Empathy in Customer Service

Today, when people are more stressed than ever, customer service empathy becomes very important. But at the same time, increasing digital communication is reducing it because it lacks human interaction and it’s important to understand that being empathetic isn’t the same as being polite. (MyCustomer n.d.). Personally, I like to meet the customer service representative face to face, because I think it’s nice to see who I’m talking to. I can also see his body language and that’s important to me. But at the same time, digital channels offer customers an easy and fast way to manage their affairs (MyCustomer n.d.).

It is very common for customers’ emotions to rise when they call any customer service. Still, the majority choose phone as their primary contact channel. The chat service is also used a lot, but if the matter is urgent, then prefer to choose the phone. (MyCustomer n.d..) Hurry is something that easily stirs up the customer’s emotions. I’ve noticed it about myself too.

Research findings

In the MyCustomer survey (n.d.), 70% said that compassion and empathy are very important for customers to experience good interactions. It is important for people to feel that they have been heard and that their needs have been understood. People usually have a natural need to be heard. Many of the survey respondents replied that they were not understood through emotions (MyCustomer n.d.).

While customer service culture can seek empathy for customers, it’s not always easy. Customer service often demands a lot to achieve their goals and complete the solution. (My customer n.d.). Often this is not possible and this is accompanied by staff shortages. People often remember bad experiences and therefore it is not surprising that disappointments are easily passed on. (MyCustomer n.d.). So from this perspective, we should think that it’s easier to be empathetic to improve the customer experience or minimize disappointment if it doesn’t get done.                 

The Bottom Line

Although the importance of empathy in customer service is understood, many organizations do not have the means or ways to promote it. Therefore, it would be very important for organizations to better understand what their customers think is empathy. Becoming an empathetic company requires active commitment from the entire work community, and instructions should come from management (MyCustomer n.d..)

In my case, no workplace has paid special attention to empathetic interaction- which is pretty sad in light of this study. However, if we consider the fact that nowadays a satisfactory customer experience is no longer enough for the customer to want to return as a customer again. Today, competition in any customer service profession is fierce and increasing empathy and interaction would certainly be a good competitive advantage.

Keywords: Customer service, Empathy, Empathy in customer service, Empathy survey

Picture: From Kierinki, Lapland. Taken by Sari S-J