If you’re starting a business<\/a> and planning<\/a> how you’ll deliver excellent customer service, you must understand the difference between empathy and sympathy.<\/p>\n Most customer service teams respond to customers with sympathy.<\/p>\n A sympathetic response could be: “I’m also unhappy with how that product works.”<\/p>\n Sympathy is rarely an ideal response to a customer’s problem. Show empathy instead.<\/p>\n Empathy allows you to be professional and caring at the same time. It also allows you to avoid becoming emotionally involved (like when you show sympathy).<\/p>\n Think about it this way: When you’re sympathetic, you feel bad for someone. Sympathy doesn’t communicate to a customer that you understand WHY they feel the way they feel – it only allows you to communicate that you understand their problem. A typical response – “I’m sorry” – is insufficient to solve a customer’s problem. It would be best if you did more.<\/p>\n
