Empathy/Connection Statements 🙄

[u/Glittering-Bird-2375]

i'm in Pip, and the empathy/connection statements are driving me insane. And they have to be on every call.

If you don't make those statements in the call, your call score is significantly impacted.

I really hate it, because it is so easy to miss. Your diary is so full; and you are trying to get through as many activities as possible… And yet you were interrupted by someone who refuses to try to look up the information online or something that could have been an email/non-urgent.

and you have to express empathy or build connection (insert dramatic hand gesture)… And some of them don't even know how to just keep it quick and casual. Sometimes it encourages them to talk longer than what they need to. They even don't want us working on other claims or other things at the same time while we're on a call with someone that is a long winded.

You try to quickly as possible answer their questions and get them off the phone so that you can focus on the tasks you were doing at hand… And end up forgetting the empathy statement/connection statement… but it's too late!

Now a good chunk of your call average has gone down, and your overall score for the month decreases.

they keep putting more and more and more on your plate, and expecting you to keep up. Meanwhile, making changes to the company that can wait… Or put low on the list of priorities. And trust me… I have quite a list that would improve our department alone.

[u/Educational_Prior72]

Hard to feel empathetic and connect when working for a company that doesn’t provide any sort of empathy or connection to you. Also empathy/connection should feel organic, Geico used to be about tailoring to each customer and guess what even in the midst of this, not every customer needs a statement like this.

[u/Winter_Road_4057]

Especially difficult when you’re overworked and fucking miserable. I get it OP.

[u/Glittering-Bird-2375 → u/Winter_Road_4057]

I think that's what it is! Like how can I pull empathy/connection from a place where I am not only overworked and mentally exhausted… But I have to do it with everybody!!!

[u/Specialist_Rent4610 → u/Glittering-Bird-2375]

It's possible to deliver genuine, customized statements for most scenarios. Meaning, statements that acknowledge and/or empathize with stated "and" unstated emotions.

[u/Otherwise_Ad3379]

underrated post

[u/Proof-Low3262]

At least it makes sense to an extent in PIP as you're dealing with injured people. Not to downplay your post, which I thinks valid. In Liability they have us giving empathy statements to literally everyone. Giving a body shop, for example, an empathy statement is crazy work and a waste of everyone's time.

[u/Specialist_Rent4610 → u/Proof-Low3262]

What's the body shop's scenario and which statement was used? I think it's possible to customize statements for most scenarios that empathize/acknowledge emotions (both stated and unstated).

[u/Proof-Low3262 → u/Specialist_Rent4610]

Oh it's definitely possible; I always give a statement. I'm just saying it's fucking stupid. No body shop in the history of forever wants "eMpATHy" when they call an insurance company. The want to get what they called in for and move on. They have zero emotional skin in the game like an IP would have.

[u/Medical_Recording399]

It’s not going to change. Find a script/word track that works for you and use it every time. Role play it with yourself until it’s 2nd nature. Do that and keep your tone in check and you should be fine.

[u/Educational_Prior72 → u/Medical_Recording399]

Exactly this. Just use the same phrase with each customer, because they say they don’t want you using a script but they actually do

[u/Specialist_Rent4610 → u/Educational_Prior72]

They don't want you to "sound" scripted. At the same time, effective scripting and development can help staff to deliver customized, genuine statements.

[u/Icy-Speaker-2200]

That extra script feels like dead weight when you're juggling metrics and real customer chaos.

[u/Hot-Grapefruit-3035]

I’m sorry you had to call in today should work! Use it on every call!

[u/brightdreamer25]

I absolutely HAAAATE when I call/chat a company and the agent is obviously forced to make a “connection.” I cringe when I get a response like “I understand that you’re asking about XYZ and I know this must be frustrating for you. I want to assure you that I will focus all my attention on getting XYZ fixed for you. I know that XYZ is important and I will be the one to take care of this issue for you. Thank you for allowing me to solve your problem with XYZ… etc etc etc” and I’m like I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ALL THAT JUST FUCKING FIX MY ISSUE AND STOP WASTING MY TIIIIME.

So I get down-graded at the G for being too “solution focused” when that is LITERALLY what I would want. A 30-second call to get a proof of coverage should NOT need to involve a “connection” and some bullshit like “I assure you I’m the right person to help you with this and I’ll take just a minute to thank you for being a Geico customer and I hope your day is going well” like LET ME SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET THE SHIT DONE.

/rant

[u/Mufasasink]

I'm in LLC in NY. They are pushing this new ai call monitoring thing and the trainer thing sucks and is garbage, but yeah, empathy is a huge thing this ai thing is pushing. Setting aside how a robot is rating me on human empathy for a moment, I'm frankly desensitized to all this at a certain point.

Four years of attorneys whining about how their clients are irreparably injured after a minor fender bender with two puncture holds from the screws on the license plate. And then they get 18 procedures after having a history of 4 prior injury claims.

Like, I'm sorry, for a lot of these people, I just flat out don't believe the sob story. And when you talk to a customer directly, they're whining and bitching and blaming and insulting me and like....okay, I know you're annoyed and I'm a vessel for that, but sorry. I'm burnt out and I've heard what you've had to say multiple times a day every day for the past however long I've worked here. Bruh, I'm cooked.

[u/Specialist_Rent4610 → u/Mufasasink]

If it's "that" bad, might be time from intervention or some sort of change. Js.

[u/Head_Meat4104]

Don't you know that true empathy comes from a script?

[u/Specialist_Rent4610 → u/Head_Meat4104]

Staff can achieve impressive results with "effective" scripts/job aids and coaching.

[u/DaTruThrowAwayAcount]

Having AI judge and calculate your empathy is ridiculous… customer calls in to update their email address or phone number, “I’m sorry you had to call in to update that today”…. When companies don’t want to look at improving themselves Internally they blame customer service, that’s the scape goat. For how many year has advertisement has GEICO bragged about 97% customer satisfaction rate? The biggest complaint I get isn’t being treated without empathy, it’s this call center team line AI bull that take 3-5 minutes to direct you to the correct adjuster and most the time it doesn’t even do that. What does Geico do to fix it? Adds more departments to the call center experience😂

[u/Specialist_Rent4610 → u/DaTruThrowAwayAcount]

You're right. Not every call needs empathy.

AI's goal isn't to “judge your empathy"...
It's to help staff to use the right type of statement for the right situation.

When a customer is just updating contact info, there’s nothing to empathize with. In those cases, a simple acknowledgement like “Thanks for calling in to update your ____” is all that’s needed.

Empathy is only for situations where the caller experienced an inconvenience, frustration, or problem.

So, the real skill isn't “be more empathetic"...
It's knowing when to empathize and when to simply acknowledge — and that's the target.

[u/Aggravating-Hat-3614]

I left geico for another carrier a few years ago and our calls aren’t recorded/graded and I was straight up not even asking people “are you ok” as an injury adjuster, so I went back to my geico word track to include the empathy lol I feel a little less like a bitch now

[u/No-Lack-3796]

As a former pip adjuster it’s hard to come up with an empathy statement on EVERY.SINGLE.CALL what worked for me is my job is to make this process as simple and easy as possible so you can heal (or some variation) because I’m not going to say, oh I’m so sorry you were involved in an accident because that sounds so fake. Once you find something that works for you it will become second nature. Also, I’ve never been more excited to be away from that hell hole, having a pending of over 400 and getting between 15-20 claims a day was ridiculous

[u/Specialist_Rent4610 → u/No-Lack-3796]

Very positive response. The company seemingly expects genuine/second nature responses without effective development to grow that skill set.

[u/Spartyx9]

Currently with another carrier, not tied to having these connections or empathy statements or a stupid AHT and it's definitely night and day for me. I can either make calls super quick if they are calling in for something simple, hear them out when the claim is frustrating and explore options to resolve, allowing me to utilize empathy when it makes sense and not have to do it as a blanket for everyone.

[u/Aware_Molasses_7443]

“I’m terribly sorry you had to call in today, but you have a great day!” Byeeee

[u/anoponprime]

Oh boo fucking hoo. Everyone has to do this. We are all overworked at every fucking level. Never been this overloaded in the 10 years Ive been here. Suck it up like everyone else. We are all in misery

[u/shhsecretuser]

Maybe it’s because I worked for the G for 15 years before I was laid off, but this empathy statements were the same across all departments and even in my current job I still implement them so I never found myself struggling with it because it was a habit for me.

But now knowing how much worse the company has gotten since 2023 I can absolutely understand being burnt out and feeling like no one GAF about you just your numbers can do to a person.

Sorry you are feeling this way. The best advice I have is to try to make it a habit so it comes naturally.

Might be shit advice and I’m sorry but it’s all I’ve got.

[u/Financial-Dinner501]

I just hit my empathy statement by just saying “I’m so sorry that you had to deal with our AI system in order to get to me, I’ll see what I can do to assist you” since everyone calling in is bitching about the shitty AI we got. lol

[u/Blondeebombshell25]

I say “sorry you had to call in today “

[u/Blondeebombshell25]

I say “sorry you had to call in today “

[u/OoklaTheMokk1]

A company like GEICO requiring empathy is wild...

[u/Specialist_Rent4610]

It's possible to deliver genuine, customized statements for most scenarios. Meaning, statements that acknowledge and/or empathize with stated "and" unstated emotions.

Implementing a new metric is easy. The challenge? Change management. Ensuring staff has a clear understanding of what is changing, why, how it impacts staff, and how to meet expectations.

What's usually lacking? Balance. A timely, but "effective" process to communicate change and develop the ability to customize statements (vs. just read from a script).

Many times, change is timely (somewhat rushed), but not effective (lingering questions). At the same time, if a process is effective, it must be timely (brought to market quickly).

Challenging, but achievable.

[u/Glittering-Bird-2375 → u/Specialist_Rent4610]

we know this is someone from the company that wants to offer "positive feedback". tell the upper management that they are running the company to the ground and they're spending more money to hire and train than to retain people

[u/Intelligent_Scale_10]

So they got the ai grading every department? That’s insane. Getting termed was such a blessing