You say it, but customers don’t believe it. That’s why these are the six most-hated words in customer service:
“Your call is important to us.”
More than a third of the people in a recent Teletech, Inc., survey cited this often used saying as the most annoying phrase in customer service.
But customers are irritated by more than that.
Here’s what else makes them cringe when they try to contact someone in Customer Service:
- “That’s our policy.” (22%)
- “Please take our survey following this call.” (17%)
- “We’ll get back to you on that.” (14%)
- “I’ll have to discuss this with my supervisor.” (11%)
Be honest, please
The phrases above have their differences, but customers have the same perception of them: They tend to be an exaggeration of the truth or flat-out lies.
Customers don’t feel that their call is important if they have to wait — or that a policy is in their best interest, that someone will actually follow up, or that a supervisor is really needed to finish a call.
Instead, they feel like they’re in an unnecessarily long queue, are being told about a policy because no one wants to make things right, or they’ve been sent into a black hole.
If scripted recordings are a must in your contact center — and you’ve found they’re annoying customers — you might want to get rid of them and replace them with industry trivia, news or even weather updates, suggests researcher Ron Wince.
Even better: Meet customers’ calls with a personal response, a non-scripted answer or an offer. Those add so much more to the customer experience.
