Some call center experts are stressing the importance of a feel-good factor that emanates when a customer gets in touch with the agent. If there is a “feel good factor” established even minor glitches can be overlooked. What modern customers look for is empathy from the agents. Their experience is marked by the flow of emotions at various stages of the conversation. They can be turned loyalists by the specific emotional moments rather than the overall experience. Psychologists state that a human mind catalog experiences based on the intensity and nature of emotions. If the right emotional tunes are harped upon, a customer experience can be turned into a great one. 

Some experts even go as far as stating that customer satisfaction cannot be gained completely unless there is an emotional attachment between the agent and the customer. Research studies have revealed that purchasing decisions do not follow a rational path. They are more of an emotional decision; a decision that can be turned in the brand’s favor only by proper engagement. It has been proved that the outsourced call centers in India which are able to build the emotional attachment with their customers are able to outperform other brands by a margin of 85% in terms of their sales growth. This is not a meager figure!

Benefits of Emotional Engagement

Customers are thrice more prone to recommend a product/service. 
They are thrice more likely to re-purchase products/services from the same brand. 
They are less likely to visit other brands during new purchases. 
Customers do not care much about the cost factor when they are emotionally engaged. 

How to Build the Attachment? 

As you can see, emotional connections are important for any brand. But the call center outsourcing to India business sector has a particular set up in place. Do you sacrifice all the metrics and the evaluation methodologies for the sake of building emotional connections? No, scrapping the old set up is not a good idea, but making small rationale changes would suffice. 

Customer First: It is important that the call centers evaluate their process from the eyes of the customers. All the processes and procedures should be scanned. Are these really living up to the expectations of the customers? All the focus should be on the customers. 

Show Emotionality: If you are looking to get close to the customers emotionally, then your tool should be empathy. Agents should be able to understand the expectations and feeling of the customers and then respond likewise. 

Listen Carefully: Agents in a hurry will never connect with the customers. It is important to hear what the customers have to say. Hear each word very carefully and speak only when the customer is done. This will mean you care about the customer. 

Show Respect: After you have heard the customer, it is important to answer back in a way that shows your understanding and respect for the customer’s situation. When getting back to the customers always show urgency and let the customer sense it too. Respond to the customer with viable solutions immediately. 

As you can see these small changes are not hard to implement. They can bring about a world of good in the end customer relationships. 

- Vishal Parashar