In the contact center, when dealing with customer complaints, problems and issues, empathy can be the determinant point between keeping or losing business.

Empathy is nothing more than sensing and understanding the feelings of the other. When we are mad, upset, angry or sad, when we complain, when we are looking for a solution, we want others to understand us. That is why empathy is a required skill in customer service. Many would say that it cannot be trained, but the truth is that you can help your agents show sympathy to customers more efficiently with the following empathy statements:

1. “I can completely understand. If that happened to me, I’d be really upset too.”

2. “I can imagine how frustrating that must be.”

3. “It’s perfectly understandable that you’re very upset about what’s happened.”

4. “I totally understand why you’d want that.”

5. “I can understand how frustrating it is when…”

6. “I realize how complicated it is to…”

7. “I imagine how upsetting it is to…”

8. “I know how confusing it must be when…”

9. “That would frustrate me too.”

10. “It is clear that this has affected you.”

11. “What I hear is that you have been treated unfairly.”

12. “You are right, it doesn't make sense at all.”

13. “You are making total sense.”

14. “No wonder you are upset.”

Now, here are some tips that will allow you to understand why these empathy statements are so effective and how they will help you and your agents create their own positive phrases. 

Understand The Problem

The more information you have, the more you will be able to understand. It’s important that you let the customer talk first and ask for details in a soft and polite way.

Use these phases:

• May I ask why that is?

• I’d love to understand more about…

• How can we make this right?

Identify Their Emotions

Before saying you understand, you need to really understand. Is the customer annoyed, upset, sad, frustrated, confused? Maybe they are annoyed because nobody has been able to help them, maybe they’re upset because the product wasn’t what they expected, or maybe they’re frustrated because the problem is not letting them do what they need.

Get Personally Involved

It is much more recommendable to use “I” rather than “we.” People want to speak with a person, not with a company. Let them know you are making their problem your problem and that you, personally, will be on it until the problem is solved.

Make Your Statement Stronger

You can use emphasizing adverbs to make your statements stronger and more believable. You can use words like “perfectly”, “completely”, “absolutely”, “exactly”, “totally”, “definitely”, etc.

Now, brainstorm some ideas with your team and come up with unique empathy statements to improve your customer service.

Call Center Services International’s model allows you to train your Nearshore Mexico team of contact center agents and maintain full control of operations. This allows you to offer the same level of customer service as your US team. Learn more about partnering with CCSI.