LL- Empathy Calls / Chat

What is Empathy?

The term “empathy” is used to describe a wide range of experiences. Emotion researchers generally define empathy as the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.

In a customer support interaction, it’s not always easy to convey empathy or understanding of a customer’s situation.

Sometimes trying to show understanding can come across as pity. Other times your responses sound robotic. Neither makes for the empathetic support that 40% of customers want more of when interacting with businesses.

Empathy statements are your way of conveying to a customer that you understand the concerns, issues, and feelings they’re coming to you with. They demonstrate that you’re invested in solving the problem, answering their questions, and giving them a great experience.

By using empathy statements, you build trust in each customer and add the human touch to your digital service.

So, here’s a handy list of empathy statements to get you started on the road to better service.

1. “If I understanding correctly…” a) clarify the customer’s meaning, and

b) ensure that you’re both on the same page

You can’t fully empathize with a customer unless you understand their problem. So, start by using empathy statements to:

By using ‘I’, you personally involve yourself in the support process. This personal approach demonstrates a willingness to identify with the customer’s problems and build a relationship – right from the off.

2. “I would feel XXXX too in that situation” This empathy statement explicitly tells the customer that you’re putting yourself in their shoes. It requires you to identify the emotions of your customer. Here, ‘X’ could stand for ‘frustrated’, ‘upset’, ‘confused’ or even ‘surprised’.

By confirming that you'd feel the same way, you create a sense of accord. It not only shows empathy for the customer’s plight but also assures them that their feelings are understandable

3. “You’re right” Empathy statements are a great way to validate a customer’s point of view. Validating a customer’s feelings about a situation can be as simple as confirming that they are right about there being a problem.

Telling a customer when they are right about an issue helps customers see you as ‘on their side’. They feel understood, and recognize that you’re listening and fixing what has upset them.

4. "I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with this…" Saying you’re sorry isn’t the same as admitting you’re wrong. Apologizing when a customer has been upset is a great way to start mending the relationship. Plus, it demonstrates that you understand that they’ve been made to feel negative about your business.

However, merely reeling off a canned apology doesn’t suggest an active approach to the problem. You have to genuinely mean it.

So, the word ‘sorry’ alone isn’t enough for effective empathy statements — you need to make an effort to prove it to the customer.

5. “I’ve experienced this issue recently too” Empathy is about (figuratively) walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. Empathy statements that demonstrate experience in the situation help you create a stronger connection with the customer. You’re explicitly telling them that you’ve walked that mile, and can draw understanding from your own experiences.

This has some major effects. You validate the customer’s concerns by confirming that this is an issue others have experienced, you demonstrate that you understand the situation entirely, and you make a stronger connection because of it.

6. “Thank you for getting in touch about this” Effective empathy statements can also be those that show appreciation for the customer’s contact. Your chatting customer has made an effort to speak to you and work out their issues.

When you thank your customer for getting in touch, you are recognizing and empathizing with the effort they’ve made. You respect their time to boot.

Matching the customer / Empathy During CHATS

In-person, tone comes from the way we use vocal and visual cues. It’s how we inflect words; how our expressions add layers of meaning to what we say.

But how do you tone-match when the conversation is unfolding online, via a live chat session?

This question is one with which many Customer Happiness Agents struggle. Matching the customer is key to building rapport in a customer support context. But in typed live chat conversations, it’s also easier said than done.

For example, angry or upset customers don’t want gratingly chirpy replies. Happy customers, meanwhile, will find that happiness dampened if the service they receive is formal and grave. Tone matching helps to treat customers respectfully, appropriately, and in the way most likely to improve their experience

How: identifying the tone You can’t match the customer’s tone if you can’t identify it. Identifying the customer tone in live chat conversations means looking at things like their formality, their punctuation, and their word use. It can also help to compare these to the context of the situation.

So, here’s a handy guide on matching the customer in live chat interactions

Formality 

A good way to gauge the customer’s tone is to consider how formal they’re being. An informal tone suggests a relaxed customer that would be happy with a less formal reply. Look for colloquial greetings like ‘Hi’ or ‘Hey’, initialisms and text speak like ‘lol’, and GIFs or emojis. These informal features in a message suggest a relaxed, friendly customer tone.

Meanwhile, a more serious tone comes across in more formal language. Think ‘hello’ instead of ‘hi’, or full words and sentences instead of abbreviations.

Content 

The content of the message holds all sorts of tone markers. Punctuation, word choice, and placement all help you identify customer tone. For instance, lots of full stops create short, punctuated sentences that could denote a serious, terse tone. (Which calls for a serious, empathetic tone in response.)

Words that mitigate the customer’s point, (i.e. ‘just’) suggest a patient and friendly tone. Conversely, intensifiers like ‘major’, ‘very’, and ‘really’ could denote an excited or highly emotional tone.

As another example, if the customer’s first live chat message is a request with a ‘thank you or ‘thanks’, it suggests a more brusque and serious tone. That is, the customer wants something done already. So, a light-hearted, chatty tone could clash with their serious, focused tone.

Context 

Finally, consider the topic of the conversation or the context of the situation. A customer with a big problem about money is less likely to have a chilled-out tone. They might have both friendly and serious tone markers. But, in the context of a serious issue, the serious markers hold greater weight for tone-matching (matching the customer).

Meanwhile, a customer with the same tone markers but a simple question is more likely to accept your friendly tone-matching.

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