Customer Service Pyramid
Our customer service pyramid is an innovative and effective yet simple model of delivering excellent customer service.
It’s a product of 18 years of my academic and professional work!
The foundation of exceptional customer service is effective communication — both with your customers and your team members. Throughout their journey, customers constantly interact with your customer service teams and frontline staff. They communicate with your employees in person, by email or text, using smartphone apps and online chats, or by contacting your call center.
Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand the way your customers experience and perceive the world. Listen to your customers to understand their experiences and needs. You’ll be better equipped to communicate with them effectively and work together to find solutions that exceed their expectations.
Each customer expects respect and appreciation from your business. They want to build a balanced and trusting relationship with your team so that they can work with you to address their needs successfully.
Language is a tool that is both easy to use and effective but often overlooked in customer service. Individual-first language serves multiple purposes:
Helps your customers understand what you say or write the first time they read or hear it
Doesn’t trigger negative emotions or feelings
Facilitates collaboration and problem-solving
Describes each customer as a unique and valued individual
Conveys respect, appreciation, understanding, and compassion
Empathy is not an easy task!
Empathy is the ability to understand the way your customers experience and perceive the world. It’s not an easy task! Each and every customer is a unique individual. As humans, we are complex and nuanced.
Our brains are wired differently. We have different talents, strengths, and challenges. We develop different skill sets, acquire different knowledge, and go through different experiences. We choose different paths in life.
Each of us lives in and is shaped by multiple cultures. Our family, circle of friends, neighborhood, faith community, profession, and workplace — each of these groups has its own distinct culture. We also build new cultures when we start our own families, friend groups, and communities.
Our training programs will help your frontline staff understand your customers and their needs on an individual level. The field of empathy has been growing substantially over the last decade. We’ve been at the forefront of both its research and practice.