Phrases your call center agent should never say

What are your call center agents saying to your customers?

Businesses lose more than $75 million a year due to poor customer service. 

If your customers are calling, they have a problem that they want solved right away. 

They want to know that your company, including your call center agents, can help them solve their problem. Unfortunately, there are a few deadly phrases that your call center agents might use that can cause customers to completely lose trust in your business.

Here are the top 3 phrases.

​“We don’t deal with that.”

Sure, if a customer is calling you about a technical issue and you only manage billing, then you’re clearly not the right person to handle the customer’s query.

However, saying that can turn the customer off because it sounds like you’re not interested in helping the customer with their problem.  Your customer feels like they are wasting their time.

They called you because they had a problem that they wanted to solve right away.

So, instead, you can tell the customer, “I can transfer you to XXX department who can help you resolve the issue you are having.” 

“Calm down!”

If someone tells you not to think of a pink elephant, can your mind stop thinking about it or will it consciously do the opposite?

The opposite! 

Similarly, telling your customer to calm down is going to enrage them further.

If they’re shouting at you, it’s probably because they feel like they are not being heard and you can’t solve their problem.

Asking them to calm down makes the customer feel like you are giving them a command to manage their own emotions and feel like their frustration is not being acknowledged. 

Use a calm tone and have empathy. Let the customer vent their frustrations and you can use phrases such as “I see” or “I understand”. Fundamentally, your customer just wants to be heard.

Let your customer know that you want to help them solve the problem if they can discuss it calmly with you.

If your customer does start swearing or making threats, then you can be firm with them. State that if they continue with their behavior, you would terminate the call.

“I don’t know.”

Sometimes honesty isn’t the best policy. 

You represent your company and telling your customer you don’t know something will cause them to lose all confidence in your company. 

You can say that you are going to find the answer. Customers recognise that you may not know everything, but they need to know that you are going to help them. 
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Simply saying “I don’t know” sounds like you can’t and won’t help them. 

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How You Can Determine If Your Call Agents Use These Phrases

NeoSound Intelligence’s call center analytics software can help flag out stop words, which are phrases that you don’t want your agents to say. 
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With the software, you can detect agents who may be struggling with customer service and take action to provide more targeted training to help them stop using these phrases.

Furthermore, NeoSound comes up with a compliance rating that can help you quickly assess if your agents use appropriate phrases in line with your company’s customer communication standards. 

Do you know how many of your agents use these deadly phrases?
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Reach out to us for a demo on how NeoSound Intelligence can help your company make better use of your data.

See also:

• Why You Need To Track Compliance In Your Call Center
  
• How to make more in less time —  Cold Calls Checklist
• The Way To Maintain Customer Communication Standards