How Lack Of Empathy Took My High-Flying Job From Me!
By Ruoro Kairu
Would you ever imagine your personality being your biggest hindrance?
Most times, we go for the jobs that fit our personalities. That’s not to say people with certain personalities cannot perform at some jobs.
However, it’s difficult to imagine some personalities working at some jobs. For example, when you think of an MC, you’d likely think this is a job for an extrovert; which is mostly the case.
Sylvia is a customer service professional who graduated two years ago. After she graduated, she went on an unsuccessful job search, and eventually had to settle for a job in sales.
After nine months, however, she had to quit as she could not manage to go to people and start conversations with them.
“Naturally,” says Sylvia, “I’m an introvert. I like being behind the headlines and away from the attention. Being in sales was the opposite of my personality.”
Fortunately, she got a job as a customer service professional at a marketing company.
Here, she would receive calls all day from different clients with their different problems and personalities.
“It still felt like at I was in the limelight. It felt like I was being forced to be an introvert.” she continues.
On some occasions, she had to deal with walk-in clients. At this point, she had gotten used to her job, and she enjoyed it.
It came as a shock when she was called in by her manager. He told her that some clients had complained about how they had been treated.
Sylvia did not understand what the manager meant. To the best of her knowledge, she felt like she was doing everything right.
Over a period of two months, the manager called her again. Though he never went into specifics, he kept telling her she wasn’t doing her job.
In the end, Sylvia was let go.
When she left, she still did not know what she had done wrong.
It was only when she was watching a Ted Talks video that they spoke about empathy.
Empathy is the ability to put yourself in the shoes of your customer. This helps you to relate better with them as you understand and relate to their pain point.
“What they spoke about was not foreign, but it wasn’t something I had particularly exercised through my career.” admits Sylvia.
When Sylvia examined her tasks and how she handled clients, she noticed she was rarely empathetic.
After this, she began reading up on the importance of empathy when dealing with others.
“In a book I read,” she tells me, “they spoke of how it’s possible to tell if someone is being empathetic to you while you engage with them.”
Sylvia continued researching, she wanted to learn how she could be more empathetic at work. That’s how she ended up enrolling for the customer service training.
Empathy is a key skill in customer service. For Sylvia, she had to learn this the hard way.
There are multiple skills that every customer service professionals should utilize. These skills will help you grow in your career. Moreover, the skills will help you stand out as a top-performing professional.
Do not let these skills cost you a job.
You don’t have to learn the hard way as Sylvia did.
Join the Customer Service Management Training and learn all the skills you need to excel in your profession.