The HEAT Principle
The hardest part in customer service is addressing complaints from customers. Oftentimes, this is where customer service agents fail. This is precisely because customer complaints are more often result in the failure of the product or service that a company provides. When companies advertise about their product or service, it conveys a certain promise to the customers that their product or services provide benefits and/or the answers to the needs of the customers. When this promise falters, this will result in the dissatisfaction of a customer. Most of the time, the customer service agents who are the frontline in absorbing these complaints bear the brunt of the customer’s anger and discontent. The agents become the «shock absorbers» of the company. So how should customer service agents handle this? This topic will discuss the strategies on how customer agents can better handle these complaints from customers. This is called the HEAT principle. The HEAT principle is an acronym for:
H – Hear them out
E – Empathize
A – Apologize; and
T – Take action
HEAR THEM OUT
Once the customer vents his dissatisfaction, an agent we should hear them out. Whether it is in the manner being angry and rude, an agent should just let the customer express all he wants to say. Sometimes, customers get angrier if they are met on a collision course of discussion by the agents. The strategy here is for the agents to let the customer vent out his anger to his behest. But on the other hand, agents should look eye-to-eye with the customers while they are venting their dissatisfaction. The agent should let the customer finish with his/her argument. In this manner, the customers would feel that their complaint is seriously being heard out.
Agents can take notes of the complaint details to show the customers their sincerity in resolving the complaint. More often than not, customers who feel the sincerity of the agents hearing them out, no matter how angry are they tend to tone down with their anger.
EMPATHIZE
After hearing the customer of his/her complaint and venting out his/her anger, this is when the agent responds with empathy. At this stage the agent must let the customer feel that he/she understands the plight of the customer. And that he feels sorry empathizes with the customer on the inconvenience brought about by the dissatisfaction. Empathizing is simply putting the agent’s shoes on the customer. It’s as if the agent felt the same inconvenience and dissatisfaction that the customer has gone through. In this manner, the customer would feel that he/she is not «alone» in his plight and feeling of dissatisfaction and that somebody understands the inconvenience he/she is going through. At this juncture, the customer will tend to establish a «relationship» with the agent since he/she would feel that the agent is trustworthy and sincere. Most often, the anger of the customer at this point would have subsided and that calmness will take over.
APOLOGIZE
Once the agent was able to tone down the anger of the customer, a sincere apology must be made. Feeling sorry for all the hassles and the inconvenience brought about by the dissatisfaction must be felt by the customer. The strategy here is when the agent makes an apology; it should appear to the customer that the agent is part of the «inconvenience» caused to the customer. Meaning, there is «ownership» and «accountability» in the apology. The agent should not appear to be blaming other people in the company for the problem but instead «own» the problem. At this juncture, the customer would feel that he/she is talking to the right person in venting out his/her complaint. And that he/she doesn’t need to talk to other people in order that his complaint will be resolved. In this manner, the buck stops at the agent and the complaint is addressed at hand.
TAKE ACTION
Lastly, taking action on the complaint would be most appropriate. After the getting all the details of the problem it’s time to act and resolve the complaint brought out by the customer. The strategy here is to commit to the customer that his/her complaint will be taken care of and that it will be resolved the soonest possible time. It is important to note though that for simple complaints, the agent may commit a timeline for the resolution of the complaint.
On the other hand, for a more complex problem the agent must never commit any time frame. This is to manage the expectation of the customer. However, a commitment should be made to the customer that a feedback will be made whether the complaint is already resolved or not. This is, at least to let the customer know of the status of his/her complaint. In this manner, the customer can observe that there is empowerment given to the agent to resolve whatever complaints brought to their attention. It would make the customer feel that indeed his complaint was brought out to the right people who can resolve it.