Customers who are reaching out to you have a need that needs to be met and it should be done as quickly as possible. Many consumers expect a quick response—whether it is a call answered after the first ring or an email that is responded to the same day. They want to have their need met.

Leaving a voicemail or waiting for a solution can be aggravating for your customer and can start their experience with your customer service on the wrong foot.

When you are responding to the client, also be sure to have a sense of urgency in wanting to find them a resolution to meet the need they are reaching out for. Letting them know you have heard them and are the ones to help them.

Be upfront with your customer about how you can help them and if there are any limitations to what types of solutions you can provide—it may not be enough for the customer to remedy the problem. Show empathy and respect when communicating and you’ll find that calls are easily deescalated, or never reach the point where they need to be.

If there is an issue with using a product, service, app, or some feature your business provides, don’t make the customer feel stupid or inadequate for not being able to figure it out on their own. We don’t learn until we are taught, so be the educator and explain without condescending how a product or feature should be used. You can acknowledge a person’s frustration without making them feel bad about it. Also, assist the customer beyond just giving a resolution; explain what went wrong and how it was fixed. For example, if the customer cannot log into their account, don’t just reset the password but educate them on what may have gone wrong (too many incorrect password attempts logged them out and they were using a previous password).