While dealing with your potential customers or clients on the phone, showing empathy is one of the most important ways to build an emotional connection with them. However, many novice businesses underestimate the value of empathy, and don’t even pay attention to how a little effort can go a long way.
In this article, we explain why empathy should be a priority while you’re dealing with callers on the phone. Furthermore, we also take a look at how you can incorporate empathy in your daily call-handling tactics.
Empathy leads to client satisfaction
Keeping your clients satisfied is one of the best ways to keep them coming back to you again and again. However, it’s easier said than done; satisfying customers takes a lot of digging.
By showing empathy during calls, you can make the clients feel that you actually care for them. When they get this perception, they become loyal to you — and that’s exactly what you need to achieve long-term success.
How to be empathic with different kinds of callers
The job of dealing with various kinds of callers is pretty hard. Dealing with tons of different types of callers each day, back to back, is no easy feat. It gets especially tough when you realize the fact that each caller might come to you with a different attitude.
Some callers are really angry due to their recent experiences; some are just uneducated; some are well-informed people who know all the technical details and wouldn’t hold back to argue. There’s tons of variety — and each type of caller must be dealt with differently.
It’s important to know how you can be empathic with each type of caller. For instance, you need to keep your cool while dealing with an angry caller who’s constantly throwing wordy jargon at you. Even if you feel like returning them some bitter words, that’s not the way to go. Remember, the caller is behaving like that because they have had a bad experience and they’ve come to you for assistance. It’s your duty to make them cool down and try to satisfy them with what you have to offer.
Steps to show empathy
Showing empathy sounds like an easy job, but it can turn out to be tricky if not done right. In most cases, you must follow the below-mentioned steps.
- Listen carefully to what the person is saying. And don’t just listen while being quiet; give them verbal feedback so they know you’re listening to them with attention.
- Start out by telling them you understand and that you empathize with them.
- If you need some time to investigate the issue, politely ask them to stand by so you can take a deeper look into it.
- Make sure you’re not taking a lot of time while being quiet. It’s a good idea to update them about your progress after each passing minute.
- When you’re done investigating, give them a solid solution that will actually help them.
- While delivering the solution, make sure to mention that you’re happy and that you care for them.
- If you need more time to look into their matter, let them know politely.
- Make sure to give them a timeline for a follow-up call, so they know when they can expect a solution from you.
A final word
As a small business owner, you most probably don’t have enough free time to take care of all the incoming calls yourself. But that’s not something to worry about when you have Easybee by your side.
Easybee is a professional phone answering service that can take care of all the calls coming into your organization. Each call is dealt with with utmost care. If that sounds good to you, feel free to get in touch with us right away and see what we can do for you!
