Comments on: On Service: The Power of Empathy http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/04/24/on-service-the-power-of-empathy/ A blog about our thoughts on entrepreneurship, teamwork, our services, the Web and anything we find interesting. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:45:18 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Daniel Tsang http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/04/24/on-service-the-power-of-empathy/comment-page-1/#comment-66999 Daniel Tsang Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:35:37 +0000 http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/04/24/on-service-the-power-of-empathy/#comment-66999 @Kate, Hi Kate. I'm happy to hear from you and thanks for the support. I look forward to reading your blog post and I've subscribed to your RSS feed on your website. Thanks Kate. @Kate,

Hi Kate. I’m happy to hear from you and thanks for the support. I look forward to reading your blog post and I’ve subscribed to your RSS feed on your website. Thanks Kate.

]]> By: Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/04/24/on-service-the-power-of-empathy/comment-page-1/#comment-66995 Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:52:30 +0000 http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/04/24/on-service-the-power-of-empathy/#comment-66995 Many thanks Daniel for being another voice for great caring customer service. For 20 years I have delivered and taught customer service. Empathy does make a difference --true empathy which includes stepping outside of your perspective and into the customers'. Ditch the scripts and learn how to verbalize empathy and caring. Customers respect a sincere tone of caring from knowledgeable agents who makes the recovery process EZ. Behind these agents you must have company/management commitment to ethical service and sounds products. Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach This coming week I will have a blog post on this topic. Many thanks Daniel for being another voice for great caring customer service. For 20 years I have delivered and taught customer service. Empathy does make a difference –true empathy which includes stepping outside of your perspective and into the customers’.
Ditch the scripts and learn how to verbalize empathy and caring. Customers respect a sincere tone of caring from knowledgeable agents who makes the recovery process EZ. Behind these agents you must have company/management commitment to ethical service and sounds products.
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach
This coming week I will have a blog post on this topic.

]]> By: Return Customer http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/04/24/on-service-the-power-of-empathy/comment-page-1/#comment-40060 Return Customer Sat, 28 Apr 2007 18:16:47 +0000 http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/04/24/on-service-the-power-of-empathy/#comment-40060 <strong>Weekend Reading - April 28th...</strong> Jack Hightower of CarMax — Service Untitled has a great two part interview with CarMax’s VP of Sales. I’ve had two wonderful experiences in buying cars at CarMax and will probably buy my future vehicles from them as well. This interv... Weekend Reading – April 28th…

Jack Hightower of CarMax —
Service Untitled has a great two part interview with CarMax’s VP of Sales. I’ve had two wonderful experiences in buying cars at CarMax and will probably buy my future vehicles from them as well. This interv…

]]> By: Daniel Tsang http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/04/24/on-service-the-power-of-empathy/comment-page-1/#comment-39882 Daniel Tsang Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:50:44 +0000 http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/04/24/on-service-the-power-of-empathy/#comment-39882 Hi Table, Thanks for the comment and I am happy to hear you are a fan of FreshBooks. I am sorry to hear the empathy tip I described seemed a little fake or dishonest to you. Personally, when I handle support calls, I want to help the person on the other line. This also means hiring support representatives that actually like talking and helping people. As a result, when I empathize with the client, I really feel bad since we can’t offer him what he/she wants and it is not in any way dishonest or fake. When I say that you should not reject any idea and put it under “consideration” this means not flatly saying “No” that will not be considered. This means saying to management after the call “A client was upset because we didn’t offer x and y.” It is then up to the management to say, “Yeah, that’s going to be bad for all our other users so we probably should not do it. Add it to our feature request list so we have a record of it for future consideration.” I am not advocating forced empathy and generally if you hire the right people they will be empathic with the people they talk to. So really, I’m with you on providing custom support based on honesty and integrity. Just for the record, we don’t have any telephone scripts here at FreshBooks besides “Good morning/afternoon/evening, FreshBooks” when answering the phone. Cheers, -Daniel Hi Table,

Thanks for the comment and I am happy to hear you are a fan of FreshBooks.

I am sorry to hear the empathy tip I described seemed a little fake or dishonest to you. Personally, when I handle support calls, I want to help the person on the other line. This also means hiring support representatives that actually like talking and helping people. As a result, when I empathize with the client, I really feel bad since we can’t offer him what he/she wants and it is not in any way dishonest or fake.

When I say that you should not reject any idea and put it under “consideration” this means not flatly saying “No” that will not be considered. This means saying to management after the call “A client was upset because we didn’t offer x and y.” It is then up to the management to say, “Yeah, that’s going to be bad for all our other users so we probably should not do it. Add it to our feature request list so we have a record of it for future consideration.”

I am not advocating forced empathy and generally if you hire the right people they will be empathic with the people they talk to. So really, I’m with you on providing custom support based on honesty and integrity.

Just for the record, we don’t have any telephone scripts here at FreshBooks besides “Good morning/afternoon/evening, FreshBooks” when answering the phone.

Cheers,

-Daniel

]]> By: table http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/04/24/on-service-the-power-of-empathy/comment-page-1/#comment-39787 table Wed, 25 Apr 2007 03:51:12 +0000 http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2007/04/24/on-service-the-power-of-empathy/#comment-39787 Daniel, I'd like to start off by stating that I'm a fan of Freshbooks and from what I've read here and on the forum, you seem like a very intelligent guy so please don't take what I'm about to write as a personal attack. Having been a manager I recognize the "empathy technique" and although your interpretation isn't as phony it's still dishonest and smells of "fakery". Here's why: "Customer service" is not what it used to be. Companies no longer care about actually providing good customer service. They only care about the illusion of providing good customer service. It's so bad that most large corporations now outsource their customer service strategies to marketing companies that come up with scripts or customer service cycles without fully understanding the target market. By saying that you will not reject any idea, no matter how crazy it is, you basically prove my point. Some ideas should not be considered and customers should be told the truth even if it may upset them. Sugarcoating or outright lying might save customers in the short-term but it's still not good customer service. Perhaps you truly are empathetic but forced empathy or forced sympathy isn't good for anyone. If you follow a script or believe that you must be empathetic ALL the time then you're just going through the motions. That's not empathy. Granted, your company is much different than large corporations such as Rogers and Bell. If you call them to complain I'm sure one of their agents will apologize and empathize with you. But do you think they really care? Good customer service involves honesty and integrity. Empathy is good too but if you believe that you must follow a script, such as repeating customers problems in their own words, you risk going down a dark path. If you force others to do it you'll end up having customer service on par with AOL. Daniel, I’d like to start off by stating that I’m a fan of Freshbooks and from what I’ve read here and on the forum, you seem like a very intelligent guy so please don’t take what I’m about to write as a personal attack.

Having been a manager I recognize the “empathy technique” and although your interpretation isn’t as phony it’s still dishonest and smells of “fakery”. Here’s why:

“Customer service” is not what it used to be. Companies no longer care about actually providing good customer service. They only care about the illusion of providing good customer service. It’s so bad that most large corporations now outsource their customer service strategies to marketing companies that come up with scripts or customer service cycles without fully understanding the target market.

By saying that you will not reject any idea, no matter how crazy it is, you basically prove my point. Some ideas should not be considered and customers should be told the truth even if it may upset them.

Sugarcoating or outright lying might save customers in the short-term but it’s still not good customer service. Perhaps you truly are empathetic but forced empathy or forced sympathy isn’t good for anyone.

If you follow a script or believe that you must be empathetic ALL the time then you’re just going through the motions. That’s not empathy. Granted, your company is much different than large corporations such as Rogers and Bell. If you call them to complain I’m sure one of their agents will apologize and empathize with you. But do you think they really care?

Good customer service involves honesty and integrity. Empathy is good too but if you believe that you must follow a script, such as repeating customers problems in their own words, you risk going down a dark path. If you force others to do it you’ll end up having customer service on par with AOL.

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