What importance does empathy have in customer service and why?
How can you improve your businesses customer service and customer satisfaction?
MyCustomer and Genesys have conducted research about this topic, that has made a significant discovery about customer service. To someone working in and studying customer service, this information could be vital. How to learn how to keep a customer satisfied through interaction alone.
I have always struggled to understand the importance of empathy in a situation, where the customer is being dramatic and overwhelming. An adult going through a tantrum or a hissy fit and me having to guess what they want? I have enough problems myself, thank you very much.
So normally in customer service we are focused on solving the actual problem in hand. But we are doing it wrong. The study finds that empathy is as an important factor when trying to connect with the customer as any other factor. This means that there is a high chance that if the employee is empathetic in the right way, the customer will be satisfied, no matter will the problem be solved or not.
So, the problem isn’t the problem at all, it’s just a human who wants to be treated right.
So how doest his affect your business? The whole customer experience and satisfaction affects the whole aspect of the company. How employees treat the customers when they’re upset, forms a picture of the whole company in the customers’ head. Good and empathetic customer service builds trust in the whole business, and possibly becomes a lifetime customer. On the other hand, you could lose customers by just not listening to their needs.
So maybe its time to take in the hissy fits after all?
It is also surprising that in the study actual live customer service was preferred as much as digital ones. It was not a matter of importance if the employee had a face or not. In my experience todays AI still isnt as high tech as we had hoped, atleast in my experience, hence this discovery seems very surprising to me.
But using AI is also a matter of empathy. While we tend to think that empathy can only be implemented through human contact, it is also empathetic to give customers a faster choice to choose. In case they prefer a quick solution instead of having to explain their issue three times.
Have you ever called customer service and waited on the phone for hours listening to elevator music, wishing if only there was a faster way? Exactly. This is something I have never realised before: AI saves us from the agony of waiting.
Reading this study report surely changed my view about the importance of empathy in customer service. The effect of empathy is much larger than thought before, whether the customer is happy or not. Especially when the customer is the only reason your business is still up and running. The finding of this study should at most inspire the development of every companies’ skills in empathy.
At least it will in mine, one hissy fit at a time.
Reference
Empathy in customer service – A Consumer Survey and Practical Guide