Lesson 6: Acknowledging the Customer’s Needs

As we discussed earlier, acknowledging (and validating) your customer’s needs is one of the main strategies to providing truly outstanding customer service. If your customers see that you are making an effort to understand their needs (even when you can’t meet them), you are more likely to create a positive experience for them and for you.

Sometimes that may simply be rephrasing what the customer has said to you (for example, “I understand that you need this update completed quickly…”) or it might be something you observe (for example, “I can see that it is important that we put this update where it will be seen by as many parents as possible…”). By acknowledging this need, you send a very clear message to the customer that you are really listening and that you understand.

At other times that will be asking further questions to get to the point where you can acknowledge their needs. As we all know, sometimes customers don’t provide us with enough information to even be able to make a good guess. Don’t be afraid to get clarification. Sometimes you can run this request by another co-worker or supervisor (someone who has a bit more experience reading our customer’s minds). This can eliminate the possibility that it isn’t clear only because you haven’t seen these type of requests before, and that second set of eyes can see what you don’t. If that isn’t the case, reach out to the customer and tell them you just want to be sure you understand what they want to accomplish, and then you can let them know you understand with a positive response like, “Yes, we can absolutely do that” or “Great. I’m happy to help!” or even “Oh, yes! And we could also….”

Acknowledging without Encouraging

Occasionally we might need to deal with difficult or upset customers. It is important that you show them that you understand the facts surrounding the situation and the feelings they might be experiencing. However, there is a delicate balance between acknowledging and encouraging. You don’t want them to continue to focus on feeling angry or being difficult but to move them toward letting you help them. This involves using a combination of two techniques:

First, you will acknowledge the feelings in a short sentence and then immediately steer the conversation back to the problem/solution (and away from his or her emotions). For example, “I can see that this could be frustrating. Let me get this solved for you right away.”

You can do the same thing to let the customer know you understand the facts by combining active listening with refocusing (active listening is covered in a later lesson). You simply reflect back your understanding of their needs, and then refocus on the solution.

It is the principle that matters. You acknowledge the facts and emotions, but you don’t want to dwell on them.

Validating the Customer’s Contributions

Sometimes our customers will ask us to do something on their website that isn’t in line with what we consider best practices. Sometimes it is even a terrible idea. However, we don’t want our customers to feel like we don’t value their opinions or that we think our ideas are better (even when we are pretty darn sure that they are :) ). So, like acknowledging our customers, remember to validate their contributions as well. This can help us avoid having a client become frustrated and just ordering us to “Do what I tell you to do,” without considering our recommendations, which are based on years of experience.

For example, you could start your reply (after a request from a customer that is probably NOT the best idea to accomplish what they want) you might say, “Getting this information out there is a really great idea! What if we…” instead of “We really don’t recommend doing that….” You can also let the customer know why this alternative suggestion or approach might better serve their long-term goals for the request.