20 Empathy Statements to Show Stressed-Out Customers That You Care

These are difficult times, and our anxious customers need us more than ever. Some of them need help with a simple task, like: “How do I add a new driver to my auto insurance policy?” Others need help solving a problem: “Why was I charged twice for inflight WiFi?”

All of them need our empathy. They need us to infuse our emails, chats and social media responses with words that demonstrate we understand what they are feeling, we see things from their point of view, and we care.

Empathy isn’t easy. Some frontline customer service agents resist showing empathy. They think it’s optional or even risky because it implies they agree with the customer’s complaint. And even the most empathy-willing agents will struggle to show empathy when they’re overburdened, like they are now. So, to make empathizing easier, I’ve pulled together this list of 20 ways to empathize with stressed out customers. Please share these empathy statements with your team.

10 Empathy Statements to Copy and Paste

1. I would be upset too.
2. I realize how complicated it is to …
3. I can imagine how frustrating that would be.
4. That would be disappointing, especially when [paraphrase the customer’s perspective or efforts]…
5. We want to understand what happened just as much as you do.
6. I can see why that made you angry.
7. This situation is unacceptable to us, too.
8. If I were in your situation, I would feel exactly the same way you do.
9. As a [insert parent, traveler, baseball fan, hay fever sufferer, etc.] myself, I understand why you contacted us today!
10. If I were in your situation, I would be asking the same questions you are.

4 Indirect Empathy Statements to Use When You Can’t Fully Agree with the Customer’s Perspective

Sometimes it’s difficult to empathize because the customer’s emotions are waaaay over the top or their complaint is just plain wrong. In these situations, you may want to offer indirect empathy that focuses on the customer’s behavior, such as following up, instead of the accuracy of their complaint.

1. I can understand why you have followed up on this issue.
2. I do realize that the [insert task name] process can be time-consuming.
3. It certainly makes sense that you contacted me again to ask about this.
4. I’m so glad you let us know about this.

5 Short-and-Sweet Empathy Statements to Use in Social Media

1. Oh no!
2. That’s not right!
3. That’s not what we like to hear!
4. We’ve let you down, and we never want to do that.
5. Yikes! That’s not how we want our customers to feel.

1 Strategy for Writing with Empathy

1. Reuse the customer’s own words. If a customer complains that the adapter video cable they bought from your company was flimsy, use the word flimsy in your response. You’ll demonstrate that you’ve read the complaint carefully and your reuse of the customer’s words shows empathy for their perspective.

While sincere empathy comes from the heart, practical expressions of empathy in customer service situations can come right from this article. To make their jobs easier, please share this list with the customer service heroes on your team, and let your frontline agents know they can email me directly ([email protected]) if they’d like my help with some more empathy statements to use every day.