While we try our hand at recapping we need to understand that the voice and tone matters a lot. Creation goodwill saves time by making customers more compliant. And people don’t like following instructions from people they don’t trust and don’t like. But you need your customers to talk to you to understand and solve their problems. People don’t like talking when they feel like they’re being ignored or misunderstood. Here’s the second way paraphrasing saves time: It makes customers more cooperative. A customer that feels this way has faith in you to solve their problems. Paraphrasing assures customers that they are being listened to and understood.
But, ironically, taking the time to listen well enough to paraphrase is step-one of the kind of listening that saves you and the customer time in the end. Sure, active listening can feel like a waste of time, especially when you think you know what the problem is. Attempting to make a customer happy when you aren’t perfectly clear on why they’re not happy right now is a waste of time for both of you. We can’t resolve issues we don’t understand. Going back to the conversation at the beginning, if the agent had logged in to change the customer’s password, it would have wasted their time and frustrated the customer. One obvious point that’s frequently forgotten in the heat of the moment is that it’s easier to find a solution when you know what the problem is. Paraphrasing is one of the most important steps towards a speedy resolution. Resolving issues quickly makes customers happy.
Statistically, resolution time is inversely proportional to customer satisfaction.
Are you getting feedback saying that the engineer did not know the product or the engineer was trying trial and error on their machine when you know your engineers know your product and computers? That’s because they’re not actively listening. But the machine isn’t going to decide whether to buy your product again.Īnd it’s not the computer that fills out a satisfaction survey. You know how computers work, people are tricky. It’s an understandable instinct for an engineer. Unfortunately, I am seeing too many engineers jump to connect to a customer’s machine, then find their way towards the solution. Focuses your attention on the customer’s perspective.Determines the further course of questioning.Lets the customer know you understood their problem.Allows them to correct misinterpreted information.Ensures you have received the communication just as the customer wanted.When you look at the benefits of paraphrasing, it’s obvious how it helps you make trust deposits: Recapping or paraphrasing helps us do that.Īlways remember, every time we interact with a customer we either make a trust deposit or a trust withdrawal. It’s imperative for us to establish trust with a customer within the first few minutes of our support interaction. Here’s why paraphrasing or recapping is a best practice as well as THE thumb rule of customer service. Would you describe to me what happens when you try?Ĭustomer: I enter my username and password, hit enter, and then I get an error message that says “file not found.”Įngineer: So you enter your username and password, but instead of logging you in, the system gives you a “file not found” dialog box?Īctive listening and paraphrasing differentiate the first and second interactions. It’s now going take more work on the agent’s part to get that goodwill back than if they’d made a positive impression to begin with.Įngineer: I’m so sorry. What went wrong? The customer is upset and the engineer has made a lasting impression, but not a good one. Created by Sam Garner from the Noun ProjectĬustomer: Hi, I am not able to login to my machine.Įngineer: Ok! No problem, I will reset your password.Ĭustomer: What! I know my password, I am getting an error.