Training a customer service team in empathy and active listening teaches people to work out what a customer actually needs and to show that customer they have been understood. Below we answer the questions that come up when you plan a programme like this: can empathy be taught, which techniques should you practise, and how do you know it worked?
Quick Overview
What you will learn:
- What research says about how well empathy training works
- Which active listening techniques are worth practising as a team
- How to measure the effect of training in customer service
- How to plan the programme and who should be involved
Who this article is for:
- Customer service and contact centre managers
- People responsible for training and service quality
- HR business partners supporting front-line teams
Reading time: 7 minutes
Can Empathy Be Taught?
Yes, although the effect depends on how the programme is built and how it is measured. Teding van Berkhout and Malouff (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) analysed 18 randomised controlled trials with 1,018 participants in total and found empathy training effective overall. Effects were stronger when the measures targeted specific skills, such as understanding other people’s emotions, sharing them and naming them accurately, and when objective measures were used instead of self-report. The number of training hours was not linked to the size of the effect.
The practical takeaway for a service team: practise behaviours you can actually observe in a conversation rather than talking about empathy in general terms.
Empathy with a customer does not mean agreeing to every demand. It means showing that you understand the customer’s situation before moving on to a solution. An agent can acknowledge how frustrating a problem is and still be clear about what the company cannot do. Those are two separate skills, and good training covers both.
Does a Short Active Listening Course Make a Difference?
Kubota and colleagues (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) trained 345 middle managers in local government in one-day active listening sessions built around exercises and experiential learning. Scores for listening attitude and listening skill rose both one month and three months after the training. The study involved managers rather than service agents, had no control group and relied on participants’ self-assessment. Even so, it suggests that a short course grounded in practice can improve listening attitude and skill.
Which Active Listening Techniques Should You Practise?
Jahromi and colleagues (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov), who measured active listening among hospital managers, broke the skill down into avoiding interruptions, maintaining interest, postponing evaluation, organising information and showing interest. In their study, managers scored best at showing interest and worst at not interrupting, which is a useful warning for any team working under time pressure. In day-to-day service, those components translate into a handful of concrete techniques:
- Paraphrasing — restating in your own words what the customer has said. In an experiment by Seehausen and colleagues (
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov), people describing a conflict felt less negative when the interviewer paraphrased what they said than when the interviewer simply took notes; the effect was measured over the short term. - Open questions — “What happened?” or “How is this affecting your work?” rather than questions that invite a yes or no.
- Reflecting emotions — naming what you hear in the customer’s voice, such as “I can see why that’s frustrating”, before offering a fix.
- Clarifying — asking for detail when something is unclear instead of guessing.
- Summarising — recapping what has been agreed at the end of the call so the customer knows what happens next.
These techniques only work when the agent is genuinely listening. Stock phrases recited on autopilot sound hollow and are no substitute for paying attention.
How Do You Know the Training Worked?
You can evaluate this kind of training with metrics such as those described by Zendesk (www.zendesk.com). CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) measures how satisfied a customer is with a company, service or product, usually through a short survey after the interaction. CES (Customer Effort Score) measures how easy it was for the customer to get what they needed. The same article also covers NPS (Net Promoter Score), a customer’s willingness to recommend the company, but that metric reflects the whole customer experience rather than a single conversation.
The metrics alone are not enough, because they also depend on processes and systems. Complement them by reviewing call recordings against a simple checklist: did the agent paraphrase, ask open questions, name the emotion and summarise what was agreed? Compare results from before the training with those from a few weeks afterwards.
How Should You Plan the Programme?
- Start by listening to calls and analysing complaints to see where the team stops listening.
- Practise on scenarios from your own sector, using role play and feedback.
- Spread the programme over time: a session, practice on the job, then a return to the difficult cases.
- Involve the team leader, who gives feedback based on real calls after the training.
Ownership is shared between the customer service manager, the trainer, the quality assurance specialist who reviews calls, and the HR business partner.
Read Also
- Handling Customer Complaints in a Way That Builds Trust — difficult conversations
- Communication Standards for VIP Clients — service standards
- Non-Verbal Communication in Business Meetings — signals beyond words
Build Your Skills
Two courses take the topic further: How to Serve Customers Professionally — Training for Internal and External Customer Service Teams and Customer Care Services — Best Practices. The first covers active listening techniques and handling complaints, among other topics; the second, service standards, active listening, empathy and solving customers’ problems. Get in touch and we will tailor the scope to your team.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is active listening?
It is listening with full attention while showing the other person they have been understood, through paraphrasing, open questions, naming emotions and summarising. In customer service, it helps the agent establish what the customer needs before proposing a solution.
What are the main active listening techniques?
The ones most often practised are paraphrasing, open questions, reflecting emotions, clarifying and summarising. Paraphrasing has research behind it: in the experiment by Seehausen and colleagues (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov), people whose words were paraphrased felt less negative than those whose listener only took notes.
How can a team practise active listening?
Small groups with set roles work best: a speaker, a listener who paraphrases and an observer who gives feedback, with the roles rotating. Service teams also benefit from scenarios based on real, anonymised calls and from reviewing recordings together against a checklist.
What should customer service training cover?
Identifying customer needs, active listening, communicating in difficult situations and handling complaints, along with the company’s own service standards. The programme should be built around practice and end with measurement, for example CSAT and CES alongside call reviews before and after the training.