{"id":8192,"date":"2016-04-28T18:00:16","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T18:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/?p=8192"},"modified":"2022-10-05T16:23:23","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T16:23:23","slug":"dare-to-care-why-you-cant-script-sincerity-in-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/dare-to-care-why-you-cant-script-sincerity-in-customer-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Dare to Care: Why You Can’t Script Sincerity in Customer Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learn why\u00a0your customer service team must have empathy, sympathy, patience, tolerance, understanding, passion and, of course, sincerity.<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Customer\n

It\u2019s not that hard to notice when you\u2019re dealing with a customer support rep who is less than sincere. They tend to say some of the same things over and over, such as, \u201cI can understand why you would feel that way and we are sorry for your inconvenience.\u201d It\u2019s as if they are reading from a script\u2026 because most of the time they are. I actually had one customer service representative repeat that phrase so many times that I asked them not to say it anymore.<\/p>\n

They aren\u2019t really sorry. At least they don\u2019t appear to be. What they appear to be doing is regurgitating the responses they learned in their customer service training classes or what\u2019s printed on a piece of paper. Maybe they really are sincere; but their company forces them to appear to be insincere, because they are required to go by the script.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is this: You can\u2019t script sincerity!<\/p>\n

The best customer support people, leaders, co-workers \u2013 really anyone you work with \u2013 don\u2019t get to be the best by being fake or insincere. No, they have empathy, concern, and genuinely care about who they work and do business with.<\/p>\n

And, if you can\u2019t script sincerity, you probably won\u2019t be able to teach it either. If people aren\u2019t cut out to be empathetic and caring, you probably won\u2019t be able to teach them, at least not before they potentially do damage to the relationship with the customer.<\/p>\n

That said, some people can fake sincerity, at least for a short time. Eventually the effort and pressure to be someone that they\u2019re not will catch up with them, and can manifest itself in potentially angry behavior. That\u2019s why some employees lose their cool. It\u2019s not that these people aren\u2019t nice. It\u2019s just that their personalities don\u2019t have the patience or empathy needed to deal with confrontational customers, especially if they are upset and acting unreasonable.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that insincerity is a loyalty killer. And, while they may put up with it, customers shouldn\u2019t have to deal with a customer support rep who is scripted, apathetic, and isn\u2019t customer focused. How can a customer have a positive emotional connection to the company if the employees come off as fake or insincere?<\/p>\n

So, how do we go about getting good, caring people? It starts before you even hire someone. The leadership has to define what good customer service looks like in the organization. Once defined, you hire good people who can support that initiative. Then you train them. Accolades from leadership for a job well done makes employees feel good, especially after handling complaints and problems on many of their support calls.<\/p>\n

Getting great people who are customer-focused is of the utmost importance.\u00a0The best customer-focused people care. They have empathy, sympathy, patience, tolerance, understanding, passion and, of course, sincerity. So hire customer service reps that care, and who already have the personality to succeed in a customer service position.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shep Hyken<\/a> is the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations. As a professional speaker and best-selling author, Shep helps companies develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learn why your customer service team must have empathy, sympathy, patience, tolerance, understanding, passion and, of course, sincerity..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[65,222,50],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8192"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35497,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192\/revisions\/35497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}