Call Quality & Capability Toolkit


STRATEGIC EMPATHY

What: Identifying customer empathy triggers and providing an appropriate response which acknowledges the emotions of the situation, whilst maintaining call control. This includes combining an empathy statement with an action statement to keep the conversation moving forward.

Why: Acknowledging the challenges faced by a customer is key to building trust and engaging the customer in developing a collaborative solution for the account. Appropriate responses to empathy triggers allows the customer to feel heard and move into discovery questions/ negotiation without being retraumatized, side-tracked or having the customer repeating their difficulties (looping) given they don't feel heard.

Emotional Acknowledgement Content

Increase the depth of understanding for yourself through the content below and use these resources as coaching bytes within call coaching conversations with your team members.
Write your awesome label here.

The Lowdown: Strategic Empathy

Learn what gold standard is versus what misses the mark and why
Write your awesome label here.

Responding with Empathy Effectively

Learn how to use the empathy formula to respond in a genuine and tailored way
Write your awesome label here.

The Rabbit Hole

Avoid emotional passive smoking and triggering a customer to re-experience their difficulties
Write your awesome label here.

Mindsets that block empathy

Understand how our ego, judgement and frustration stop us from acknowledging a customer

Assessing Emotional Acknowledgement

Listen to examples of gold standard, needs improvement and not attempted to then assess where your team members sit within this capability

Empathy

Effectively implemented through acknowledging emotion with empathy:
  • That sounds like a difficult time
  • I can imagine that would be stressful

Sympathy

Needs improvement through acknowledging emotion generically via sympathy:
  • I'm sorry
  • Oh gosh / Oh my god
  • I understand

Apathy

Responded to an emotional trigger with logic and/or problem solving without acknowledging:
  • I can help with that
  • What I can do is
  • Yes, ok

Coaching to the capability gap

Pause the call where there was an opportunity to enhance the skill and try one of the examples questions to give your team member a 'lightbulb' moment

Empathy trigger missed

    • Given what the customer just shared, what kind of feelings or emotions would they have gone through?
    • How did the customer respond after not getting a strong acknowledgement?
    • How could you paraphrase that back to the customer so they felt heard?
    • What intent statement could you have added to the empathy statement to remain in control of the call?
    • What are some other empathy triggers or negative life events that a customer would share commonly?

    Responded with sympathy

    • How does it feel when a customer is oversharing?
    • When you have a couple of calls like that in a day, what do you take home with you?
    • Based on what the customer shared and the feelings or emotions attached, how you acknowledge this in a more tailored way?
    • What intent statement could you have added to the empathy statement to remain in control of the call?

    Apathy

    • How does it feel when a customer repeats their issue multiple times?
    • When you have a couple of calls like that in a day, what do you take home with you?
    • Based on what the customer shared and the feelings or emotions attached, how you acknowledge this in a more tailored way?
    • How does doing that help give you control and create more efficiency?
    • What intent statement could you have added to the empathy statement to remain in control of the call?

    Created By

    Jodie Bedoya

    Director
    Jodie Bedoya is the Founder and director of the Melbourne based training company, eMatrix, which she began after identifying a gap in practical training and guidance for frontline staff, team leaders and managers in the art of communication.

    Jodie is one of Australia's leading collections, vulnerability and customer engagement specialists, who has trained best practice in the energy sector and held key executive, operational and training management roles, including as CEO of one of Australia's largest collection agencies.

    Alex Daniel

    Operations Manager
    Alex's expertise within dispute resolution, call quality, hardship and process improvement has enabled him to find a unique balance in facilitation customer engagement, eliminating conflict and debt collection.

    Alex has a background leading Complaints and Ombudsman teams for the energy sector, specialising in managing complex cases and assisting customers experiencing financial hardship. Alex's specialty is the art of communication, in particular understanding and applying strategic empathy, coaching programs for leaders, call calibration and business writing for the digital world we live in.

    Kaelia Cockington

    Training Consultant
    With a background in psychology, developmental trauma and homelessness, Kaelia brings awareness to organisations about vulnerability and how best to navigate conversations for people with complexity.

    Having managed teams in South Australian Housing responsible for managing both risk and vulnerability, including debt collection, Kaelia helps staff by creating context and understanding about what is happening for a customer, whilst teaching staff how to manage their own headspace and wellbeing.

    Dr Paul Harrison

    Consultant
    Dr Paul Harrison is a Senior Lecturer and the Unit Chair of Consumer Behaviour in the Department of Marketing in Deakin Business School. Paul's research is focused on emotional and rational behaviour, and how our biology and the environment interact to influence the way we make decisions. His work has been published in a wide range of international journals and conference proceedings and has informed policy and business practice in Australia and internationally.