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CHAPTER 9

The Problem with Empathy

Encouraging Employees to Empathize with Their Customers

The Cheese Plate Incident is a customer service story that will forever be infamous in my family. It’s hard to imagine a plate of cheese causing so much trouble, but the real problem was a lack of empathy that made a simple error comically worse.

My wife and I, along with my parents and in-laws, were staying at a hotel in Phoenix while we were in town to attend a few spring training baseball games. One night, the six of us decided to order a meat and cheese plate from room service to have as an appetizer as we all enjoyed a glass of wine before going out ...

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