Lately, it seems like all the customer service departments I encounter are grouping their responses into two categories:

“No one has ever had a problem with that before” (so it must be your fault, not ours)

-or-

“This is affecting thousands of our customers” (it’s nothing personal, but there’s nothing we can do about it)

While each of these response patterns might seem logical to the customer service rep, they just serve to annoy the person on the other end. Attempting to downplay the importance of the customer’s problem usually means you’re not even listening in the first place. Issues rarely fit into neat little boxes, and trying to force them in there just makes you sound like an uncaring drone.

The next time you’re helping a customer with a problem, be careful not to fall into these response traps. Listen and respond in your own voice, and you’ll help people get to the source of the problem faster.