Our Favorite Things to Say as a Customer Representative (And What Do They Honestly Mean)

PERFECT!

I agree this word is useful in building rapport with customers, in fact, I use this almost every day, and it is working just fine. But it seems to be overused by agents including myself. We say it every single time!

After hearing some of my call recordings using the words: great!; excellent!; and perfect!, I realized how annoying it could be to hear these words more times than necessary. Why annoying? Just imagine you have a problem and hear the exact opposites of the word describing your day.

ABSOLUTELY!

Absolutely is a word we always say at the beginning of the call. "I can absolutely help you with that!". This means we can - which is not always the case.

There are lots of things we can't do to our customers especially when their concerns are out of our limitations. We know the reason why they need to be transferred to a supervisor - they didn't find us absolutely helpful.

In this case, I think saying "I would be happy to help..." or "Let me see if I can assist you with that..." is safer and we can avoid giving expectations we can't attain.

I UNDERSTAND HOW YOU FEEL...

Saying this is a good way to express our empathy to a customer who is having an issue with a product or service.

It is our responsibility to understand the nature of the company we represent and understand the common concerns of the customers; however, are we trained to understand every feeling of our callers?

Each customer has a different dispute and judging by the time we have to spend with them before they get contented of our assistance, I don't honestly think we truly understand. Otherwise, their concerns would have been settled easily.

I AM SORRY...

Apologizing to a customer is very important on the part of a customer representative. It is a good way to make them feel understood.

But judging by how many times we, as agents, say this over and over again(or maybe it's just me), the lack of sincerity is becoming more apparent. I agree it is our responsibility to apologize on behalf of the call center's clients, but we don't actually go to the point of feeling sorry for the customers, at least not most of the time.

The reasons why customers are upset are NOT ALWAYS the mistake on the end of the company we are representing, and practicality on our part must be observed when apologizing. Saying sorry without considering the possibility that the issue could be on the customer's end is like saying; "You are wrong, and I am sorry."

Sometimes, maybe we should just stick to the rule; "Say sorry when you truly are."