For Better Customer Service, Offer Options, Not Apologies
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HBR IdeaCast
And relational work—showing empathy or showing warmth or forging personal connections—the words used up in these kinds of work is actually perceived to be not very helpful because in their mind it distracts from the solving work that is essential for the customer to have good options. And because time is limited, and you are under time pressure, there’s a natural tradeoff between the two—relational work and solving work—that customers have salient in their minds; and when they see the agent using a lot of apology, a lot of sorry, they feel that time could have been spent much better to creatively, energetically, find some interesting solutions that will give me some choices in that matter.