“I never considered it my responsibility to apologize to a customer for the inconvenience a problem had caused. But then I tried it. I was amazed at how those two words, ‘I apologize,’ immediately diffused customers’ anger.” — Olivia

From the book, The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey

When irate customers call to complain, they are convinced that they have been wronged and expect you (as the representative of the company) to make it right. Your customers have absolutely no interest in knowing why the problem occurred or who in the company is to blame.

The next time you encounter a frustrated customer who blames you for their problem, do what Olivia learned to do. Try saying the magical words: “I apologize for the inconvenience.” Notice that you are not saying that you, personally, are at fault. Rather, you are showing them empathy for their plight.

When customers hear your apology, they calm down immediately. They know they are working with a competent professional who is taking responsibility for solving their problem. As many top agents already know, uttering those five magical words (and meaning it) really does work wonders.

I have found that apologizing to a customer is easy compared to apologizing to a good friend or a member of my family. I’ve learned (the hard way) that when I pay attention to that little voice inside my head telling me that I just might have been wrong, I should go ahead and apologize. I admit that I don’t always take the advice from that little voice. But, I’m a lot better at apologizing than I used to be.

I’d love to hear what you have to say about this new feature!

Share the wisdom,

Barbara Burke
Author, speaker & employee engagement devotee

Woman Out of Order

Sometimes reps just don’t know any better.

CSR: “Mam, to be honest, you’re lucky you got your order at all, considering we have been really short-staffed since we had the big lay off in September and lost about half our guys in the shipping department. I think that by the time you called we had pretty much caught up with all the back orders. You wouldn’t believe how bad it was. We had to put in bukoo overtime which didn’t make us too happy. But, hey, we’re a team, so we got it done. That, on top of the CIS conversion really messed things up. Talk about a nightmare. Personally, I liked the old system much better. This one has less screens but they are harder to get to. But then that’s just me. Other people like it just fine. Oh yeah, that day you called? We had a major blizzard. Most of us live pretty far out of town so most every body was late coming to work. Except me. My driveway is about a mile long, so I have four-wheel drive, so I was one of the first to get here. Other people weren’t so lucky, they had to wait to get shoveled out and didn’t get here until after lunch…so really, you were one of the lucky ones and got your order….even if it was late, you still got it…it coulda been a lot worse.”