The Power of Empathy in Customer Support

Today’s customers want to feel understood and supported by the businesses they buy from. Providing excellent customer service is crucial for building strong relationships and retaining loyal customers.

Empathy is a powerful tool that can help you connect with your customers. Practicing empathy throughout the day will lead to meaningful connections, enhanced satisfaction and long-term loyalty.

1. Know Your Customer

Understanding your customer’s needs is vital to providing them with exceptional service and creating brand loyalty. Customers appreciate businesses that are transparent with their prices, services, and policies.

Another way to understand your customers is by getting to know them personally. Rather than asking them the standard “How are you?” try asking specific questions that require more thought.

For example, asking about their day or what they are doing for fun can spark a conversation that shows you care about them as people. This is what makes you show empathy. Empathy involves both automatic, emotional responses and cognitive thought processes. Batson argues that empathy often induces genuinely altruistic motives.

2. Listen

Whether a customer is inquisitive or angry, they want to know that they are being heard. Customer service reps can show empathy by paraphrasing key phrases from a customer’s comment and asking open-ended questions.

By listening actively to a customer’s problem and using empathetic phrases, customers will feel understood and cared for. This is crucial for building a strong, long-term relationship with your customers. Taking time to listen to a customer can save them time and frustration in the future. It can also make them more willing to come back and purchase again. This is especially true if they feel that their concern was resolved in an effective manner.

3. Paraphrase

As the customer goes through the resolution process, they need to be updated on how their issue is being handled. Providing this information allows them to feel that they are being listened to and understood. Empathy statements are one way to do this, but paraphrasing is also a powerful tool that agents can use.

Paraphrasing is the practice of changing words to make a text your own. This is a useful technique when you want to present an author’s idea but don’t think their original words merit direct quotation.

When paraphrasing, it’s important to read the source carefully and take notes of key words or phrases. You can then later look back at your notecards when you draft your paraphrase.

4. Share Your Own Experience

Authenticity is crucial to building customer connections. Reassuring customers that your brand is committed to their satisfaction makes them feel connected to your company.

When dealing with difficult customers, empathy is essential in making them feel understood and supported. Unlike sympathy, which can create distance between you and the customer, empathy brings you closer to their perspective and makes them trust your intentions.

There are several ways to cultivate empathy such as reading fiction, meeting new people, and volunteering. But the most important way is to simply make a conscious effort. Having empathy in your interactions with customers will help you build stronger relationships that increase loyalty and repeat purchases.

5. Ask Questions

Customers need to know you understand their perspective. This is especially important in difficult support interactions when customers are angry and frustrated.

When a customer feels understood, they feel like your company truly values them and cares about their needs. Using empathy statements during these interactions helps you create a more authentic connection with the customer and reduce their anger.

However, you should be careful not to use overused empathy phrases that may seem fake and can increase customer rage. Instead, you should be genuine and use personal pronouns such as “you” or “I” when asking questions. This shows that you are interested in their individual experience and that you are on the same team as them.

6. Express Yourself

Cultivating empathy means not just feeling it, but also expressing it. This can be done through writing, acting, volunteering, or simply meeting new people to learn more about their perspectives and experiences.

Expressing empathy through personal pronouns like “I” and “you” shows that you’re genuinely interested in their experience and care about addressing their concerns. It also helps build trust and establishes a positive rapport with the customer.

Empathy has been linked to improved customer service, higher satisfaction rates, stronger brand loyalty, and increased sales. It’s no wonder that it’s a crucial trait for great customer support agents. It makes them feel heard and understood, eliminating frustration and the need for long back-and-forths.