Good customer service is essential to success in any industry, but it is particularly important in the service and hospitality sector. “Hospitality” means treating guests well; and here, we’re talking specifically about hotels. Because service is so vital to hospitality, hotels are a good place to look for excellent service practices.
We’ll see that a very important part of handling angry customers is showing empathy: Empathy is similar to sympathy – it means showing that you understand the customer’s pain.
Listening Quiz: (Click a question to see the answer)
Bad Example:
1) How does the customer, Steve, learn the service associate’s name?
Steve has to specifically ask the service associate, Jenna, for her name. This is not good customer service.
2) What is Steve’s problem?
Steve says his room is “freezing,” meaning very cold, and he can’t concentrate on his work.
3) How could Jenna have handled the complaint better?
First, Jenna should have empathized better with Steve’s problem and then should have shown interest and concern by using active listening techniques.
Good Example:
1) When Steve says, “I’m at the end of my rope,” what does he mean?
As mentioned in the debrief, this means you’ve used up all of your emotional energy or patience. If you are very tired or very angry, you can say “I’m at the end of my rope.”
2) What does Sandy do to calm Steve down?
To calm Steve down, Sandy uses a variety of techniques that we’re studying during these two episodes on complaints: He has an empathetic response to Steve’s pain – that is, He shows his sympathy for him. Also, he shows his professionalism and sincerity by accurately identifying the complaint and he listens actively to Steve, giving him the impression that he really cares.
