Service Untitled

There are a lot of (usually very smart) people who work in customer service and think that the customer service interaction is actually a debate between the customer and the representative. This couldn’t be further from the case.

The most important thing to remember is this: there is nothing to be gained from proving a customer wrong. Unlike a debate competition or a political battle, the “gotcha” moments in customer service do nothing to “help your case.” All they do is make a customer feel bad and encourage them to get on the defensive. This obviously doesn’t accomplish anything and usually, makes the customer service experience worse because customers get worked up when there was really no need to get them worked up in the first place.

Instead of debating, encourage representatives to focus on the positives. Focusing on the positives is a great way to shift the tone of a conversation. Instead of debating the customer, have representatives tell them what they are going to do for the customer and how they are going to help the customer resolve his or her issue. In the end, that is all the customer cares about. Who was right or who was wrong isn’t really relevant in the broader scheme of things.

Not debating a customer does not mean that you always have to agree with them. If they’re wrong, representatives can certainly say “from my experience, that isn’t the best way to do that” or say something like “our system is not designed to be used that way, which is why you ran into that problem.” Phrases like that sound a lot better than, “you obviously didn’t know what you were doing and that is why you are having this problem”

With a vast majority of customer representatives, it isn’t what they’re saying, but how they’re saying it. Phrasing the same statement a different way or changing a debate to a friendly conversation will make a world of difference 90% of the time.