88 Complaint Management Excellence In the customer complaint situation I described at the start of the chapter, if judgemental listening is all about you listening to yourself and active listening is focusing on the facts, intuitive listening is about what you are hearing in terms of the emotional impact on the customer. By truly listening and `tuning in' to the customer's feeling you can show true empathy, which is the next step in the process. Empathize and apologize The first step to take in dealing with a complaint is to say sorry to the cus- tomer: that they have been inconvenienced, that they have had to complain, that they are frustrated. It does not matter at this stage whether or not the complaint arose because of something your company did wrong. `Sorry' is a powerful word and customer-service professionals should not be afraid to say it. And to empathize with the customer. Empathy involves identifying the customer's feelings and emotion and is a