Diagnosis

The agent processes the customer's request for a copy bill efficiently but does not hear or respond to the concern in the customer's tone, missing that the customer may be struggling to pay.

Session objective

The objective of the session is to help the group recognise that a transactional request can carry an unspoken concern, and that responding only to the surface request leaves the customer without the help they actually need. Help the agents develop the habit of listening to the customer's tone and mood as a signal to explore further. Get the coachee and the group to move from assuming customers are comfortable with debt to understanding that most people do not want to owe money and are looking for help, not just a process.

Session tactics

Play the full recorded call twice — instruct the group not to listen to the agent but to focus entirely on the tone and mood of the customer. Ask the group why a customer would ask for a copy bill, and let reasons surface before introducing the insight that in most utility contexts this request often signals a need for more time to pay. When the group holds a prejudiced view — such as assuming customers choose to pay for non-essentials over utilities — surface that mood explicitly and invite the group to examine how it shapes their calls. To build empathy in a younger group with limited experience of bill pressure, ask them to consider how a parent, grandparent, or family member would want to be treated when calling a utility company about money. Discuss what it actually feels like to owe money, and use that conversation to shift the group toward sitting in the customer's world rather than trying to end the call quickly.

Behaviour observations

• The agent hears the customer's request and moves immediately into process, taking details and arranging to send the copy bill without pausing to notice the concern in the customer's tone.
• Agents in the group assume that customers who are in debt do not mind being in debt, and attribute copy-bill requests to administrative reasons such as a wrong address rather than financial difficulty.
• Agents show a tendency to want to give the customer what they asked for and close the call quickly rather than exploring what is really going on for the customer.

Experiments

• The agents will try exploring further with customers who request a copy bill — asking questions about the bill amount, usage in the household, and what is driving their query — before moving into process.
• When an agent notices concern or hesitation in a customer's tone, they will pause and acknowledge it rather than continuing with the transactional process.