Humanized customer service: put it into practice in seven steps

Nowadays, people are not only looking to buy, but to also interact and create connections with brands. As a result, it’s never been more important to provide humanized and empathetic customer service across all communication channels with a buyer. Humanized service is one of the main factors that guarantees customer satisfaction.

According to Genesys data, 67% of consumers have hung up the phone in frustration because they can’t speak to a human being. In addition, 80% of consumers prefer human interactions over automated service.

Small actions and changes in a team’s behavior can strengthen the relationship between a company and its customers, making consumers feel more welcomed, safe and willing to come back.

With this need in mind, humanized service emerged. It is a technique based on empathy, exclusivity and personalizing the relationship with a customer. This technique aims to solve problems and satisfy consumer needs, through attentive dialogue and valuing each person as unique – not just as another customer.

By doing so, we completely avoid the traditional approach of many call centers that follow a standard script and do not personalize interactions. Many times, if a customer’s question goes slightly off script, it becomes more difficult to resolve their issue.

Humanized customer service considerably improves the relationship between customer and company. When they feel valued, consumers come to see the brand as a partner, thereby placing their trust in it, a point that hugely contributes to the loyalty process.

In light of this information, humanized customer service is a great business strategy, as it improves the customer experience, helping to generate new promoters for the brand.

There are many benefits that a company can obtain by introducing humanized service, including improving the company’s image and customer loyalty, attracting new customers, and increasing credibility and competitive advantage.

Most people have experienced the unpleasant situation of calling to ask for help with a product or service, but then having a robotic customer service experience that does nothing to clarify the question or resolve the problem. Today’s consumers no longer accept this kind of treatment and can end up canceling services or not returning to a particular place where they had a bad experience.

The digital age has arrived to change once and for all selling, buying and customer service. The famous Reclame Aqui website is a great example to show that the customer is the boss. With this in mind, businesses of any size must develop a customer relationship strategy based on trust and loyalty.

That is why implementing humanized customer service based on dialogue is so important. Check out the seven steps to put humanized customer service into practice:

1. Create bonds: talk to your customer as if it were a face-to-face conversation with a friend. This can be automated, but requires a deep understanding of your audience and offering quick answers that solve their doubts and/or problems.
2. Throw scripts away: set aside scripts with ready-made questions and answers. Respond clearly and objectively.
3. Know your customer well: research your target audience and your customer profile.
4. Make your customer feel exclusive: truly listen and pay attention to them.
5. Be proactive: seek to understand what your customer’s problem is and try to solve it by offering easy and practical solutions.
6. Don’t sell just to sell: before selling, know what your customer is looking for and if your product/service will really meet their demand or solve their problem.
7. Have empathy: putting yourself in another’s shoes is key to resolving misunderstandings and facilitating communication in any area of ​​our lives. So do this with your customers as well to try to understand what’s going on in their head.

*By Rogerio Perez, CXO at ZENVIA, the communication platform that empowers companies to create unique communication experiences for their end customers