Customer Service English: The H.E.A.R.T. Approach

Hello, my name is Emma, and today I am going to teach you the "heart" approach.

The heart approach is great for dealing with

unhappy customers or clients in the workplace.

So let me ask you a question.

How would you deal with an unhappy customer or client?

So, this is a common interview question

when you apply for jobs in customer service.

Today I'm going to teach you the "heart" approach, which is a great answer to this

question.

So, the "heart" approach stands for hear, empathize, apologize, respond, and think.

We will look at each of these components of the "heart" approach, and I will give you

some example English sentences on how we can do each of these.

Okay, so let's start by talking about the "h" in "heart".

The "h" stands for hear.

So, when you're dealing with an unhappy customer,

it's important to hear what they're saying

and to really listen to them.

I think nowadays we're actually losing the ability to be good listeners, so it's very

important to try hard to really listen to what the customer is telling you.

So, don't interrupt them when they're talking,

you know, let them say what they have to say.

You might even repeat back some of what they said so they know you're listening.

So, for example, you know, the customer says

something, you might say, "Okay, I want to

make sure I understand, you know, what you're saying so I can help you better.

You're saying x, y, z, or you're saying this, you're saying that."

So, it's always a good idea to repeat back what you understood just to make sure you

got the message right.

Okay, so we talked about the "h" which stands for hear.

Now let's talk about the "e" in "heart" which stands for empathize.

So, what do I mean by empathize?

Well, when we talk about empathy or empathizing,

what we're talking about is imagining the

other person's perspective.

So, you have an unhappy customer, it's a good

idea to imagine yourself in their position.

Try to see things from their perspective.

You might disagree, but still, it's a good idea to try to imagine where they're coming

from.

We have an idiom in English, we often say, "Put yourself in their shoes."

And this means try to see the world from their perspective.

And here are some great sentences you can say to do this.

You can say, "Oh, I can see why your situation would be frustrating."

"Oh, I can see why that's frustrating."

Or, "I understand what you're saying.

I understand that would upset me, too."

By saying these types of sentences, you validate

somebody's feelings and you tell them, "You

know what?

Your opinion or your perspective is important and understandable."

And by doing this, you can make an unhappy customer feel better.

So, this is the "e" in "heart", it stands for "empathize".

Okay, so the "h" stands for "hear", the "e" stands for "empathize".

What about the "a"?

The "a" in "heart" stands for "apologize".

So, "apologize" means "I'm sorry".

When we say, "I'm sorry", we are apologizing.

So, what you can say to an unhappy customer is you can simply say, "I'm sorry you had

this experience.

I'm sorry you had this experience."

Okay, well, a lot of people ask, "But it's not

my fault the customer had this experience."

You know, maybe the customer is angry, but it's

not because of anything you or your company

did.

So, what do you do if you didn't do anything wrong?

Well, you can still apologize for how someone

feels or their experience, and it does not

mean you are taking the responsibility or the blame.

So, when I say, "I'm sorry for your experience",

this means I feel sad you had this experience,

this negative experience.

It does not necessarily mean you're the person

who caused the experience or you're to blame.

So, in customer service, we often use this, "I'm sorry for your experience", and again,

it validates the customer and it makes them

feel like you understand where they're coming

from and you feel bad about it.

So, now let's look at the "are" in "heart".

All right, so we talked about the "h" which is

for "hear", the "e" which is for "empathize",

the "a" which is for "apologize", and now we are at the "are".

"Are" stands for "respond" or "resolve".

So what do I mean by this?

Well, so you've heard the customer, you have

empathized with them, you've said, "Oh, you

know, I'm sorry for your experience", now is when you try to help them.

So, the big question is how are you going to help them?

What will you do?

And this can actually be a little bit difficult

because sometimes there's not much you can

do with an unhappy customer.

Sometimes it might just be saying something

like, "I'm going to look into this for you",

and so that means that you're going to

investigate or try to figure out what happened.

You might say, if it applies, you might say,

"I'll talk to my manager about this", or maybe,

"I'll let the staff know about your concerns".

It might even be that you might tell them you'll look into it and email them or do a

follow-up phone conversation.

The key is whatever you promise, you should do.

So don't make big promises you can't fulfill, but think what...

There usually is at least something, even if it's small, there's often something you

can do to help the customer or to make them feel that you're taking this seriously.

So the "r" is for "respond", and now let's look at the "t".

All right, so we did "hear", "empathize",

"apologize", "respond", or "resolve", and now we're on

the "t" of "heart".

The "t" stands for "thank".

So, after you have done all the other steps,

the very last thing you do is you thank the

client or the customer.

So and it can be very simple, you can just

say, "Thank you for sharing your experience."

So this is a great way to end the conversation,

thank them, because it's not always easy to

bring up a complaint, and so...

And sometimes these complaints or, you know,

what the customer says can actually lead to

change in your organization.

So thank them for bringing their perspective.

All right, so we've covered "heart".

Again, this is a great approach.

It's a great approach to use with customers,

and it's a great approach to talk about if

you are ever in a job interview and the interviewee

says, "What do you do when you have an unhappy

customer?"

The "heart" approach is a great answer.

So thank you so much for watching.

You can check out our website at www.engvid.com,

and there you can actually do a quiz to practice

what you learned today.

Remember, practice makes perfect.

So thanks so much for watching, and until next time, take care.