Empathise and Enthuse: improve customer experience with empathy
Empathising with customers improves customer experience and lowers agents' stress levels, but the behaviour is rarely demonstrated in Australian contact centres. Yet this easy, small change can make a big difference.
We know that our clients and their customers are experiencing unprecedented disruption. This inevitably increases stress levels and the number of conversations where the demonstration of empathy will be crucial. At GRIST we have been asking ourselves, “How can we help our clients help their people and their customers during COVID19?” So we decided to highlight a key GRIST micro-behaviour each week that is crucial in helping vulnerable customers and reducing agent stress levels. This week the focus is on the ability to empathise.
According to GRIST’s data, if you call a major Australian sales contact centre and express how you are feeling, you have a 1 in 5 chance of receiving a demonstration of empathy. GRIST gathers this data each year as part of our Top 10 Sales Contact Centre research where we make approximately 1000 calls to 62 of the largest Contact Centres in Australia. Check out the data below in this interactive infographic.
The good news is that it’s possible to improve quickly, using a very simple micro-behavioural approach. Here’s how.
Micro-behaviour: Empathise
What is it?
The ability to recognise the customer’s emotion and demonstrate an understanding of what they are going through.
Why is it important?
People don’t care what you know until they know that you care. They are unlikely to accept an Agent’s recommendation until they are sure the Agent understands their situation. This skill, when done well, can diffuse tension, reduce call handling times, deliver a much better customer experience AND reduce Agent stress.
When?
Whenever a customer expresses their emotion, it’s a great time to empathise, but the earlier in the conversation the better. A great place to start is just after the customer has responded to the Agent’s question, “How can I help?”
How?
If you listen carefully customers will often display some level of emotion when they answer this question. This is a great time to say something like, “I’m so sorry to hear that, Joanne, that would frustrate me as well,” or “Sorry to hear about the uncertainty around your job, Mohammad, I can certainly understand how stressful having your pay reduced must be.”
Mini execution plan:
Implementing this in your team is easy and can take as little as a week.
Day 1: Run a focus session to explore the What, Why and How of the Empathise micro-behaviour.
Set a goal: Recognise the customer’s emotion on five calls during the day, write it down and come prepared to discuss these at the end of the day.
Day 2: Run a focus session to explore what to say based on the customer emotions identified during day 1. Practise real-life scenarios during the session.
Set a goal: Ask the team to pick up on a customer emotion after the “How can I help?” question and respond with empathy five times during the day.
Day 3 to 5: Review previous day’s learning, identify and discuss the impact on the customer, and share best practise.
Set a goal: Gradually increase the frequency that the Empathise micro-behaviour is demonstrated.
End of the week: Review how far you have come and the impact the team is having on the customer experience (and themselves). Then celebrate because that feeling of success drives habit formation!
Check out our series of our micro-behaviour deep-dives to help your customers and teams:
[Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash]
