10 Things You Should NEVER Say in Customer Service

10 things that you should never say to
your customer if you work in customer
service first one is
i'm just doing my job or i just work
here well i gotta say your policy
doesn't make sense it's obvious you
created them to protect your company not
your customers it's holy crap to say the
least
pamela i'm just doing my job i just work
here
not only does it highlight the
helplessness of your situation but also
your lack of empathy it's like saying
you're not allowed to feel that way
because i'm just doing my job
remember that even if you cannot do
anything for the customer because of the
company policy
you still need to acknowledge her
feelings
and saying
i'm just doing my job i just work here
is the opposite of that instead of
saying i'm just doing my job
acknowledge your customers feelings if
it's your company's fault then apologize
but if it's not empathize with her we
all just want to be heard and if
possible explain the reason why you
cannot grant your customers request your
policy doesn't make sense it's obvious
you created them to protect your company
not your customers it's well crap to say
the least
i understand this is frustrating for you
pamela especially that you ordered 10
pieces of them exactly it is frustrating
the company decided this because a
survey revealed that most customers are
not comfortable buying from stores that
accept return swimwears
so the best thing that i can do for you
now is to refund your returnable items
but as for the bikinis
we have no choice but to ship them back
to you
empathizing with your customers
addresses their feelings while
explaining the reason behind the policy
addresses the logical part of their
brain so if you combine the two
techniques then
there's a great chance that your
customer is going to calm down and
eventually understand
and number two is i don't understand
you're talking really fast slow down
i tried placing an order yesterday
didn't work i tried it again didn't work
i tried for the third time didn't work
today i checked my bank statement and
you charged me three times what's going
on you didn't send me a confirmation and
you're charging i don't understand hold
on you're talking really fast
remember that it is your job to make the
customer understand and if you don't
understand the problem then it is also
your job to define the problem by asking
probing questions
never say that you don't understand even
if you say i'm sorry before i don't
understand
it is still offensive because it's like
saying that your customer is explaining
the problem poorly or if your customer
is talking fast and you say i don't
understand it's like you're saying
can you keep it together i don't
understand can you explain it well
what you want to do instead of saying i
don't understand is to ask specific
questions about the parts that you don't
understand and then you let the customer
fill in the blanks
this way she will feel that you're
interested in her problem just to
clarify you placed the order three times
and all of them didn't work am i right
correct
and this morning you're seeing three
charges on your bank statement
yes and i received no confirmation email
about the order so i knew that the order
wasn't successful
i see got it can you give me a minute to
check your account and see what caused
the error
number three is
it's not our fault it's not my fault i
can't believe you tricked me into buying
something and now that i want to return
it you're saying oh no it's not possible
company policy
it's not our fault our return policy
states that items are only returnable
within 30 days
i don't need to explain why this is rude
you work in customer service you're
supposed to solve majority of the
problems not point fingers
or deflect blame
the next time that you have the urge to
say it's not my fault or it's not my our
fault then
try to just explain the reason why you
cannot do something for the for the
customer and now that i want to return
it you're saying oh no it's not possible
company policy
we accept all items for return as long
as they're within the 30 day time frame
but as it turns out your order is
already beyond that
another version of this is it's not my
fault it's someone else's fault it's his
fault it's her fault it's their fault
you should never say this if that
someone else that you're pointing the
blame to
is also working in your company because
bad mouthing your colleague is also bad
mouth in your company number four is
you're wrong you misunderstood you
misheard me
let me check if i got your email right
that's v for violin
a for apple l for
log e for egg r for
rabbit i for india a for apple at
gmail.com no you know you're wrong you
misheard me after l instead of e it's
letter y the rest is correct
the problem with this is this sounds
condescending
can't you just answer without actually
highlighting your customer's mistake how
would that sound l for
log e for egg r for
rabbit i for india a for apple gmail.com
after l instead of e it should be letter
y the rest is correct
as you heard the agent statements do
just fine without saying you're wrong or
you misheard me
there are a lot of ways to say someone
is wrong with without actually saying
that they are wrong
number five honestly to be honest to
tell you the truth to be completely
honest with you
people say this phrase when they're
about to be blunt or they're going to
say something that the listener wouldn't
like or don't want to hear
it's like an attempt to soften the blow
of a bad news
but by saying so
actually makes the bad news even worse
to be honest with you your refund is
still in progress
to tell you the truth our shipments are
a little delayed this week to be
completely honest with you we're
currently waiting for an update from the
management
when a statement starts with to be
honest with you it's usually going to be
followed by an admission of guilt a
confession a harsh truth complaining or
the bad news it also feels like you have
been dishonest all along because why
else would you say to be honest with you
does it mean that you have been
dishonest before this statement every
time you start your statement with to be
honest with you to to be completely
honest with you to tell you the truth
and an oh alarm goes off in your
customers head
and they immediately think oh god this
can't be good nothing ever good comes
comes out after to be honest with you
number six
calm down just relax
no no no no no no no no no
you've been misleading me all this time
you've been giving me false hope what
makes you think i believe you this time
i am done trusting your company i
trusted you and look where that got me
i'm damn if i trust a word you say ever
again
please calm down tabitha please relax
telling someone to calm down probably
never has made anyone calm and that's
because it sounds condescending it's
like saying
here you are
cool as a cucumber and your customer
can't keep it together can't keep her
together don't tell your customer
how to feel
because feeling is irrational they can't
control it and if you do tell them to
calm down you're antagonizing them and
it'll just make the situation worse when
it comes to situations where you badly
need your customer to calm down so that
you could do your job and resolve her
issue
the best thing that you could do
is to listen
and acknowledge her feelings and
frustration that's it
we all just want to be heard as humans
and that's the best way to do it
once her feelings are acknowledged then
you can do your job and proceed to the
resolution it works like a charm
no no no no no no no no no i trusted you
and look where that got me i'm damn if i
trust a word you say ever again
what happened to your order was
unacceptable
it wasn't what we wanted you to
experience and this is frustrating i
understand let me fix this for you i'm
going to contact the warehouse team
right now to have a replacement sent to
you within 24 hours and they will make
sure that it is the right caller this
time
number seven
unfortunately unluckily
anything that starts with unfortunately
or unluckily is bad news
you don't even have to finish the whole
sentence you just know as a customer
that nothing good comes out of that this
is similar to to be honest with you you
just know before the sentence is even
finished that you're not gonna get what
you want and unfortunately
unfortunately it's quite a common word
in customer service in fact that was my
go-to word every time i deliver a bad
news to my customers unfortunately
claire made a mistake and lately i have
been trying to figure out the best
alternative for
unfortunately that would sound less
negative and my research led me to
apple the word unfortunately is one of
the forbidden words of apple's customer
service training manual instead of
saying unfortunately you replace it with
as it turns out before if it was
unfortunately we don't have that in
stock
you can say
as it turns out we don't have that in
stock
or better yet you can say as it turns
out we can order that part for you
another example unfortunately we
currently don't offer discounts on
kitchen supplies
a better version would be as it turns
out we currently don't offer discounts
on kitchen supplies the best version as
it turns out the kitchen supplies are
currently being sold at the regular
price
number eight is
actually
this is probably the most favorite word
filipinos this is my favorite too
because
i use this all the time as a filler but
if you work in customer service
you really need to be watchful with your
usage of this word
and that's because it's a subtle it's a
subtle way of saying
fyi for your information you're wrong
and i'm right let me correct you let me
enlighten you once and for all
it just sounds condescending i love
shopping from your website but you've
been sending me too many emails i'm
receiving like 10 emails a day what's
going on
actually there's an option to reduce the
email frequency would you like me to
walk you through it
yes but i'm running late for work is it
quick
it's actually very quick i promise it'll
only take a few seconds actually
actually why you just take me off your
mailing list right now and just actually
stop sending me emails how's that what
to say instead of actually
nothing
completely remove it and you're good i'm
receiving like 10 emails a day what's
going on
there's an option to reduce the email
frequency would you like me to walk you
through it
yes but i'm running late for work is it
quick
it's very quick i promise it'll only
take a few seconds all right how do i do
it the meaning is unchanged
it's less offensive
it's not condescending and it's also
less wordy
the only scenario that i can think of
where it's okay to say actually when
correcting someone is
when you're delivering an extremely good
news that you're sure that your customer
is going to be ecstatic about
well that's a shame i really love that
dress too bad you don't have it in
medium oh it's actually available now
the new stocks just arrived this morning
so you can now order the medium
oh great perfect
number nine is
your account is not in our database or i
don't see your account in our database
email is apple like the fruit
apple gmail.com
seeing queue
let me check that here
i don't see your account in our database
are you kidding what do you mean i was
just charged fifteen hundred dollars as
you heard the agent was already jumping
to a conclusion without probing what you
want to do instead is this at gmail.com
thank you
let me check that here
just to clarify that's s for sam t for
tom a for alpha r for romeo k for
gmail.com is this correct
yep
this email doesn't seem to have a match
in our system do you happen to have the
order number
see that's the thing i don't have it i
don't have it i don't receive a
confirmation that's what i'm trying to
figure out
do you have another email address that
you could have registered with this
order
oh
yes i do
try
karen gmail.com that should work i
remember it now yeah when is it okay to
say this you can say this when after a
thorough search
there's still no result in the system
you've already asked for the order
number the email address the account
number everything and there's still no
result at this stage it's pretty safe to
conclude that the customer might be
calling the wrong company
number 10 is
no i am not saying that you should never
say no that would be impossible
what i'm saying is there are situations
when
instead of no you can say something else
did you get what i just said
i'm sorry i actually didn't can you
repeat that please
the less often you say no
the better
for example
did you get what i just said
yes i just need to clarify some details
you said that an order number was
generated but you did not receive a
confirmation email
am i right
second example
could you check the status of my refund
i still haven't received it
i can't that's not on my department but
let me transfer you to the refunds
department
sure
let me transfer you to the refunds
department because they have the access
to your billing account but what about
those times when you have no choice but
to say no because of the company policy
in this case try your hardest to look
for an alternative the next best thing
what if it's not possible what if
there's no alternative
what if the the only thing that the
customer wants is this one thing that
you can never grant what would you do in
this case
just say no
that's okay you're not a magician
just tell your customer clearly that you
cannot do this thing for her for example
if your customer wants to return a
non-returnable item
specifically uh
use the bikini
then of course
you cannot say yes we can
you can probably give her a voucher if
the company allows it or maybe your
cosmic company can give an exception but
what if what if an exception has already
been given
and
she's returning a bikini for the second
time
that's really a no
there is no other way to sugarcoat that
just say no and explain the reason
behind that policy and that's it
she's not gonna hang up the phone happy
but
what can you do just remember that
before saying no
you've explored all possible solutions
all possible alternatives and options
but if there's no way that you could say
yes
then say no all right that is all for
today if you have any questions comments
requests
comment down below