Top Customer Interaction Killers

“I don’t deal with _______.” or “I can’t help you with _________.” or “I am not allowed to _________.”

If your role is customer-facing and the caller has a question about billing or another concern that you are not able to directly address, it may be true that you cannot help the customer directly. The above phrases are negative ways to address the customer’s concern. Telling a customer that you do not ‘deal with’ something makes the customer feel like their concern is not important. Avoid focusing on what you cannot do, and instead focus on ways to address the customer’s concern.

Say instead: “It sounds like you need our _______ department. Let me get them on the line and see if we can get this issue resolved…”

“I’m new at this” or “I just started as a Sales/Service Rep…”

Although this statement may be true, it should not be shared with the customer, because it acts to destroy the customer’s confidence in you and your abilities.

Say instead: “I just need to consult with a colleague/my team. Would you mind if I put you on a brief hold?”

Lengthy hold times.

Dead air in a business conversation is generally a bad idea. But, just like first killer, it is fine as long as the customer remains informed. If you need thirty seconds to consult other information, tell the customer why you are going silent. No caller should have to say “hello?” or “are you still there?”

Say instead: “This is just going to take 30 seconds or so.” And then if the hold time exceeds 30 seconds, say, “I am still here.  I am just getting the information we need…” Just be sure they know that you haven’t forgotten them.

“I don’t know.”

This is another statement that kills customer confidence. No one knows all the answers, but you should at least respond in a way that mitigates the fact that you don’t know the answer.

Say instead: “That’s not something I get asked often, but it is a valid question, and I will certainly find out the answer for you.”

“Hold on… My computer is going slow.”

Say instead: “While that information is loading, let me tell you about…” At this point, offer the caller a solution relevant to their situation (e.g. for an end user, “Do you know how to use our password reset feature?” For an account with no Billing Administrator, “While I am looking at your account, I noticed that you have not designated a billing administrator. Would you like me to show you how to do that?” For a Primary Administrator, “Are you familiar with all of our user activity reporting available on our platform?”

“He/She is on break/in the break room…”

Say instead: “They appear to be unavailable at the moment, but I would be happy to relay your message, and they will call you back as soon as possible.

Misunderstandings.

When a customer has misunderstood the way something works or something you have said, take a minute to remember that you make mistakes as well-- and it is never acceptable to make the customer feel foolish.

According to experts, it takes a whopping 12 positive experiences to make up for a single bad customer experience. Telling a customer or prospect that they are wrong is perhaps the worst thing that a support or sales representative can do. It is the same as calling into question the customer’s intelligence or perspective. It is very difficult to recover from angering or alienating your customer after this mistake. Even if the customer is truly wrong, good customer service interactions should always be kept respectful and diplomatic. As an example from Business Insider, Apple Inc. has even created a rule against employees correcting customer mispronunciations, because the manufacturer feels that it is condescending and rude.

Say Instead: "Just to make sure we are on the same page..." Keep your tone helpful and upbeat while asking clarifying questions or paraphrasing your previous point.

“Yeah, I don’t know why they/management does that…”

Your customer wants their problem solved and does not care who caused the issue. Even though you may sympathize with the caller, it does not help to blame a co-worker, management, or another vendor.

Say instead: “I am going to look into this issue/communication breakdown when you and I get off the phone. I don't blame you for being frustrated. I would be frustrated too.” Then set an expectation about follow up and each party’s future commitments.

“That's just the way it is.”

The last thing anybody wants to hear is, "you're out of luck, buddy! That's just the way the cookie crumbles..."

Customer: “So that's it? I'm stuck with the price increase after I've been a loyal customer for 15 years?”

This is a business relationship, and there is a new price increase that means you will probably not be making the prospect or customer happy, but saying, “There’s nothing more we can do. Either you take it or leave it…” closes the conversation.  Which is the opposite of what you want; good sales or service is all about opening communication and seeing eye-to-eye. Besides, customers and prospects just do not care about a company’s policy – so don’t make it their problem.

Say instead: “I completely understand why you are upset and I understand why you feel that way.” Then explain what you can do for them. Sympathy and a little empathy go a long way to smoothing things out and avoiding attrition or lost potential revenue. (In this situation, we can’t necessarily do anything for them, but it might help to give them talking points like, “The decision to increase pricing was done after a lot of thorough research on industry standards and is based on all the recently added benefits of our product.”