The HEAT principle

The hardest part in customer service is dealing with customer complaints. This is often where customer service agents fail. This is precisely because customer complaints often result in the failure of a company’s product or service. When companies advertise their product or service, they convey a certain promise to customers that their product or service provides benefits and/or answers customer needs. When this promise fails, it will result in a dissatisfied customer. More often than not, the customer service agents who are the first line to absorb these complaints bear the brunt of customer anger and discontent. Agents become the “shock absorbers” of the company. So how should customer service agents handle this? This topic will discuss strategies on how customer agents can better handle these customer complaints. This is called the HEAT principle. The HEAT principle is an acronym for:

H – Listen to them

E – Empathize

A – Apologize; Y

T – Take Action

LISTEN

Once the customer expresses dissatisfaction, an agent should listen to them. Whether it’s angry or rude, an agent should let the customer say whatever he wants to say. Sometimes customers get angrier if agents find them on a collision course discussion. The strategy here is for agents to let the customer vent their anger at their behest. But on the other hand, agents must look customers in the eye as they air their dissatisfaction. The agent must let the client finish his argument. In this way, customers would feel that their complaint is being taken seriously.

Agents can make notes of the details of the complaint to show customers their sincerity in resolving the complaint. Most of the time, customers who feel the sincerity of agents listening to them, no matter how angry they are, tend to tone down their anger.

EMPATHIZE

After listening to the customer’s complaint and venting his anger, it is when the agent responds with empathy. At this stage, the agent should let the customer feel that they understand the customer’s situation. And that he feels sorry empathizes with the client about the inconvenience that dissatisfaction brings. Empathizing is simply putting the agent’s shoes on the customer. It is as if the agent feels the same discomfort and dissatisfaction that the customer has experienced. In this way, the client would feel that he is not “alone” in the situation and feeling dissatisfied with him and that someone understands the inconveniences he is going through. At this juncture, the customer will tend to establish a “relationship” with the agent since he will feel that the agent is trustworthy and sincere. Most of the time, the client’s anger at this point will have subsided and calm will prevail.

APOLOGIZE

Once the agent has defused the customer’s anger, a sincere apology should be made. The customer should feel sorry for all the inconvenience and inconvenience caused by dissatisfaction. The strategy here is when the agent apologizes; it must appear to the customer that the agent is part of the “inconvenience” caused to the customer. That is, there is “ownership” and “responsibility” in the apology. The agent should not appear to blame other people in the company for the problem, but instead should “own” the problem. At this point, the customer would feel that he is talking to the right person to air his complaint. And that he doesn’t need to talk to other people for his complaint to be resolved. In this way, the buck stops with the agent and the complaint is dealt with in hand.

TO TAKE ACTION

Ultimately, taking action on the complaint would be most appropriate. After getting all the details of the problem, it’s time to take action and resolve the customer’s complaint. The strategy here is to commit to the customer that their complaint will be addressed and that it will be resolved as soon as possible. However, it is important to note that for simple complaints, the agent may commit to a timeline for resolution of the complaint.

On the other hand, for a more complex problem, the agent should never commit to any time frame. This is to manage customer expectation. However, a commitment must be made with the customer that feedback will be provided whether or not the complaint has been resolved. This is, at least, so that the client knows the status of his complaint. In this way, the client can observe that the agent is given the power to resolve the complaints that are presented to him. It would make the customer feel that his complaint was in fact brought to the right people who can resolve it.