Customer service tips: The power of empathy.

Perhaps one of the biggest problems I see with customer service today is the fact that often times people will say they listen to their customers but don't actually hold true to what they say. This is not meant to be one of those traditional touchy-feely, kiss your customer's feet no matter what kind of articles. We all know that no matter where you work or what industry you are in you are going to face people who are just plain unreasonable and expect the world to bow down before them because they are the almighty customer. What I intend to do in this article is put a different perspective on what I've found to be effective in the realm of customer service as well as what really hasn't worked well for me out in the real world.

The first thing I did to change my perspective is to think of everybody as my customer. When I say everybody I literally mean everybody. My boyfriend is my customer, my cats are my customers, the cashier at the corner store is my customer, everybody is my customer. People may view me as being strange for thinking this way or they may be intimidated for my thinking outside of the proverbial box, however I have found that I am a much more effective when I think of everybody in terms of being a customer.

Second, I changed my perspective to realize that everybody is human and should be treated as such. Ok, I don't think of my cats as "human" in the literal sense, rather I treat my cats as if they were my kids, each with his or her own unique personality and needs. The following is a short story to illustrate my first two points here.

My boyfriend and I will often travel to a nearby casino whenever we need to get out of town for a day and unwind. We really enjoy the entertainment this particular casino has to offer and the location is just close enough for a quick weekend trip yet far enough away to get us away from the daily grind. We do not stay at the casino as a general rule, rather we stay off property at common chain hotel that offers better rates and is completely non-smoking. Another reason why we prefer to stay at this property has to do with the people who work there. The staff is very friendly and they even go to great lengths to remember their frequent guests and will greet people by name when they arrive for a return visit.

Our last visit to this property in November was definitely one to remember. On the day we were leaving the fire alarm had gone off earlier in the morning and when we were not able to go back to sleep when the alarm was shut off we decided to pack things up and head home. My boyfriend and I tend to be easy going so a rogue fire alarm going off is certainly not going to spoil our vacation. We took our time getting down to the front desk to check out and when we got there we found the front desk clerk appeared to be rather stressed out. I figured it had a lot to do with the fire alarm going off, and since I had worked in the tourist industry before and I know how difficult hotel guests can be, I asked her what had happened since she looked like she just needed to vent.

As it turned out, what happened was a guest had burned a waffle on the waffle iron earlier in the morning, which is what triggered the smoke alarm, then in the midst of the angry guests calling to complain she ended up having a woman checking out who had put her hotel stay on her debit card and was not happy about the hold that was placed on her card. As mentioned before, I had worked in the tourist industry in the past and at the time I was actually working for a bank so I was often on the other end of those frustrating phone calls between the hotel and the financial institution and I knew just what the front desk clerk was going through.

Taking a few minutes to acknowledge the frustration of the front desk clerk and allowing her to relate to somebody who had been in her shoes before made the difference between that particular front desk clerk having a lousy day and having a great day.

Perhaps one of the most frustrating things about modern customer service, in my opinion, has to be when customer service representatives are forced to be "happy" and to leave all of their personal problems at home. I don't know about anybody else, but I have a very hard time faking happy and there are times when I just can't leave personal issues at the door when I arrive for my shift at work. Basic psychology suggests that it is not healthy to keep emotions, especially negative ones, bottled up, otherwise you become a ticking time bomb just waiting for something that triggers you to blow up. Not only that, but if you are having a bad day yet are forced to pretend you are happy, your customers will sense something is amiss. Humans, for the most part, aren't stupid and they can usually sense when somebody is being fake from a mile away.

Perhaps one of the easiest things you can do, especially if you are in a role where you supervise others, is to take the time to listen and relate to your staff. Chances are you've probably been in their shoes at some point and all your staff really needs is somebody who will listen to them when they are frustrated about something. You would be amazed at how far this can go to creating a better overall work environment and studies have shown that happy employees will usually lead to happy customers. Another thing you can do is to actively listen and relate to your customers. Let's say you have a customer who is going through a nasty divorce and mentions to you how they are frustrated with having to find all kinds of records to present to their attorney. If you've been in their shoes, take the time to say so and have a short conversation about your experiences. That lets your customer know that they are not alone and that others out there have gone through the same thing they are going through.

Providing great customer service is not difficult as long as you are genuine and you take the time to really listen to your customers. As mentioned before, there will always be those downright nasty customers you just can't do anything about, but for most people, lending a friendly ear when necessary can make all the difference between a bad experience and a great experience.