During our last Tips & Tricks session in September, Jamie covered how to use SymTrain to enhance empathy as a critical soft skill for agents. She demonstrated creating simulations that help agents practice empathetic responses, with AI coaching providing real-time feedback to improve their customer interactions.
Key Takeaways
- Difference Between Empathy and Sympathy: Empathy involves understanding and sharing in the customer's experience, while sympathy is merely feeling concerned or sorrowful. Teaching agents to differentiate between these can enhance their customer service interactions.
- Business Impact of Empathy: Companies that prioritize empathy increase their monetary value more than twice as much as those that don't. They also generate 50% more earnings, showing the financial benefits of empathetic approaches in customer service.
- Higher Empathy Scores in New Agents: Customers report a 7% higher empathy score with new agents compared to long-standing ones, highlighting the importance of instilling empathy early in training.
- Sentiment Scoring in SymTrain: SymTrain’s sentiment score measures three key areas—confidence, concentration, and energy—each contributing to an empathetic response. Agents need to focus on listening, understanding, and conveying empathy effectively.
- Common Empathy Phrases: While common phrases like "I’m sorry" are useful, it's important to add new layers to these responses, such as "I can understand how this situation affected you," which prevents defensiveness from customers. Phrases like "I understand how you feel," "I'm sorry that happened to you," and "I can imagine how difficult this must be for you" help diffuse tension and make customers feel heard and valued. Phrases like "I'm here to help" and "I'll do my best to resolve this for you" build trust and demonstrate commitment to finding a solution, which strengthens customer relationships.
- Creating Scenario-Based Branched Syms: By categorizing empathy phrases by scenario types and creating branched Syms, agents can practice relevant responses for specific situations, reinforcing their ability to respond empathetically. Using branched Syms in SymTrain allows agents to practice empathy phrases repeatedly, building muscle memory and helping agents retain and apply these phrases in real-world situations.
If you missed anything or want to revisit the session, check out the full session video: