Customer Service Tips: Top Ten Reasons to Avoid Repeating People's Names

People who work in customer service are sometimes told to repeat a customer's name every time they speak to a customer. Then they wonder why customers seem annoyed with them. If you work in customer service and you feel that you have to deal with a lot of sarcasm, condescension, and verbal abuse, here are ten reasons why this is happening.

1. Repeating people's names is not normal. In a normal conversation between two people, each person uses the other's name once, at the beginning of the conversation. When people talk face to face, they may substitute eye contact for even greeting each other by name. Names are repeated when conversations get more emotional. So, when the customer's name is repeated, the customer will instinctively try to guess what the employee's emotional problem may be.

2. Repeating names can be heard as whiny, dependent or co-dependent behavior. In relationships based on dependency and need, the needier person may repeat a name or kinship term while clinging and pleading for attention, affection, indulgence, etc. In a business conversation, repeating someone's name may make you sound like a parasitic personality the customer used to date.

3. Repeating names is an animal training technique. Animal trainers teach animals to respond to commands only when the commands begin with the animal's name. Since it's never appropriate to give commands to other human beings in the way we do to animals, repeating the name of a customer who has trained animals can raise very serious doubts about your competence. Perhaps your education took place in a "special school" where children who failed to learn normal language skills had to be trained like dogs?

4. Repeating names slows down the communication process. Fast-talking, aggressive customers may be very familiar with this technique, but they're not favorably impressed. Obvious efforts to slow down a conversation will convince the customer that you're a "slow-witted" employee who deserves even less respect than the customer normally gives employees.