There’s nothing that calms an upset customer more than genuine compassion. For instance, “I’m so sorry that happened to you” or “I apologize, let me take care of that for you” can oftentimes be the remedy to a fuming person on the other end of the line.
Call center reps must have a thick skin because they deal with rejection all day, usually from angry customers who often forget that the person on the other side of the phone is human. That anger quickly dissipates, however, when an agent shows compassion toward the caller and his or her situation.
When the customer trusts that the agent is going to make everything right, that is the brass ring. That’s when both people, previously on separate sides, move over to the same side and work together toward a resolution.
Training your service reps in how to speak with a customer is critical to both proper call resolution and customer satisfaction. While compassion comes from within, if you hire the right personality type, you can teach compassionate language coupled with call center software scripting.
As you train your agents how to respond to different types of calls, you also can use your call center software to teach inflection, speed, tone and other softer vocal traits. In fact, a study commissioned by Psychological Science shows that people who are trained in compassion on the job will carry those traits into their personal lives. Those traits become ingrained in their personality and affect how they interact with people.
Successful agents don’t just follow the words on the script – they follow the spirit and compassion of the script. With the right call center software, which creates optimum right sales and service language, agents can rectify issues more quickly and satisfactorily. The net result is a lower cost per call; meanwhile, increasing customer satisfaction can lead to increased value, and that’s good for everyone.
