By: Jeff Toister (submitted by Carmen Gass)

Empathy is a critical customer service skill that’s hard to master.

Showing customers a little empathy requires two things:
1. We must be able to relate to how our customer is feeling.
2. We must have the presence of mind to acknowledge and understand those feelings.

Empathy is fairly easy if you’ve been in your customer’s shoes. Just think about how you felt when it happened to you and try to show the customer you understand.

It gets trickier if it’s never happened to you. For example, someone working in tech support might find it hard to empathize with a confused customer because they can fix their own computer.

Here’s what you can do to demonstrate empathy when you don’t have a relatable experience:
1. Ask yourself, “Why is this customer upset?”
2. Think about a time when you had a similar feeling.
3. Try to demonstrate to the customer that you know how they feel.

Learn more about empathy fatigue here.