The Lion King | 31
Customer Service
Along with empathizing, apologizing
can go a long way. Sometimes upset
customers just want to have someone
apologize to them for the bad service.
Hopefully, the customer will calm
down a bit once you apologize on
behalf of the company.
Call your manager over if the custom-
er asks you to. If you are in the pro-
cess of handling a situation and the
customer demands that you call your
manager or supervisor over, it is best
to follow the wishes of the customer.
However, if you can avoid having
to get your manager involved, do it.
Handling a situation on your own will
show your supervisor that you have the
capacity to deal with angry customers
in a calm and collected manner.
Pacifying the angry
customer
Offer a possible solution (or solutions).
Now that you know what the customer
is upset about, come up with a solu-
tion that resolves the problem. If you
know a solution that will make your
customer happy, then present it to her.
Ask the customer for feedback.
If you
are not completely sure what would
make your customer happy, then sim-
ply ask her. What would she like to be
done about the problem? Is there an
outcome that would make him or her
satisfied? Say something like: “What
would you like to have happen? If it is
within my power, I will see that it gets
done.”
Take action immediately.
Tell your cus-
tomer what you will do next to ensure
that the problem is resolved. Give her
your contact information, particularly
if you are speaking with her over the
phone, so that she can contact you if
the problem arises again.
Take some minutes to relax after
the confrontation.
Once your angry
customer has left or you have hung up
with her, take a few minutes to process
what just happened and allow yourself
to calm down. Even if the customer
left happily, the situation could still
have been really stressful. Take a few
moments to de-stress and clear your
mind.
Follow up with the customer.
Give your
customer a call once the problem has
been resolved. Ask him if everything is
going smoothly. When you can, go the
extra mile by sending a handwritten
apology.
E
mpathy is the capacity to feel
what the other person feels.
It is about identifying with the
feelings thoughts and attitudes of
another person. It is about putting
yourself in another person’s shoes
and knowing where it pinches.
Empathy is not sympathy. It is not
about sympathising with the cus-
tomer without resolving whatever
issues that may have been raised. It
is about trying to understand the cus-
tomer’s need and then offering the
best solution that meets that need in
a timely manner. It is about walking
a mile in your customer’s shoes so
you can know where it pinches and
then help patch it at the exact spot.
Empathy is one of the core values
that UBA subscribes to and it is built
around the concept of customer
service. So in UBA, when we say “We
always put ourselves in the position
of our customers,” we emphasize
the fact that “What is good for me,
is also good for the customer” or
another way of saying “treat the
customer as you would want to be
treated.”
Empathy in UBA arises from the un-
derstanding that we are all custom-
ers. We are either being served or
we are serving others. The transition
between being a servant and a
master is very fluid. No one carries
one role forever. The role is easily
interchanged in our daily activities.
As servants in the banking hall,
empathy is the golden rule. Our
disposition or attitudes must not drive
the customer into the hands of a
competitor. Empathy in the banking
hall is the capacity to understand
a situation from the perspective of
the customer. You must see or feel it
the way the customer sees or feels
it. It is when you see it through the
customer’s eyes that you now feel
obliged to meet and even exceed
the customer’s expectation.
Regardless of your disposition or
mindset, empathy should be fore-
most because what you don’t feel,
Walking a mile in
your customer’s shoes
By Azeez Moshood
you don’t acknowledge. What you
don’t acknowledge eventually walks
away, most likely into the waiting hands
of eager competitors. A business with a
high level of empathy will have the ca-
pacity to generate repeat business and
build a loyal breed of customers who will
be go to the top of the mountain to pro-
mote the business to other customers.
To have empathy, you must develop
a strong ability to listen to what your
customer is saying at every point in
time. You must be able to interpret both
verbal and non-verbal communication.
Listening creates the room for under-
standing. Patience is also important in
building empathy. You must learn to be
very patient with a customer, who in
most cases is in a hurry for a solution to
a challenge he or she is experiencing.
You need the patience to listen to the
customer’s verbal and non-verbal com-
munication, so as to properly interpret
the situation and provide an appropri-
ate solution.
Relationship building is also critical in
having empathy for a customer. Where
you have a rapport with a customer, it
is easier to walk in the customer’s shoes
and provide an appro-
priate solution to the
customer’s needs.
According to Maya
Angelou, “I know
we all have empa-
thy; we just may not
have enough cour-
age to display it…” So
on your next day
on the job…
remember
to go all
out and
be the
rain-
bow in
some-
one’s
cloud.
