“I’m calling on behalf of my partner. He died, and I need to close his account.”
How to Talk to a Grieving Customer
When the author’s partner died suddenly, it fell to her to close his accounts. She found that most customer service reps didn’t veer from their script, noting that they needed to speak to the deceased account holder. One rep, however, spoke to her with compassion and, while he wasn’t able to solve her problem, she came away from the experience feeling like she was a valued customer who was treated with dignity. More companies need to take this approach, and they can start by clearly articulating what its official response should be when a customer dies. Then they should educate reps on which words to listen to while on a call, and develop parameters for how far off the script they should veer (customer service reps aren’t grief counselors, after all). Finally, enlisting a grief expert to help your organization think through these issues is a wise move.