Demonstrating patience in customer service is more important than many business owners realize.
The phrase “patience is a virtue” rings true when agents deal with frustrated consumers. Often, the soft skills of customer service reps have the most significant impact on your brand reputation.
Studies show that customers prize friendly service experiences more than fast and efficient interactions. In a world of AI and chatbot interactions, customers turn to human agents for genuine, compassionate conversations. Unfortunately, living up to expectations can be challenging.
Today’s service reps are under increasing pressure to handle larger volumes of calls faster than ever before. Contact center leaders still prioritize low average handling times and rapid resolutions. As a result, only around 9% of contact center agents believe empathy is their biggest strength.
However, training agents to show patience in customer service could pay huge dividends.
Here’s what you need to know about the power of patience in the CX landscape.
The Importance of Patience in Customer Service
Customer service agents need various skills to connect with, engage, and retain customers effectively. They need to be excellent at time management, incredible at seeking solutions, efficient in their work, and endlessly empathetic.
However, patience may be the core building block of any fantastic customer interaction. Showing patience in customer service doesn’t just mean staying calm and collected as customers rant about their issues or struggle to explain a problem.
It means actively listening to customers, showing them compassion, and demonstrating a commitment to putting their needs first. Patient reps can stay composed and collected during difficult situations, meaning they’re more likely to quell angry customers. successfully
Patience makes it easier to “de-escalate” a situation and ensures agents can fully understand a customer’s issue. Tolerance essentially forms the foundation for empathy in customer interactions, and empathy is becoming increasingly important to buyers.
96% of customers say they believe empathy is crucial in the contact center.
The Problems with Patience in Customer Service
Unfortunately, while patience is a fundamental customer service skill, it’s not always easy to maintain. That’s particularly true in a world where consumers are becoming increasingly impatient.
Studies show that in 2022, 66% of customers agreed they were becoming increasingly less patient with businesses. Buyers are demanding more from brands. They want every interaction to be fast, convenient, personalized, and delivered on the channel of their choice.
In what often turns out to be a vicious cycle, many customers vent their frustrations on agents. After waiting in long queues or struggling with complex self-service strategies, 1 in 3 customers say they’ve sworn or even screamed at an employee.
Unhappy customers lead to more impatient, overwhelmed, and stressed employees. Faced with overwhelming aggression, many agents start to lose their cool. The study above revealed that around 73% of customers had experienced an agent being rude to them.
Tips for Showing Patience in Customer Service
At a time when 86% of customers say a company is only as good as its service, business leaders are actively investing in honing agent soft skills. Many top contact centers worldwide provide agents with scripts and training designed to help them demonstrate empathy.
While preserving patience in customer service isn’t always easy for stressed reps, there are steps agents can take to minimize common issues.
1. Practice Active Listening
One of the easiest ways to show patience in customer service is to simply focus on listening more than talking. That might sound counterproductive when you’re keen to move a conversation along as quickly as possible, but listening can be powerful.
To demonstrate active listening, ensure you don’t interrupt customers as they tell their story. Don’t dive in with potential resolutions before they’re finished explaining things. When they’re finished talking, ask questions about the issue. Repeat the problem to the customer and ask them to confirm you’re on the same page.
2. Show Empathy
As mentioned above, empathy and patience go hand-in-hand. Practicing actively empathizing with customers means agents can disconnect from their own feelings of frustration. Instead of worrying about your average handling times, try stepping into your customer’s shoes, and look at the situation from their perspective.