Respond to your customer's opening statement with an assurance that you can help.  Say something like, "Absolutely.  I can help you with that."  Even if you are going to refer the customer to another department or employee, you can give an assurance.  Say, "I'm going to transfer you to the department that can take care of this for you, but I will stay on the line until someone answers."

- Renee Evenson, Customer Service Training 101

In customer service, our instinct is to hear the customer's request or issue then to dive right into accomplishing whatever task is necessary to help the customer out.  This instinct certainly exemplifies the "customer-focused" concept we believe results in the best service.  However, sometimes our desire to fix the issue makes us move too quickly, and forget the customer may be uncertain whether they reached the correct person, whether their issue/request can be handled, and whether the customer service representative is confident and capable.  Taking this very quick moment to reassure the customer not only sets a positive and professional tone, but it helps to keep the customer calm and gives the representative clear control of the dialog, which is especially helpful during complaint resolution.