like they are talking to a robot, even if there is a real person on the other end. While working to find a solution, engage in a conversation with the customer. Things like relating to where they are located or any common interest with the brand or category of product can ease some tension in the conversation and lighten the mood.

Learn more about what your customers want and how to deliver more of that to improve CX with customer journey mapping.

Fill out the form below to get our in-depth customer journey mapping template.

ABOUT INCEPT

Incept is an outsourced call center service that brings true conversational marketing back to customer experience. Our team of customer service representatives and experts partner with your team to improve the outcome of customer interactions and satisfaction, promote and protect your brand, and accelerate growth.

We’ve worked with some of the largest brands in the world to develop CX campaigns with one main goal - strengthen relationships at every touch point. From inbound phone calls and technical support, to organic and paid social media campaigns, to live chat, Incept is one of the best call center outsourcing vendors to assist all your CX and lead generation needs.