How Empathy can Improve your Assessment of Reasonable Expectations

I cannot over emphasize the importance of empathy when you are dealing with customers. When you put yourself in their situation you are more likely to come up with better solutions. Within reason, of course.

For instance, if I bought a toaster that didn’t work, I expect it to be replaced or refunded. Reasonable expectation, right? I don’t expect the toaster to be replaced with an oven. But what if these expectations aren’t met?

Let’s take a look at a situation when my expectations were not met.

I recently made a purchase where it required either a credit card payment or through Western Union. Initially I wanted to pay with a credit card but the vendor charged an outstanding processing fee, so I decided to pay by Western Union.

I contacted Western Union over the phone to pay but they told me about their over-the-phone fee which would be waived if paid on-site. Since I needed to run errands that day during lunch I decided I’d stop by a Western Union location along the way.

When I got to the first location I was told that the machine was not working. I called Western Union and had them give me two other locations and they confirmed with each location that the machine was working fine. When I got to the first location they told me the machine was not working. The second location, a foreign bank, didn’t even know what Western Union was.

I called Western Union back and explained my situation. I asked if they would waive the over-the-phone fee since none of the locations I visited had working machines. Their supervisor instead suggested that I go to another location, approximately 20 minutes away. He never gave any real consideration that I had already attempted to pay on-site three times.

I ended up paying for the item using a credit card, even though Western Union’s over-the-phone fee was less than the credit card processing fee.

If you can put yourself in someone else’s situation you can see if the customer’s expectations are reasonable or not. Meeting these expectations translates to customer satisfaction and retention.

Learn to assess each situation with an open mind and always keep in mind how much more it would cost to gain a new customer to replace the one you lose.