Building Blocks of Trust: Empathy & Rapport
Empathy cannot be handed out by a machine. The Human Voice & Telephone Personality of your Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) provides your Brand’s human face — and delivers the ‘Soft Skills’ that add value when it comes to the kind of service your customers expect.
Working at a frontline customer facing Call Center job requires the performance of emotional labor — to express socially desired emotions — to always appear happy & eager to serve the customer — to display positive emotions and to suppress negative ones.
Empathy in the Contact Center is when CSRs are “in sync” with the customer — able to sense/understand/respond to a caller’s thoughts/feelings/experiences during the service encounter.
CSRs need to display Empathy in order to create Rapport & Trust with callers. Empathy/Rapport/Trust are essential for effectively handling complaints — avoiding or diffusing conflict — reducing churn/retaining customers — developing customer solutions — and winning new business.
Demonstrating high levels of Empathy on a service call — in addition to providing the customer with the information/service they require — plays a key role in ensuring Customer Satisfaction (CSAT).
Empathy isn’t Sympathy
Empathy is different from Sympathy. Empathy is the ability to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” — while Sympathy is feeling the same feelings as the customer and agreeing with them. A person feels Sympathy — but shares Empathy. In many cases — responding to customers with Sympathy means getting as upset as they are—which puts CSRs on an emotional roller coaster — leaving them worn out & frazzled and closer to burnout/emotional exhaustion by the end of their shift.
There are also times when customers may in fact be making irrational or impossible demands outside the terms of service & policy of your company. While it may be unfortunate that the customer is upset due to these conditions — having the CSR sympathize with them in this scenario may prove unproductive for your company.
Showing Empathy for customers allows your CSRs to be both professional & caring at the same time. When CSRs share Empathy during a service call they are recognizing the emotions their customer feel — are effective in the give & take of emotional information — deal with difficult issues more straightforwardly — listen well and welcome sharing information more fully — foster more open communication — stay receptive to bad news as well as good — yet stay calm and in control of themselves — forging a deeper & more meaningful connection — and allowing the customer to feel happy/cared for/valued. This creates Rapport — which leads to Trust.
Empathy/Rapport/Trust Improves Customer Satisfaction
Several studies have demonstrated that telephone based customer service delivered with high levels of Empathy/Rapport/Trust generates real & measurable positive impacts on Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) — and it’s this emotional satisfaction that is especially important for increasing customer loyalty and increasing the lifetime value of the average customer. Empathy also correlates with effective sales.
Importantly — customers who feel that the CSR they dealt with on the telephone displayed Empathy were much more likely to respond with “forgiveness” to the CSR’s proposed recovery from a dissatisfying brand experience involving a company failure — reducing customer defections & churn.
A recent Duke University study of consumers ranking their satisfaction with CSRs found that they rated their Like/Dislike of a Call Center experience 81% on the basis of “Vocal Liking” (how the CSR made them feel in terms of developing Empathy/Rapport/Trust) — and only 19% on the basis of “Verbal Liking” (the actual information the CSR shared).
Great customer service companies earn trust & loyalty during "moments of truth" — those interactions (slow internet — TV No Picture — an incorrect bill — no dial tone on their phone) when customers invest a high amount of emotional energy into the outcome. Even if a customer’s concerns can’t be entirely resolved — a CSR with an understanding tone of voice and a personality that displays Empathy can soothe frustrations — and result in a customer willing to return to buy again.
Women typically display more Empathy
In general — women tend to be better at delivering Empathy than men. The limbic system is composed of structures in the brain that deal with emotions — and research has demonstrated that women typically have a larger & deeper limbic system than men — which allows them to be more in touch with their own feelings — have a greater capacity for understanding others’ thoughts & feelings — and better able to express them — which promotes bonding with others.
Other studies suggest that women are usually higher in Empathy as a result of socialization — and our society's expectations that encourages girls to be more emotional & talkative — and so their verbal skills are emphasized by teachers & parents. Being more emotional & talkative also leads to a higher level of Empathy.
Regardless of the cause — women appear to be more empathic than men — and this helps to explain why more than 70% of all Contact Center Service & Support CSRs are Female.
Empathy really can’t be taught effectively
Female or male — your level of Empathy is firm — but not rigid. Our ability to identify & manage our own and others’ emotions is fairly stable — influenced by our early childhood experiences & genetics. That does not mean we cannot change — but realistically — long term improvements in Empathy require a great deal of time/dedication/training. The bottom line is that some people have personalities that just naturally display more Empathy & people skills — and some people are more coachable than others.
Empathy does not lend itself to being “trained”. Since Empathy can’t be taught effectively — you need to hire frontline workers who are naturally caring & compassionate — and already have an affinity to display Empathy — to form emotional relationships with callers in a Customer Service context. Training may prove valuable as a way for these people to polish their skills — but taking someone who's lacking in Empathy — and investing in ‘Soft Skills’ training for them — in an attempt to make them into a more empathetic CSR — is just investing dollars chasing dimes — and not a wise long term business or customer care strategy.
You can deliver the world’s best ‘Soft Skills’ Empathy training program to the wrong employees and still wind up with a Contact Center that delivers poor Customer Satisfaction Ratings.
In other words — according to customers — 60% of the time encounters with CSRs who were “Bad Fits” for the job resulted in a negative caller experience — and that’s after the employer had invested in the same initial training for all new hires — including training on building ‘Soft Skills’ such as Empathy & Rapport.
It’s a huge mistake to assume that everyone who is given ‘Soft Skills’ training will benefit from it — that is simply not the case. If you think that “everyone can be taught empathy” — then you will be hiring people strictly on the basis of who interviews well — and who seems to have the appropriate skill levels & background.
A job in a Call Center is not for everyone.
The key to great Customer Service in the Contact Center is hiring the right people to begin with. ‘Soft Skills’ Empathy training is just money down the drain when delivered to “Bad Fits” for the job. Your company will have an obvious advantage if you can attract & identify people born or brought up with the right Personality/Job Fit/Soft Skills for frontline service & support employment.
