Difficult Customer Support Inquiries

Why don’t I feel this way?

I heard a sentence on a podcast that I was listening to recently that has stuck with me ever since.

When you are serving in a customer support capacity for a company, you get the opportunity to handle your client’s frustrations, questions, and inquiries. You get a direct pulse on what they’re loving, what they’re not loving, where they are getting stuck, and what they’re confused about.

Can you think of a better opportunity outside of a focus group to get such real-time, honest feedback?

I need to learn to REFRAME those difficult conversations to the concept that I am LISTENING to my ideal client. I am hearing and reading their words.

Why don’t I feel this way?

Because it’s difficult! When someone berates you for an error they likely made (this happens daily) it feels personal. It is frustrating. It’s hard to have patience sometimes.

“How did you even get this email address? I want my invoices sent to this one ____”

The answer? Um. You provided us with the email when you made a purchase?

While I do wish people were kinder to customer support reps, how can we improve as an organization without knowing what to improve?

I can better serve them and sell to more people by really listening. What a gift this simple reframe is to me and to anyone reading this that handles difficult customer support messages. I am actively working on pushing past the emotional reaction I have when someone writes me a message like the example I gave above.

Sometimes when I do get frustrated, I know that it’s a sign to take a short break. I’m not going to reply when I’m reacting emotionally because I can’t be my professional, best self in my response to them.

We are all human.

Let this be a lesson to reframe how we approach customer service, but also to reach out to customer service with more patience and respect. We are doing the best we can.

Thanks for reading.

-A