April 30, 2026

Tips for Service Teams

"Play Customer" to Build Empathy

In late 2021, the online food delivery company DoorDash, asked all employees — including its engineers and top executives — to participate in food deliveries ("dashes") at least once a month. The goal was to fuel a "customer-obsessed mindset" by bringing employees closer to the customer.

Fortunately, customer service reps don’t need to deliver meals to understand their customers’ experiences, they can simply pick up the phone and "play customer."

Try calling your own helpline. Note the connect time, messaging on hold, and the number of times you must state and restate basic information. When you do this, you’ll have a deeper understanding of how customers feel when they reach a live rep and a little more empathy if they sound annoyed right from the start.

Tips like this appear regularly in Customer Communicator newsletter.

Learn more about Customer Communicator

Subscribe for your team

Read a sample

Keep your team connected,
motivated, and learning

Customer Communicator brings everyone on your team — on-site and remote — an engaging and informative monthly newsletter. It’s packed with skill-building information, exercises, pop-quizzes, and tips for customer service staff at all levels.

Learn More

Reinforce service skills

It’s easy to keep service skills sharp with our training packages. Perfect for classroom, online, or independent learning. Each package includes booklets, quizzes, certificates, and more.

Learn More

Build strong teams

Trainer-developed activities to enhance teamwork, motivation, and service skills. Most activities can be completed in 15 to 30 minutes. Many are suitable for on-site or remote teams.

Learn More

Celebrate Customer Service Week

Everything you need to recognize and reward the service team during the industry's most important week of the year.

Learn More