Customer Service Training

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Exceptional customer service, or as our mission says, to “Delight our Clients,” means more than following a bunch of rules. What we all need to do is adopt a customer service mindset. For us to succeed at delivering memorable customer service, we have to have a genuine desire to please and satisfy our customers.

Who are our customers?

Well, obviously our customers for starters. But our manager and our co-workers are also our customers. Basically, when we are focusing on making relationships work better, a customer service mindset is going to be a great benefit to us and to those around us. A customer service mindset looks like helping a client get an urgent update completed, even though it was their own error that made this urgency necessary. It looks like working with a co-worker who is struggling with an update even though you have five in your own queue that you need to complete before quitting for the day. It is sharing ideas with another designer on a project he or she is working on. It looks like a project coordinator  stepping in to help another PC’s team members when they ask for some help.

How do we succeed at delivering exceptional customer service?

• Accept work and projects that you know you can deliver. If you make a promise, keep it. That means budgeting your time and not taking on more than you can deliver.
• Find out what your customers’ expectations are and what they need. Asking questions and listening (without assumptions) can usually get you the correct information.
• Put yourself in their shoes. How could you help meet their needs?
• Communicate freely. Share your ideas with your manager. Identify barriers to meeting our customers’ needs, and bring creative solutions to the attention of others.

When we deliver what our customers want, they are delighted. We want to build trusting relationships and have clients who can count on us.

we have become very informal in our writing these days — we seldom use punctuation correctly or capital letters to begin a sentence. and i don’t know about u, but i rarely even capitalize my “i’s” anymore.

Though it might be faster and acceptable to be casual and informal when writing a quick text or an e-mail to your best friend, it’s not at all acceptable in the professional world, so please be careful that your informal habits stay separate from your professional practices.

Here are a few reminders when it comes to communicating with our clients by e-mail and through the CS portal:

Jargon

Avoid jargon whenever possible. Assume that your audience does not know the meaning of highly specific or technical terms. “The common area” means nothing to our clients. If you have to use complicated terms, be sure to define them.

Tone

If your writing is misunderstood, you may not have the luxury of explaining yourself further. This means that you must be cautious about the words and phrases you use. It’s good practice to go back and read your document out loud without using any tone or inflection. “Hear” how the words sound, and then make adjustments accordingly.

Coherence

Aim for clarity in your writing. Think about what you want to say, and then let the words flow naturally.

Aim to present your main idea first. Package your thoughts into paragraphs, each with a main idea, and starting with a sentence to describe what it’s about. (Make sure that your paragraphs are not too long.)

Sentence Structure

Sentences should have a single topic. Although you can put together longer sentences using commas and semicolons, your aim is to maximize readability.

Readers shouldn’t have to think too hard about how a sentence fits together.

Again, read your sentences out loud. If you run out of breath, or get tangled up in words, it’s time to shorten and simplify your text.

Readability

The key to good writing is clarity. So, aim to make your points clear and easily digestible. Using bullet points and/or sub-headings is a great way to make your points clear.

Crafting Your E-mails

1) Clear Subject Lines

Be sure that you include a subject line that is clear about the topic of your e-mail. It will prevent confusion and is more likely to be opened by the recipient.

2) Personalize Your E-mail

Whenever possible, personalize your e-mail or customer support response by using the client’s first name. Many studies show that when we use one another’s names, we feel more connected. Your e-mail goes from disconnected communication to a personalized conversation.

3) Opening Lines

The opening lines of your message should be very clear so the recipient knows what you need from them (or are providing them). If you are asking for clarification on an update or a project, just let them know that. It could be as simple as, “I had a question for you about your update request…” or “I wanted to follow up regarding the development questionnaire that you sent us….”

4) Your closing

As you finish your e-mail, be sure you include what action you’d like the recipient to take and any time that might be applicable. For example, “If you can let me know how you’d like me to update this information as soon as possible…” or “To meet our timeline for development, I’d need the following information by Wednesday at noon….”

5) Signing Off

Close with a friendly (possibly personalized) sign-off and your name. It could be as simple as “Regards,” or “Have a wonderful day,” or even “Sincerely,” but something that you feel is sincere, and then add your name.

Important notes:

1. NEVER say anything in an e-mail or a customer portal response that you wouldn’t mind if anyone (or everyone) else read. I’m sure many of us could share stories about an email getting forwarded to someone else, and the email thread included a comment that was never intended for the recipient to see. Just assume that any e-mail you send could be read by anyone. You don’t want to offend someone or to be embarrassed by a careless remark in an e-mail. Remember…your comments reflect all of us here at School Webmasters!
2. Always, always, always check your e-mail or customer portal response for spelling, grammar, clarity, and typos before hitting send. Don’t be in such a hurry that you make a careless mistake.
3. Don’t be afraid to reflect your personality. Be yourself. Be friendly. Be fun. Be kind. Find opportunities to compliment and thank others, and find others doing things right.

The person who interacts directly with our customers (or even co-workers) determines whether that customer perceives that he or she is receiving excellent or poor service. You have the power to affect their perceptions. Your interaction is where “the rubber meets the road.” Your words and behaviors create a positive customer perception of you and of School Webmasters as a company. So, the goal is to create positive opinions. You will do this with a positive attitude and by using service-focused language.

What’s in it for you?

Let’s be honest. Is there any real personal benefit of going to all the extra effort to provide outstanding customer service to both our customers and our co-workers? The answer is, absolutely!

1. When you know that you are making a difference, you will derive pride in your work. Delivering high-quality customer service and knowing that you are helping others is very rewarding personally. When you can calm someone down, that is an achievement. When you have helped someone solve a problem or learn something new, that is satisfying. We all take pride in doing a good job. (Besides, studies show that “giving” lights up our brain’s pleasure and reward centers just as if we were the recipient of the good deed. So, you’ll get a boost of the feel-good endorphins that can lower stress and cause us to feel more empathy towards others with these positive symptoms lasting up to 2 hours!)
2. You can save yourself time and hassle by understanding how to provide customer service that is needed—and those skills will transfer to all interactions in your personal life as well.
3. Knowing and applying the skills for outstanding customer service make you an appreciated employee. You’ll be recognized for the worth you add to the company.

Who are our customers?

We have two types of customers. There are internal customers (co-workers, managers, others within our organization or working with us) and there are external customers (employees who work for our customers whether they are schools, organizations, or businesses as well as the parents and students who attend those schools and even the customers of those websites we support). Basically, anyone we deal with becomes a customer.

Is it true that the customer is always right?

Nope. It simply isn’t possible to give every customer what they want or what they think they want. But there are two other goals we can strive to achieve and those are:

• Our customer deserves to be treated as if he or she is important to us and his or her opinions, needs, and wants are worth our attention.
• Our customer deserves our maximum effort, even when his or her expectations, wants, or needs may be impractical (or not in their own best interests).

So, if we can’t always give the customer what he or she wants, we can contribute to the customer’s positive impression and possibly provide an even better solution than they request. Outstanding customer service isn’t about what we provide to our customer but how we provide it.

What do our customers REALLY want?

They want their problems solved. They want to be acknowledged and understood. They want choices and options. They love positive surprises (when we go above and beyond their expectations). They expect consistency, reliability, and accuracy. They want us to do the job more quickly than they can do it themselves. They want us to make their job a bit easier. They want us to make their complex world a bit simpler. And, last but not least, our customers want to feel that they are important. When we listen and acknowledge them, we demonstrate that we believe they are important. If you keep our customer’s needs and wants in mind as you are working with them, you’ll be successful at making a positive impression.

The next few customer service topics will cover some of the basic customer service tools and techniques to help you succeed as well as help you have a better understanding of what service-focused language is all about.

Customers (and that means co-workers as well as our clients and their clients) will usually feel gratitude and loyalty when we show that they are so important to us that they are worth going beyond the minimum expectations. Great customer service includes demonstrating, through our actions, that our customer is important and special. This can be done by:

1. Being extra-friendly (especially via e-mail when words may not reflect your intended tone).
2. Letting the customer know that we saw a need and filled it.
3. Letting them know they did a great job on their submission (finding/catching them doing things right and sharing it with them).
4. Thanking them for being accurate, friendly, helpful, thorough, etc.
5. Seeing a better way to complete their request (adding a graphic, improved or multiple placement, clarifying their request to get it right, etc.)

Examples:

Instead of saying, “Please attach the board minutes for this request,” you could say “Hi , Thank you for your request. It looks like the board minutes didn’t make it along with this request. If you could please attach them, we’ll get this completed for you. Thanks for your help!”

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“Thank you for sending in a copy of the newsletter. I’ve added a copy of that to the website for parents to download. It was filled with wonderful information. Parents should be thrilled. Nice work!

“I also wanted to let you know I added that great article about the Christmas program to the news page and linked to it from the home page as well so we would be sure everyone got a chance to see what a great success that was.

“Hope you have a wonderful week! ”

——————————————–

“Thanks so much for submitting the most recent website update. I’ve posted it <menu, board=”” minutes,=”” etc.=””>as requested. I did want to mention that I noticed a typo on the date, and I changed that to the correct year (it’s so hard to break a year-long habit). Have a great rest of the week, and thanks for helping us keep the website current! ”</menu,>

——————————————-

“Thanks, Mary, for your recent website update. I just wanted to thank you for always being so thorough in your requests. You really make it easy for me to understand what you’re hoping to accomplish. You make my job much easier to do right! ”

As we discussed earlier, acknowledging (and validating) your customer’s needs is one of the main strategies to providing truly outstanding customer service. If your customers see that you are making an effort to understand their needs (even when you can’t meet them), you are more likely to create a positive experience for them and for you.

Sometimes that may simply be rephrasing what the customer has said to you (for example, “I understand that you need this update completed quickly…”) or it might be something you observe (for example, “I can see that it is important that we put this update where it will be seen by as many parents as possible…”). By acknowledging this need, you send a very clear message to the customer that you are really listening and that you understand.

At other times that will be asking further questions to get to the point where you can acknowledge their needs. As we all know, sometimes customers don’t provide us with enough information to even be able to make a good guess. Don’t be afraid to get clarification. Sometimes you can run this request by another co-worker or supervisor (someone who has a bit more experience reading our customer’s minds). This can eliminate the possibility that it isn’t clear only because you haven’t seen these type of requests before, and that second set of eyes can see what you don’t. If that isn’t the case, reach out to the customer and tell them you just want to be sure you understand what they want to accomplish, and then you can let them know you understand with a positive response like, “Yes, we can absolutely do that” or “Great. I’m happy to help!” or even “Oh, yes! And we could also….”

Acknowledging without Encouraging

Occasionally we might need to deal with difficult or upset customers. It is important that you show them that you understand the facts surrounding the situation and the feelings they might be experiencing. However, there is a delicate balance between acknowledging and encouraging. You don’t want them to continue to focus on feeling angry or being difficult but to move them toward letting you help them. This involves using a combination of two techniques:

First, you will acknowledge the feelings in a short sentence and then immediately steer the conversation back to the problem/solution (and away from his or her emotions). For example, “I can see that this could be frustrating. Let me get this solved for you right away.”

You can do the same thing to let the customer know you understand the facts by combining active listening with refocusing (active listening is covered in a later lesson). You simply reflect back your understanding of their needs, and then refocus on the solution.

It is the principle that matters. You acknowledge the facts and emotions, but you don’t want to dwell on them.

Validating the Customer’s Contributions

Sometimes our customers will ask us to do something on their website that isn’t in line with what we consider best practices. Sometimes it is even a terrible idea. However, we don’t want our customers to feel like we don’t value their opinions or that we think our ideas are better (even when we are pretty darn sure that they are 🙂 ). So, like acknowledging our customers, remember to validate their contributions as well. This can help us avoid having a client become frustrated and just ordering us to “Do what I tell you to do,” without considering our recommendations, which are based on years of experience.

For example, you could start your reply (after a request from a customer that is probably NOT the best idea to accomplish what they want) you might say, “Getting this information out there is a really great idea! What if we…” instead of “We really don’t recommend doing that….” You can also let the customer know why this alternative suggestion or approach might better serve their long-term goals for the request.

We’ve all heard how important it is, in all of our relationships, to become a better listener. This means becoming an active listener. This includes rephrasing the key points of what the other person has said and reflecting them back in our own words, often in the form of a question. For example: “So, you’d like the design of the site to reflect the high standards your curriculum sets for your students? Is that right?” Or in the case of a conversation with your significant other it might look like, “Do you mean that you want to skip the ball game and snuggle on the couch with me and watch a chick flick?” (Okay, that last one sounds a bit gender biased, but you get the idea—the latter would show that you probably weren’t listening AT ALL.) 🙂

Basically, active listening takes a lot of work. Because our minds tend to flit around, and we have a hard time focusing on one thing for more than a few minutes, we will jump to thinking about what we want to say next or just plain jump to conclusions about what the speaker really means (or even to something totally unrelated to the conversation taking place). These very human responses are at the root of most miscommunication. With practice, however, we can train ourselves to stay focused, concentrate on the message, ask questions, reflect and paraphrase—and become excellent listeners. This will help us in both our professional and our personal lives.

In Summary:

1. Pay Attention

• If the conversation is face-to-face, look at the speaker directly.
• Put aside those distracting thoughts. (Even if this means repeating in your mind the words being spoken to force you to stay in the moment.)
• Don’t mentally prepare your response.
• Don’t let other environmental factors distract you (don’t check your phone or computer, for example).

2. Show That You’re Listening

• If face-to-face (including video conferences) nod occasionally, include smiles and other facial expressions, note that your posture is open and inviting.
• Encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal comments like yes and uh huh.

3.    Provide Feedback

• Reflect what has been said by paraphrasing. “So, it sounds like you are saying…” or “I understand you to mean…” or “Let me be sure I understand. What I’m hearing is…” are great ways to paraphrase what you heard and give the speaker a chance to clarify.
• Ask questions on points that need clarification, “What do you mean when you say…” or “Is this what you mean?”
• Periodically summarize the speaker’s comments.

4.    Defer Judgment

• Don’t interrupt. It is a waste of time. It will frustrate the speaker and keep you from understanding the message.
• Let the speaker finish each point before you begin to ask questions. (If you are afraid you’ll forget your questions, make a few notes to ask when they finish).

5.    Respond Appropriately

• Active listening helps you gain information and perspective. It is a model for respect and understanding—so it is worth the effort to perfect.
• Be candid, honest, and kind in your responses.
• Treat the speaker in the way you think he or she would want to be treated (failing knowing that, treat him or her how you would like to be treated).

We’ve all heard how important it is, in all of our relationships, to become a better listener. This means becoming an active listener. This includes rephrasing the key points of what the other person has said and reflecting them back in our own words, often in the form of a question. For example: “So, you’d like the design of the site to reflect the high standards your curriculum sets for your students? Is that right?” Or in the case of a conversation with your significant other it might look like, “Do you mean that you want to skip the ball game and snuggle on the couch with me and watch a chick flick?” (Okay, that last one sounds a bit gender biased, but you get the idea—the latter would show that you probably weren’t listening AT ALL.) 🙂

Basically, active listening takes a lot of work. Because our minds tend to flit around, and we have a hard time focusing on one thing for more than a few minutes, we will jump to thinking about what we want to say next or just plain jump to conclusions about what the speaker really means (or even to something totally unrelated to the conversation taking place). These very human responses are at the root of most miscommunication. With practice, however, we can train ourselves to stay focused, concentrate on the message, ask questions, reflect and paraphrase—and become excellent listeners. This will help us in both our professional and our personal lives.

In Summary:

1. Pay Attention

• If the conversation is face-to-face, look at the speaker directly.
• Put aside those distracting thoughts. (Even if this means repeating in your mind the words being spoken to force you to stay in the moment.)
• Don’t mentally prepare your response.
• Don’t let other environmental factors distract you (don’t check your phone or computer, for example).

2. Show That You’re Listening

• If face-to-face (including video conferences) nod occasionally, include smiles and other facial expressions, note that your posture is open and inviting.
• Encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal comments like yes and uh huh.

3.    Provide Feedback

• Reflect what has been said by paraphrasing. “So, it sounds like you are saying…” or “I understand you to mean…” or “Let me be sure I understand. What I’m hearing is…” are great ways to paraphrase what you heard and give the speaker a chance to clarify.
• Ask questions on points that need clarification, “What do you mean when you say…” or “Is this what you mean?”
• Periodically summarize the speaker’s comments.

4.    Defer Judgment

• Don’t interrupt. It is a waste of time. It will frustrate the speaker and keep you from understanding the message.
• Let the speaker finish each point before you begin to ask questions. (If you are afraid you’ll forget your questions, make a few notes to ask when they finish).

5.    Respond Appropriately

• Active listening helps you gain information and perspective. It is a model for respect and understanding—so it is worth the effort to perfect.
• Be candid, honest, and kind in your responses.
• Treat the speaker in the way you think he or she would want to be treated (failing knowing that, treat him or her how you would like to be treated).

As we’ve mentioned previously, sometimes customers will ask that we update their website (or design or write their website) in a way that we know, through experience, won’t be as effective as they might think. When this happens, and before just blindly doing what they ask (unless it is one of those customers that we have a note in the system about who doesn’t want our experience and advice), we might want to offer some helpful suggestions. This can be very tricky since they are, after all, the boss. But most of our customers have hired us so they can benefit from our knowledge and experience, and they welcome our suggestions. They will welcome our recommendation much more if we are careful to present our recommendations in a positive manner. This method of providing feedback works VERY well with friends and family as well, so it’s worth perfecting. 🙂

It works like this:

1. First Slice of Bread: Start off with positive feedback. (This would be authentic praise of something they did recently. Be specific.)
2. The Meat of the Matter: Provide your constructive criticism or recommendations. (This should be brief but thorough. Don’t give more than one or two things at a time—otherwise it’s too much to handle—and present it in the context of how it can help them reach their goals.)
3. Last Slice of Bread: End on a positive note. (You can simply reiterate the initial positive feedback/compliment or maybe speak in general terms about how much progress they are making, or compliment their receptiveness to receiving constructive criticism.

All criticism (positive and negative) should be authentic and well thought out.

For example:

Let’s assume that the customer wants to put neon dancing sheep across the home page to emphasize the annual County Fair.

Old Method: An updater might say, “The dancing sheep won’t look professional and will clash with the design of your site. Can we place a news article with a tasteful farm animal graphic instead?”

The Feedback Sandwich Method: An alternative may be:

“Hello Anita. Thanks so much for all you do to keep your website up-to-date. This looks like a wonderful community event that needs to be highlighted.

“I worry that an animated graphic may actually detract from the vision you are trying to accomplish and compromise the design integrity of your website. As an alternative, we have placed an announcement in your Home page scrolling news about the fair, placed a short article on your News page with a tasteful farm animal graphic to highlight and draw attention to the event, linked your flyer for more detailed, printable information, and also placed the event on your calendar. I think this will cover all bases to get the word out. Please let me know your thoughts.

“What a fun event! Your community is so lucky to have things like this to help unify efforts to raise funds for the students. We would love to hear about how successful the event is and possibly post some follow-up photos. Enjoy your day!”

Feel the difference? 🙂

The Feedback Sandwich Method takes a bit more time, but is an effective way to introduce recommendations to customers as well as guide co-workers and team members in a kind manner.

We’ve probably all had circumstances in our lives where we had to deal with a difficult or angry person. So, how do you assist a customer who is upset? If done right, you can turn a challenge into an opportunity!

Step One: Adjust Your Attitude

• Put yourself in their place. Try to set aside any feelings you might have about how unreasonable or unfair they are being and recognize that they are upset and it is your opportunity to try and solve their problem. Adjust your attitude so that you are focused on the customer and the current circumstance.

Step Two: Actively Listen

• Your customer wants to be heard and to air his grievances—so actively listen. You can start the dialogue with a neutral statement that lets him know you are ready to listen, like: “So, tell me what happened.”
• Don’t jump to conclusions about what happened, but let your customer tell you his story. Don’t interrupt and don’t make assumptions. Just listen.

Step Three: Repeat Their Concerns

• Reflect back your understanding of his situation/concerns. Use calm, objective wording. For example, “So, it sounds like you submitted a request that didn’t get completed correctly, and so you are, quite rightly, upset about the error.”
• Repeating the problem will show our customer you were listening, which can help lower his anger and stress levels. It also helps you agree on the problem that needs to be solved.

Step Four: Be Empathetic and Apologize

• It is fine to show that you understand why he or she is upset (that doesn’t mean you are admitting to a mistake, just that you understand how they feel.)
• You can show your empathy by saying something like, “I understand why you are upset. I’m very sorry that we didn’t get the update posted correctly. I’m really sorry this caused a problem for you.”

Step Five: Present a Solution

• If you feel like you know what will make the client happy, let him know how you’d like to correct the situation. You could say something like, “Let me take care of getting your information posted correctly right now. I was thinking we should put it…will that work?”
• If you are not sure what the customer wants from us, or if they resist your proposed solution, then give him the power to resolve things. Ask him to identify what he would like us to do to resolve this. For example, “I’d love to hear what you think we should do to get this fixed correctly. If it is within my power, I’ll take care of it, and if not, then we can work on another solution together.”

Step Six: Take Action & Follow-up

• Once you’ve both agreed on a solution, take immediate action. Explain to the customer what steps you are going to use to fix the problem.
• If you are on the phone with the customer, you might want to make sure he has your name and contact details. It will give him a feeling of control because he can get hold of you again if he needs to.
• Once the situation has been resolved, follow up with your client over the next few days, and make sure that he’s happy with the resolution. Whenever you can, go above and beyond his expectations. You could even go so far as to write a personal, hand-written note of apology on behalf of School Webmasters if you feel that would be appropriate. (If you’d like to get some School Webmasters notecards, just contact your supervisor, and we’ll get you a few to use for thank you notes or whatever else you need.)

Step Seven: Use the Feedback

• The final step is to help us make sure the situation doesn’t happen in the future. If you haven’t already done so, identify how the problem started in the first place.
• Let your supervisor know, and discuss ways to put steps in place to improve the process so it can be avoided in the future. If it is a mistake made by one contractor that you don’t supervise, let your supervisor or manager handle it, but provide him or her with the details and any recommendations you might have.

When we work in a service field, as we do, it’s our job to be courteous, respectful, and helpful, even if those same behaviors aren’t exhibited by a customer. Luckily, in the industry we service, we are usually treated with courtesy as well. It is our customers’ perception of good service that matters, and it is how they are being treated that is important to them. We can only succeed at delighting our clients when our customers believe they’ve received exceptional service.

Using powerful phrases—the right words—when you communicate will result in our customers’ perception being positive. It is about the words we choose and the promises we keep. So here are some ideas to get you on the right track.

1. Sample Welcoming Phrases

Welcoming phrases start you out with your best foot forward. By being courteous, respectful, and enthusiastic, you can build a rapport and show you’re interested in their situation.

• “Hello! / Hi _________ (first name if possible)!”
• “Thank you for calling School Webmasters. My name is ______.”
• “How can I make your day better?”
• “Let me help you with that.”
• “Good morning/Good afternoon.”

2. Sample Courtesy Phrases

Some of the phrases below are examples of common courtesies that we should all be using as part of our normal vocabulary—and especially with our customers.

• “Please.”
• “Thank you.” (Tip: Be specific, like: “Thank you for working with me on this.”)
• “My pleasure!” (said with enthusiasm, of course)
• “You’re welcome!”
• “I apologize. I didn’t hear/understand what you said/needed.”
• “Will you?” rather than “You will.”
• “Sir” or “Ma’am” (When speaking on the phone)
• “Pardon me” or “Excuse me” instead of “Huh?” when you didn’t understand someone
• “Thanks for waiting.” Or “Thanks for your patience while I checked on this.”
• “Nice to meet you!”—especially a first-time customer interaction
• “Please don’t hesitate to let me know how I can help you in the future.”

Using and hearing positive words can actually change the way we see reality.

• “I’d be happy to help you with this!”
• “I can solve that problem!”
• “Happy to help!”

3. Sample Phrases for Making Recommendations

Making recommendations in a positive manner is important. Some of these phrases might be useful:

• “Can I share an idea with you that you might like even more?”
• “Oh, yes! And we could also….”
• “Oh, yes! Or, maybe even better, we could…. What would you think about that?”
• “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”
• “Let me be sure I understand…”
• “Let me ask you a few questions.”
• “What I CAN do is….”

4. Sample Expressions of Empathy, Regret, or Apology

When appropriate, the right phrase conveying empathy or regret will go a long way to show our customers that we genuinely care and truly understand their point of view. When we have made a mistake, we have found that most people respect those who are honest and open about those mistakes and who take rather than avoid responsibility (on behalf of the company if necessary). No one thinks we are infallible, but empathy and apology goes a long way in reestablishing trust. When admitting mistakes, use very short sentences, and then move on to solving whatever problem exists.

• “I understand how you can feel that way.”
• “I understand how _______(disappointing, upsetting, annoying, etc.) that must be.”
• “I’d be frustrated too.”
• “I’m so sorry that happened. Let me see what I can do to make it right.”
• “You must be pretty upset that there was a delay…”
• “I agree. You are right. We will see that this is fixed/we make some changes….”
• “How can I resolve this to provide you with an experience that’s nothing short of fantastic?”

5. Sample Expressions When Follow-Up Is Needed

If a customer has to check in with us to see the status of an update, we know we see a 10% decrease in customer delight for that customer. If we can’t promise a solution by a given time, we can always promise an update. So, if you told a customer you’d follow up with her, keep your promise, and proactively keep the customer informed (at least once a day).

• “I’ll send you an update by [date or time].”
• “I’m not sure, but I will find out and get back with you by [date or time].”
• “Great question. I’ll find that out for you.”  – tell them when you’ll do that.

For every customer who complains, surveys say there are approximately 26 customers who didn’t say anything but are likely experiencing the same problem and not letting us know. That means if we resolve the problem for a single customer, it could make dozens of other customers happier at the same time. Always thank customers who bring something to our attention that we can fix or improve. As Dale Carnegie once said, “In our interpersonal relations, we should never forget that all our associates are human beings and hunger for appreciation. It is the legal tender that all souls enjoy.”

• “I really appreciate you letting us know.”
• “Thank you for bringing this to our attention.”
• “We appreciate you being a customer, and we want to make sure you are taken care of.”

No matter how hard we try, sometimes we just don’t get it right, but people often won’t speak up about problems. So, when possible, open the door and invite the customer to let us know if there is anything that remains unresolved. Just ask the question:

• “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
• “Let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with. I’m happy to help.”

6. Sample Phrases of Appreciation (especially in closing)

Ending every customer contact with a powerful phrase of appreciation will leave a positive impression in any customer’s mind.

• “Thank you for contacting us. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week/day!”
• “I appreciate working with you,” or “I appreciate your business.”
• “I appreciate your patience and apologize for the delay.”
• “I’m glad I was able to help. Thank you for making it possible.”
• “I look forward to working with you again.”

7. Phrases to Avoid

There are just some phrases that are less than effective and often trigger a very negative response when used:

• “No” – Avoiding this answer isn’t always possible, but never use it at the start of a sentence. Instead, let them know what we can do or what they can have.
• “That’s just our policy.” – Doesn’t reflect empathy for the customer’s perspective.
• “No problem,” or “No worries.” – The words problem and worry have a negative connotation.
• “You’ll have to…” – Suggests the customer will have to go elsewhere for help. Reword.
• “To be honest with you…” – Hints that we haven’t always been honest with them.
• “There’s nothing I can do.” – There is usually something we can do. This phrase should be a last resort.
• “I’m sorry (over and over)” – It doesn’t sound genuine when you say it too many times.
• “ASAP” – You might set them up for disappointment. Give them a timeframe instead.
• “Maybe,” “I’m pretty sure,” “I think,” “If I recall correctly…” Don’t guess. If you don’t know, just tell them you’re going to find out the answer, and then get back with them.

Recommended reads (If you haven’t ever read this, it’s worth it. We’ll even reimburse you for it if you want to download it):

• How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie