Use Empathy to Win Back Your Customers

Improving customer service in the way we handle customer complaints will serve you well.  We’ve all had those customers that come looking for an argument when an issue arises.  The number one way to win them over?

Use empathy. Most of the time, customers simply want someone to genuinely listen to them and understand their perspective.  Empathy is the perfect way to do this.  Notice I didn’t say sympathy.  That can suck you in emotionally and cloud your judgment and resolution skills.  Empathy is defined as the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.

Customer satisfaction levels can actually increase based on how companies handle customer complaints. A problem or issue does not define the staff or the company. How it is handled does defines the staff or company. Customer complaints often stem from the customer not feeling understood. They feel they are being treated like a number or a widget, and not like a real person with real frustrations when issues arise.

Feelings of alienation set in when customers don’t feel listened to. When the statements “It’s our policy to…” or “It’s not our policy to do that.” comes into play, any relationship that has been built with that customer will be damaged.

Ultimately, the customer will take their business and their dollars to your competitors that have made customer service a top priority.

In order to resolve issues and keep your customers, respond to issues quickly with empathy. Your customers simply want to feel validated in their frustrations. When a product does not function properly or a commitment was not met, listen to the customer and their frustrations. It is necessary to state that their frustration with the situation is understood. It is an inconvenience for the customer to even have to pick up the phone and make the call to your company, much less hassle over how to resolve it.

Once the inconvenience and frustration has been handled with empathy, then resolve the issue in the best interest of the customer. Upgrade them to the next product level, if possible, to make up for the inconvenience and time involved. Express ship or deliver them a new product at no expense to the customer. Perform the service again and make sure that the original issues are taken care of.

Or, the ultimate loyalty builder, purchase the service or product from one of your competitors and deliver it to your customers at no charge. This may sound extreme, but if you are determined to have service be defining factor, what better way to exceed the customer’s expectations than by doing right by your customer - no matter what. By putting the customer’s best interest first and resolving it to their benefit, you will exceed their expectations, delight them, and earn their continued loyalty.

Those customers that have had issues that have been well handled will be stronger proponents of your business than those who were satisfied and had no complaints in the first place.