In today’s hyper-connected world, where customers wield more power than ever before, businesses face an unrelenting challenge: customer complaints.

Did you know that, on average, dissatisfied customers will share their negative experiences with 9-15 people? That’s a remarkable ripple effect that no company can afford to ignore.

Handling customer complaints effectively is not merely customer service; it’s the foundation of building lasting customer relationships and fostering brand loyalty.

This blog post cuts through the noise and provides a guide to tackling eight of the most common customer complaints head-on.

Whether it’s a product issue, a billing dispute, or a frustrating customer service experience, our goal is to equip you with actionable strategies to transform complaints into customer satisfaction and loyalty opportunities. So, let’s get in and explore how you can turn those frowns upside down.

Why solve customer complaints?

Customer complaints are more than just an inconvenience; they can profoundly impact your business in two critical ways:

Keep customers coming back

Undertaking customer complaints is not just about addressing immediate issues; it’s about securing long-term customer relationships. One striking statistic underscores this point:

The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is just 5-20%.

By effectively resolving complaints with excellent customer service, you retain existing customers and increase customer satisfaction, enhancing the likelihood of future sales from these loyal patrons.

Help your business grow

Complaint resolution is not just about damage control but also a powerful tool for business expansion. Beyond retaining customers, resolving complaints plays a significant role in business growth.

Satisfied customers become advocates. They recommend your brand to friends and family, acting as powerful word-of-mouth marketers.

Positive recommendations from customers can lead to new business opportunities and organic growth. Addressing and analyzing customer complaints effectively prevents customer churn and improves customer satisfaction.

This way, you can boost your customers’ likelihood of speaking out for your business and brand.

8 Regular Issues of Customer Complaints and How to Fix Them

It’s essential to understand that most customer complaints arise from genuine concerns. Even when you believe everything was executed flawlessly, treating each complaint with the seriousness it deserves is crucial.

Now, let’s focus on how to resolve customer complaints. We’ll specifically zone in on the most common customer complaints and provide practical solutions to address them.

1. Common customer complaint #1: Long wait times

Customers get upset when waiting a long time on the phone. This can make them consider going to another business that helps them faster.

How to resolve this complaint
To fix this problem, apologize to the customer for making them wait. If you can, tell them why they had to wait. Let them know you want to help them quickly and value their time.

To help customers faster, the business should make some changes. They can hire more people to answer calls, especially when busy.

Using new tools and tech can also improve the call center and help workers do their jobs more easily. Doing this can mean customers don’t have to wait as long, making them happier.

2. Common customer complaint #2: Inability to speak with a human

This problem is a frustration many customers have encountered at one point or another. The inability to speak with a human being when they need assistance from a business.

This issue typically arises when automated phone systems or chatbots dominate customer interactions, leaving customers feeling isolated and unheard.

Customers find this issue awkward for several reasons:

• Customers value personalized assistance, and automated systems fall short in this regard.
• They prefer human interaction for understanding and empathy for complex or emotionally charged issues.
• Automated systems may struggle to understand accents or speech impediments, creating communication barriers.

How to resolve this complaint
Offer customers a clear option to speak with a human representative, making it easily accessible for any unhappy customers.

Implement chat support with a straightforward way for customers to request assistance from customer service reps during the chat. Invest in training customer service reps to be knowledgeable, empathetic, and capable of handling various issues that can arise.

Balance automation with human interaction, ensuring automation handles routine inquiries efficiently while leaving more complex or sensitive matters to human representatives.

3. Common customer complaint #3: Product or service problems

When a customer can’t find their favorite product due to no stock, and they contact you to complain about it, it’s a good sign—it shows you have loyal customers.

However, even strong customer loyalty doesn’t compensate for the disappointment of not getting what they’re after. Working harder to fulfill the customer’s wishes is essential in such cases.

How to resolve this complaint
It’s good to be clear about when the product will be back. Sending emails with updates can be helpful. Trust us, every kind of customer values a heads-up from the company.

See it as a good symbol if they’ve talked to you about the missing product. Ensure you give them clear info and let them know they’ll be the first to discover when the product is back.

4. Common customer complaint #4: Shipping delays

Shipping delays occur when there’s an extended time taken for a product to be delivered compared to the initially promised time frame. This could result from issues with the supplier, logistics challenges, or other unforeseen obstacles.

For customers, timely delivery is not just a preference but often a necessity. They might be waiting on a crucial item for an event, as a gift, or for personal use.

When there’s a delay, handling customer complaints is essential. Addressing a customer’s complaint promptly and compassionately can help maintain trust and moderate dissatisfaction.

How to resolve this complaint
Effective communication is key. Businesses should keep customers informed about the status of their shipments.

If delays are anticipated, notify the customer with an updated delivery timeline as soon as possible. Offering tracking options can also reassure customers, as they can monitor their progress.

Companies should work on strengthening their supply chain, partnering with reliable logistics providers, and maintaining a buffer stock to lessen unexpected disruptions.

5. Common customer complaint #5: Poor customer service

Poor customer service can manifest in many ways: unhelpful staff, long wait times or the lack of a prompt response to queries and issues.

Customers expect timely, polite, and effective solutions to their concerns. Poor service leaves them feeling underrated and frustrated, often leading to decreased brand loyalty.

How to resolve this complaint

• Invest in training programs to equip staff with the right customer service skills.
• Implement feedback systems to improve service quality continuously.
• Ensure multiple communication channels are available for customers to raise their concerns.

6. Common customer complaint #6: Hidden fees

Hidden fees refer to unexpected charges that weren’t made clear to the customer at the outset of a transaction.

It breaks the trust between the company and the customer. Customers feel deceived when they have to pay more than initially communicated.

How to resolve this complaint
Businesses should adopt a transparent pricing strategy. All charges, fees, and potential add-ons should be communicated upfront. Fine prints should be minimized and, if present, highlighted effectively.

7. Common customer complaint #7: Difficulty getting a refund

Customers sometimes find the refund process complicated, lengthy, or stringent. When a product or service doesn’t meet expectations, customers want reassurance that they can recover their money easily. A tough refund process can escalate their dissatisfaction.

How to resolve this complaint

• Establish a clear and straightforward refund policy.
• Train customer service teams to handle refund requests empathetically and efficiently.
• Regularly review and streamline the refund process based on customer feedback.

8. Common customer complaint #8: Lack of communication

Lack of communication from businesses arises when they don’t provide regular, clear, and relevant updates to their customers.

During any phase of the customer-business relationship, such occurrences can occur, be it pre-sale inquiries, post-purchase updates, or during the resolution of issues.

Customers often feel left in the dark when businesses need to communicate more effectively. This absence of information creates uncertainty and frustration, making customers question the reliability and professionalism of the business.

How to resolve this complaint
To tackle the issue of inadequate communication, businesses should first acknowledge its importance. Effective communication plays a pivotal role in setting and managing customer expectations.

Embracing tips for positive customer communication, companies should establish regular touchpoints with their customers, particularly during critical interactions.

For instance, customers can be updated about the product’s dispatch, shipping status, and estimated delivery date after a purchase.

Tips and tricks for addressing complaints

Mastering the art of addressing complaints efficiently is crucial for fostering customer trust and ensuring long-term loyalty.

Active listening

Understanding customer concerns through active listening is the base of effective complaint resolution. It’s essential to hear and truly understand a customer’s issue. Here are some tips:

• Empathize: Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. This will help you grasp the gravity of their concern better.
• Ask Clarifying Questions: Don’t assume; ask if you’re unsure about details. This ensures you’ve captured the entirety of the issue.

Prompt response

Responding on time signifies that you value the customer’s time and concerns. Here’s how you can enhance responsiveness:

• Set up Automated Acknowledgments: Even if it’s a simple “We’ve received your concern and are working on it,” it provides reassurance.
• Delegate and Prioritize: Assign complaint resolution tasks to team members based on urgency and expertise to ensure swift and accurate solutions.

Solution Offering

An effective solution addresses the present complaint and prevents future ones. The key lies in a transparent and fair resolution process:

• Consistent Policies: Ensure that your solutions align with company policies, which should be communicated to staff and customers.

Flexibility: While policies provide guidelines, sometimes unique problems require unique solutions. Train your customer service team to balance policy adherence and the need for flexible, case-by-case resolutions.

Complaints handling procedure

After setting up a policy, it’s time to establish a consistent method to address complaints. This ensures uniformity in how issues are tackled, regardless of who handles them. All team members should find this method easy to implement.

To manage complaints effectively, it’s crucial to have customer service scripts that guide your team through each step, ensuring consistency.

You can use AI script writing tools to generate these scripts quickly and automate the process further. Consider incorporating these steps into your complaints handling guide.

Step 1: Listen to the complaint

Express gratefulness to the customer for sharing their issue with you. Apologize sincerely without pointing fingers, ensuring you maintain politeness throughout.

Step 2: Record details of the complaint

Get into the issue to grasp its full extent. Consistently record all complaints in a dedicated system or log, enabling you to spot patterns or recurring challenges.

Step 3: Get all the facts

Ensure that the recorded complaint aligns with the customer’s concerns. Clarify any ambiguities by asking further questions.

Step 4: Discuss options for resolving the problem

Engage the customer by asking what resolution they envision: a product exchange, refund, fix, or a simple apology. Evaluate the feasibility of their expectation.

Step 5: Act quickly

Strive to address the complaint with urgency. Prolonged resolutions worsen the issue.

Step 6: Keep your promises

If there’s a change in the resolution timeline, keep the customer in the loop. Make sure to make assurances that are within your capacity.

Step 7: Follow up

Reach out to the customer post-resolution to gauge their satisfaction level. Share measures being taken to prevent such issues in the future.

Ensuring your team is well-acquainted with this procedure and empowered to act decisively is crucial. Emphasize the importance of customer feedback and complaints, underscoring your commitment to continuous improvement.

Final Thoughts

Addressing customer complaints isn’t just about damage control; it’s a golden opportunity for growth. The essence is valuing and strategically responding to customer feedback. Businesses can refine their offerings and enhance overall brand perception.

We’ve deeply understood various common complaints and the structured approach to handling them effectively. But beyond individual solutions lies a broader perspective: embracing complaints as a catalyst for continuous improvement.

As you journey forward, remember that every piece of feedback, positive or negative, is a stepping stone to creating a better customer experience.

If you’re eager to explore more strategies to uplift your customer service, check out Nicereply. The platform has resources and insights to help elevate your customer service game. Embrace feedback and transform challenges into opportunities!

The post Customer Complaints: A Guide to Resolving 8 Regular Issues appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Customer service teams are the superheroes of the business world.

When you have a question about a product you bought online, or if something isn’t working as it should, who can you turn to for help? The customer service team, of course!

They play a crucial role in ensuring customers are satisfied and keep coming back for more. Creating a compelling experience for customers makes the customer service representative role demanding, regardless of the industry.

So, whether you’re a business owner seeking the perfect customer service rep with the right skills or an individual wanting to enhance your customer service strengths, this post is for you!

I have listed the most important customer service skills to help you keep your customers happy and build a reputable brand. Let’s start by understanding the role better…

What is customer service?

Customer service is all about helping customers. 

It refers to the support and assistance provided by a business to its customers before, during, and after a purchase. It involves addressing customer inquiries, resolving issues, and providing personalized support to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty. 

Customer service & support is not just for in-store situations, but also via email, Call, SMS, or any online platform.

Why is customer service important?

The success of any business relies heavily on its customer service, which directly impacts customer satisfaction and loyalty. Good customer service can generate positive word-of-mouth and repeat business, while bad customer service can result in lost sales.

Happy customers are more likely to return and recommend your business to others, leading to increased sales and growth. However, poor customer service can lead to negative reviews and a loss of customers, ultimately damaging your business’s reputation and financial bottom line.

Therefore, by prioritizing customer service, businesses can establish strong relationships with their customers and gain a competitive advantage in their market.

15 top customer service skills

Let’s take a look at the top 15 customer service representative skills.

1. Active listening

One of the critical customer service rep skills is active listening. You need to listen to your customers wholeheartedly before you can help them.  

Active listeners not only pay attention to what is being said but also uncover what your customers are unable to convey properly. Doing so will help you respond accurately and promptly.

Note-taking can help you stay focused and attentive during customer conversations, especially when handling multiple queries at once. Jotting down important points can help you remember the key details and provide personalized support.

2. Problem-solving

90% of consumers consider issue resolution as their most crucial concern. Service teams are responsible for providing solutions to customer problems. This means to be a good customer service rep, you need to be a good problem solver.

When customers seek assistance, it’s crucial to provide quick and efficient solutions. This requires reps to possess a high degree of intuition to identify the root cause of the problem. 

In some cases, customers may not be able to correctly identify their issues, so it’s up to the rep to analyze the situation and determine the root cause before offering appropriate solutions. 

To better understand customers and provide the right solutions, reps must ask all the necessary questions and analyze their situation thoroughly. This involves identifying the customer’s needs, concerns, and preferences to ensure that the solution offered is tailored to their specific situation. 

3. Empathy

Empathy is one of the great customer service skills you can possess. It helps you to understand your customers’ perspectives and show that you care about them.

Being empathetic allows you to connect with customers on a deeper level, making it easier for you to identify and address their pain points. In customer service, the experience is everything, and empathy is the key to delivering an exceptional experience.

To empathize effectively with your customers, you should try to put yourself in their shoes by recalling your own experiences with similar situations. If you haven’t faced similar situations, you can still draw on your own feelings about a comparable issue as a reference point.

4. Patience

When you are attending to a customer query, responding to a chain of emails, or handling a customer call, it is important to be patient and attentive. This will help you to understand the customer’s concerns better and enable you to provide them with the best possible assistance.

When the customer is angry, annoyed, or upset, it is even more crucial to remain patient and polite while addressing their grievances. By doing so, you can help ease their frustration and work towards resolving the issue at hand in the best possible manner.

Being patient also involves managing the customer’s expectations by setting realistic goals and explaining the steps that will be taken to address their concerns. This can help to avoid misunderstandings and ensure that the customer is satisfied with the outcome.

5. Clear verbal communication

Clear verbal communication is the key to better customer interaction and service. Clear verbal communication minimizes the risk of misunderstandings or misinterpretations, thus minimizing customer frustration and dissatisfaction.

While interacting with your customers, pay close attention to what they are saying. Avoid interrupting and wait for them to finish before responding. This shows respect and ensures you understand their concerns fully.

Also, avoid using jargon or technical terms that the customer may not understand. Explain concepts in simple, everyday language to ensure clarity. 

Make sure to speak in a calm and friendly tone, even when dealing with difficult or irate customers. Always remember that using a positive tone can help de-escalate tense situations.

6. Clear written communication

A lot of customer interaction these days involves online and written communication. This means you need to have a good hold over written communication skills as a customer service rep. 

While keeping general communication skills in mind, you also need to ensure that the messages you write to your customers are clear, grammatically correct, and simple to understand. Make sure you maintain a friendly tone as written communication can often be misleading if words are not chosen properly.

Also while addressing an issue over online platforms or email, communicate steps using bulleted or numbered lists and use screenshots whenever possible that make it easy for the customer to understand what is required. 

7. Ability to use positive language

As we spoke about communication and how using the right tone is important, customer service reps must always use positive language and tone while interacting with the customers even in a tough scenario. 

The use of positive language helps diffuse tense situations and fosters a more favorable customer experience. It involves choosing words that convey empathy, understanding, and a willingness to assist. 

You should refrain from negative language or blaming, and focus on providing solutions and assistance professionally even when the customer might come out rude.

8. Persuasion

Customer service reps need persuasion skills to handle complex interactions effectively. These skills help reps guide customers towards better solutions as well as help achieve business objectives, such as upselling or cross-selling for better revenue and profitability.

To master these skills, reps should focus on active listening, and empathy as understanding a customer’s pain points and preferences is essential for tailoring persuasive approaches. 

Participating in ongoing training, role-playing exercises, and feedback from supervisors can also help refine persuasion techniques and adapt them to different customer scenarios. 

9. Negotiation

Negotiation is one of the most important skills needed for customer service. 

Dealing with customers might demand you to provide solutions that not only satisfy the customer’s needs but also work in the interest of the business. satisfy the best interests of both parties involved.

Sometimes finding a solution that makes both parties happy can be extremely difficult and calls for Good negotiating skills. Negotiation skills can even be advantageous for your business, enabling it to be more adaptable when faced with unfamiliar requests from new or existing clients. 

10. Self-control

Self-control and staying calm quality empower people not only to maintain their own composure but also to influence and reassure others around them.

In the context of customer service, exceptional representatives recognize the importance of maintaining their calm demeanor, even in the face of irate or frustrated customers. When customers are upset, they often look to the customer service agent as a source of stability and assistance. 

By remaining composed and collected, customer service representatives can effectively defuse tense situations, listen attentively to customers’ concerns, and work towards resolving issues.

Their ability to stay calm under pressure is not just a personal skill; it’s a fundamental part of their role in ensuring that customers receive the best possible assistance and leave with a positive impression, regardless of the challenges presented.

11. Creativity

As each problem is unique in its own way, it often demands a unique solution. Therefore, tackling the diverse range of issues that may arise requires you to be resourceful and creative.

As a customer service representative, you have too many issues to deal with in a day and a creative approach will make it fun and easy to cater to your customer’s needs while setting you apart from other businesses. 

Thus, encouraging creative problem-solving will help you make an interesting and good reputation in your customer’s eyes as well as boost customer loyalty. 

12. Product knowledge

You will only be able to help the customers properly when you have a thorough understanding of the product and all the solutions around it.

Having a good hold over the product and a deeper knowledge of the business domain will provide you with a more complete perspective of the issues faced by the customer and the confidence to hunt for the right solution. 

If you are in a technical support role, then you need deeper product knowledge. You must be ready to diagnose and solve complex user issues in a short time frame which again requires you to know the ins and outs of the product you sell. 

13. Tech proficiency

Tech proficiency is another one of the important customer service representative skills. This is important because when dealing with customer queries you might have to use an array of tools.

Most of your work would revolve around tools like customer service ticketing tools to track customer queries, live chat tools for real-time conversation with customers, and CRMs to look up customer profiles and help them better. 

This is for all customer service reps, whereas the tech assistance team would need to be more skilled and familiar with all the tools and platforms to resolve any technical issues for their customer.

14. Time management

Effective time management is crucial for all professionals. It directly impacts the quality and quantity of outcomes, as customer satisfaction hinges on timely responses and resolutions. 

It enables customer service reps to strike a balance between addressing customer needs promptly and providing high-quality service. This ensures that customers feel valued and respected, enhancing their overall experience.

By measuring and analyzing time-related metrics, organizations can refine processes, adapt to changing customer needs, and deliver a more efficient and satisfying experience.

15. Continuous learning

Lastly, having a will for continuous learning is a fundamental skill that every customer service rep must possess. It is the foundation for building expertise in any area. 

With changing times and customer preferences, you must be eager to acquire an in-depth understanding of your target market, and product, learn how to communicate effectively and recognize when their communication is inadequate. You should also be willing to learn when to follow a process and when to deviate from it.

Individuals who are not motivated to improve their skills, regardless of their field, will be outpaced by those who are committed to self-improvement. Hence, those who are willing to invest in their own growth will always stay ahead of the curve.

Building your customer service strengths

Whether it’s a demanding customer, a high-stress situation, or a complex problem to solve, the best customer service representatives embody the metaphorical “rock” that provides stability and reassurance to those they serve.

As we’ve explored throughout this blog, the best customer service skills are not just about personal composure; it’s about being a reliable source of support for customers who may be experiencing frustration or anxiety. By keeping your cool as a customer service representative, you can effectively listen, empathize, and find solutions, ultimately leaving customers with a positive impression and a sense of satisfaction.

So, whether you call it “keeping your cool” or “staying cool under pressure,” this ability is undeniably a cornerstone of exceptional customer service. It’s the reassuring presence that turns challenging moments into opportunities for resolution and leaves customers with a lasting sense of trust and appreciation.

The post 15 Essential Customer Service Skills in 2024 (and Beyond) appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Delivering negative feedback shouldn’t dismantle—it should empower. Our guide and examples transform criticism into a tool for growth and collaboration.

You’ve just gotten promoted to manager of your customer support team, and you’re thriving. 

You’re great at optimizing processes, devising new programs to improve the customer experience, and you love collaborating and developing your team.

Right up until you have to give them negative feedback. 

Suddenly, your confidence wanes.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. 

Negative feedback can be uncomfortable and nerve-wracking for everyone, whether they’re giving it or receiving it.

But it doesn’t have to be.

Feedback, both positive and negative, is essential to our growth as support professionals (and humans). 

Here’s how to give constructive and actionable negative feedback with many real-world negative performance feedback examples, so you can improve how you phrase and approach it.

Five tips to give negative feedback effectively

Let’s start with the bad news: 

There’s no single method that will work perfectly for every person in every situation.

But there is some good news: There’s usually a best way for an individual to receive feedback.

Tailor your method to the individual employee. 

For example, I don’t mind receiving positive feedback publicly, but I know that the best way for me to receive negative feedback is to get it in writing first. This gives me time to process it and work through my feelings about it privately. Once I’ve absorbed it, I can usually talk the negative feedback through openly and positively. Someone else might hate receiving even positive feedback publicly because the spotlight makes them uncomfortable.

A large team or a very busy queue might get in the way of how deliberate you can be with feedback, but making an effort will have an impact.

These are general tips for giving feedback in all situations. They can’t replace the knowledge and experience you can build by getting to know your team members, but they can give you a starting point.

Avoid ambushes

Imagine walking into a meeting and having your boss talk about a mistake you made in front of your whole team. 

No matter how comfortable you are receiving negative feedback, that isn’t a fun situation. 

Avoid giving negative feedback without warning or in front of others. That makes feedback feel like an ambush, which immediately derails any meaningful conversation or outcome you were looking for.

Keep feedback recent

Give any feedback as soon as possible after you observe an issue. 

Bringing up feedback from the past, especially if it’s something your employee is already working on, can feel frustrating. If you want to highlight a clear pattern of behavior that’s impacting your team, use the most recent examples you can.

Focus on impact

Feedback is only actionable when it’s specific. 

Take this statement for example: “You’re always late to meetings.” 

Is the agent really always late? To every meeting? That seems unlikely. 

An alternative might sound like this, “I noticed that you were late to our last two meetings with Product. These meetings are only about 30 minutes long, and Product’s timeline is tight. As the voice of our customers on this feature, it’s important that you’re on time and prepared so that our Product team can build the best version of this feature.”

This level of detail means you address:

• The behavior: Being late.
• The impact: Product features getting developed without input from the Support team. 
• The desired change: Being on time.

The specificity makes it very clear what the problem is and how your team member can improve. It turns vague feedback into constructive negative feedback.

Provide context

Let’s consider two different scenarios where you might give feedback:

1. An agent is repeatedly late to meetings with your Product team.
2. An agent has opportunities to improve their presentation and public-speaking skills.

The first scenario is serious, but fixable: 

• As long as they correct the behavior, it isn’t a big deal.
• But if it’s the second or third time they’ve received feedback about being late for meetings, then it will get more serious.
• It could eventually have ramifications on their job at the company. They need to know that in order to respond with appropriate urgency.

The second scenario is feedback that you’re giving as a mentor, not as a manager. Maybe you know your agent wants to develop their career into a leadership or executive role. Presentation skills are essential for that, but they aren’t holding them back from being successful in their current position. 

Providing context means your agent understands where the feedback is coming from and why. They can choose if, when, and how they act on it when they have the full picture.

Make a plan together

Real growth requires support. 

Think about your favorite flower. It needs good soil, water, and sunlight to grow. People need the same kind of help, just in a different form.

Pair your negative feedback with an offer to help the recipient make a plan to improve. If you need to, ask clarifying questions about what might be happening to cause the issue so that you can collaborate on a solution. 

Using the above scenario: Is the agent arriving late to the Product meetings because the scheduled time conflicts with school pick-up for their kids? Are they forgetting to join the meeting on time because they get absorbed in other priorities?

The solution is different depending on the cause.

• Perhaps you can help coordinate with the Product team to schedule a new time for the meeting.
• Maybe the two of you can brainstorm strategies for addressing time blindness or for switching contexts more effectively.

Empower your agent to solve the issue and support them in how to get there. That might mean checking in with them regularly to see how they’re improving. Or it might mean switching their responsibilities so the issue doesn’t happen again.

18 negative feedback examples with constructive alternatives

Negative feedback gets easier with some practice. Spending time reflecting on both positive and negative feedback examples can help shape your approach to delivering feedback to your team members.

Use these examples for inspiration when you’re preparing your own feedback.

1) “Your response times are frequently slow.”

Constructive: “Your first response times have gone up in the last few weeks, so customers are waiting longer than normal to hear back about their issues. Are there any bugs or products that you’re having trouble with? 

Let’s go over some of your tickets and talk about what aspects might be slowing down your responses.”

2) “You don’t resolve customer issues effectively.”

Constructive: “You’ve had some tickets recently that took more replies than normal to resolve, which can be a frustrating experience for customers. 

Let’s review those tickets and see how we can improve your problem-solving skills and product knowledge in those areas. We can also talk about how and when to escalate tickets.”

3) “You rely too heavily on macros / scripted responses.”

Constructive: “While scripts and macros can be helpful in responding to customers faster, we want to give our customers a personalized experience whenever we can. 

Let’s answer a few tickets together to see where we can customize the macros. The goal is to make sure they speak to the customer’s issue directly without compromising your efficiency.”

4) “You don’t express enough empathy in tickets.”

Constructive: “I’ve noticed that you sometimes struggle with validating users’ feelings in difficult tickets, which can make customers feel dismissed. 

We can come up with some sample phrases you can use in response to these situations. Are there other tools that would make that easier for you?”

5) “You use an inappropriate tone when dealing with upset customers.”

Constructive: “I’ve noticed that your replies stay upbeat and happy even when customers are upset, which makes them feel like you’re not taking their concerns seriously. 

Let’s work on adjusting our tone based on context clues from the customer.”

6) “Your tone in written communication can be too formal.”

Constructive: “I know many of us are used to a more formal, corporate communication style when we’re talking to customers. On our team we like to be more conversational so that customers know we’re human and that they can be more relaxed when asking for support. 

Let’s review some of your tickets and rewrite them to show more of your personality.”

7) “You often put customers on hold for too long.”

Constructive: “I know you really care about getting your facts right, which I really appreciate. Having said that, long hold times can be frustrating for customers because they feel like we’re not respecting their time. Are there issues you’re struggling to troubleshoot or products you’d like to understand better? 

Let’s see how we can reduce hold times while providing accurate information. We can come up with some training to help you feel more comfortable with those topics.”

8) “You often fail to follow up with customers as promised.”

Constructive: “We’ve gotten some complaints from customers that you’re not following up with them when you say you will. It’s really important that we update customers on their issues so that they don’t think we’ve forgotten about them or their issues. 

Can we brainstorm some strategies for keeping track of customer issues so that we can get back to them consistently?”

9) “Some of your cases escalate unnecessarily.”

Constructive: “Dealing with upset customers can be tough. When we don’t de-escalate and address their concerns appropriately, they feel like we’re not listening which increases their frustration. 

How do you feel about roleplaying some conversations to practice techniques for de-escalation? We can also review our rules regarding customer abuse, because we want you to feel empowered to transfer or end a conversation with a customer who is verbally abusing you.”

10) “Your knowledge of our products and services is lacking.”

Constructive: “It looks like you’ve shared some factual errors / incorrect information about our products with our customers. That caused some confusion for those users and has meant that other teammates had to step in. It’s important that the information we’re giving our customers is correct so that they know they can trust our support teams to provide expert help. 

How can we invest time in product training to improve your expertise?”

11) “You’re inconsistent in documenting customer interactions.”

Constructive: “Our Tier 2 / Success teams have shared that you don’t always document bugs and customer issues when you escalate those issues. Accurate and consistent documentation is essential so that customers don’t have to repeat themselves. It also means that other teams can address user issues as quickly and accurately as possible. 

Maybe we can create a template that you (and everyone else on the team) can use when they’re escalating issues to another team.”

12) “You tend to make promises we can’t keep.”

Constructive: “Our engineering team reported that you promised a fix to this customer’s bug today without talking to them first. This puts the developers in a tough place because that’s not a realistic timetable for fixing this bug, and they hate to disappoint customers. 

Let’s go over our process for escalating bugs to engineering. We can also set up a meeting with them to improve how we communicate time tables to customers.”

13) “You don’t take ownership of customer problems.”

Constructive: “I’ve noticed your customer satisfaction rating has gone down recently because customers feel like you’re not fully addressing their complaints or are sending them to help center articles too quickly. This makes them feel like our team doesn’t care about their problems, and leads to more contacts with our Support team overall. 

Are you feeling overwhelmed in the queue or is there product knowledge you’re missing? What would you need to feel more equipped to shepherd customer issues to completion?”

14) “You don’t actively seek feedback from customers.”

Constructive: “I’ve been reviewing cancelation tickets and noticed some where you didn’t ask the customer why they were canceling their subscription with us. Customer feedback is valuable, especially when they’ve had a poor experience because that gives us an opportunity to salvage our relationship with them. 

How can we make it easier for you to proactively gather feedback from customers in the future?”

15) “You sometimes struggle to troubleshoot technical issues.”

Constructive: “I’ve noticed you get flustered because you’re struggling to read application debug logs from our customers, and that you’re having to rely on your teammates a lot for help. While I love seeing the teamwork, I think we can get you more comfortable troubleshooting technical issues so that you’re less anxious and more confident. 

Would you like to schedule some training to go over our debug logs, common errors we see in our application, and how to troubleshoot or escalate those errors? Would it help to have these documented?”

16) “You struggle to adapt to new policies and procedures.”

Constructive: “It feels like you’ve been resistant to our new refund policy and procedure. 

Is that accurate? If so, did I provide adequate training on it? I know you care a lot about our customers’ happiness, so do you have concerns about the new policy that I haven’t addressed? 

I’d like to talk about this so you understand why we made the changes and feel more comfortable with implementing the policy.”

17) “Your call handling time is consistently too long.”

Constructive: “You have a wonderful way with customers and they love talking to you, which is great. We also have a busy phone queue and your teammates have to pick up more calls and we have longer wait times for customers as a result. 

How can we reduce your call handling time while still providing quality service?”

18) “You’re not effectively using our customer support tools.”

Constructive: “It seems like you’re struggling to use our admin tools when troubleshooting problems with customer accounts, which is leading to longer issue resolution times. 

Let’s do some training on our admin tools so you can use them like a pro.”

Cultivate an environment for feedback exchange

Three basic elements are necessary for feedback to be given and received successfully: 

• Trust. Your team must believe that you have their best interests at heart, and that you want them to be successful–both in the company and their career overall. 
• Psychological safety, “a shared belief held by members of a team that it’s OK to take risks, to express their ideas and concerns, to speak up with questions, and to admit mistakes — all without fear of negative consequences.”
• A growth mindset to understand that failure and mistakes are a part of the process of growing and learning to be better.

Even the most perfectly delivered feedback won’t land and have the impact you want it to without these elements. How do you incorporate them into your team culture? 

Through modeling, repetition, and reinforcement. 

Here are some examples of what that looks like: 

• Hold regular training.
• Make space in team meetings to talk about what didn’t go well during the previous week, and how the team can help each other through it.
• Decide as a team what skills you’d all like to work on, and then pick a book to read covering those skills.
• Be open when you’re struggling with a skill or task and how you’re working to address it.
• Hold professional development conversations with each agent. What kind of work do they want to do? What do they want to learn? What is the next job title they want to work toward? How can you help them meet those goals?
• When possible, give agents time out of the queue to work on special projects or personal learning.
• After outages, major bugs, or downward trends in customer satisfaction, hold no-fault retros to understand what happened and how it can be improved or avoided in the future.
• Reward growth and milestones on your team, even when they’re small wins.

How to respond to negative feedback

The negative feedback examples above focused on giving feedback to your employees. You’ll regularly need to give negative feedback as a support leader, but you’ll also be on the receiving end of it at times. 

To help with that, we’ve included some best practices on how to receive and respond to feedback from your manager and from customers.

Responding to feedback from your manager

Receiving negative feedback from your manager can be even more fraught than giving it.

• Assume good faith. Remember that your manager is giving you this feedback because they’re invested in your career with the company and they want to help you. They want you to succeed!
• Take time to understand the feedback you’ve been given. If you need more time to process, don’t hesitate to ask for it.
• Be curious. Ask questions about the feedback, especially if anything is unclear. 
• Make an improvement plan. Ask your manager to help you or to review your plan if you’ve already made one. Plans can keep you on track and your manager can help you refine your strategy and ensure your timeline is realistic and on target.
• Thank them for trusting you with the feedback and for caring about your professional development. 

Gratitude can help your brain reframe the feedback so you feel more positive about it. It also helps you build a stronger relationship with your manager and your team.

Responding to feedback from customers

Handling negative feedback from customers is one of the most important skills you can develop as a customer support professional. 

Every function in your company benefits from understanding how your customers feel about your product. And listening to customers is key to building long-lasting relationships with them.

When responding to feedback from customers:

• Validate their feelings. Be genuine and empathetic, and avoid rote phrases like “I’m sorry for any inconvenience caused.” Have you ever read that sentence in an email and believed that the agent was actually sorry?
• Practice active listening. If your customer sounds irritated, say, “I’d be irritated by that too,” or if they’re frustrated, “That sounds really frustrating.” This is effective at diffusing tense situations and making the customer feel heard.
• Repeat the customer’s concern to them. This also demonstrates that you’re listening while giving them the opportunity to correct and clarify. 
• Tell them what your next steps are. Will you share their feedback with your Product team? If a follow-up is needed, when can they expect it? 

Make sure you set realistic expectations. It’s always better to underpromise and overdeliver than to overpromise and underdeliver. That’s a surefire way to lose a customer.

Giving truly helpful feedback takes practice

Feedback is an incredibly popular topic because we all recognize its transformative power. It can help you create a culture of openness and growth.

Negative feedback, in particular—for all that it feels deeply uncomfortable—can be a valuable gift. When handled with care and consideration, it can be a catalyst for positive change and personal development.

Take the time to give the best feedback you can and see how it changes your team. 

The post 18 Negative Feedback Examples (+ Guide on How to Give It Right) appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

When communicating in the professional world, how we say things matters as much as the things we say.

You might see email closings as a simple formality—a couple of sentences at the bottom of an email. 

While it’s true that email endings don’t add a huge amount of extra information, their presence in a business email is mandatory.

Think about the experience of someone reading an email without a closing. It’s as if they’re strolling down a smooth path. Then, suddenly, the path ends, leaving them at the edge of a cliff. It’s not a great feeling. A brusque ending with no clear farewell can negatively impact how readers perceive your email.

When communicating in the professional world, how we say things matters as much as the things we say. Not paying attention to your email sign-off could give the impression you’re careless and leave your reader wondering if you can be trusted in a business context.  

If you are lost when it comes to which ending best suits your business email, this article covers how to sign off an email (how to close an email) professionally so you can hit Send with confidence.

Why email closings are important

The ability to communicate effectively is a crucial skill in any work environment. Good communication leads to better relationships; in the professional world, relationships build careers. 

Using the right etiquette in your email closing brings subtle but major benefits, such as clearer communication. You’ll be seen as professional and trustworthy, someone who understands business rules. It’s a chance to be professional, kind, and positive. 

Not following the right customs when ending a professional email has disadvantages. You risk presenting yourself as incompetent, sending an unclear message, or even damaging potential business relationships. 

Let’s look at how to end an email professionally.

Using the right tone when ending business emails

The overall tone of your email determines what your sign-off looks like. 

A way to nail your email’s tone is to think about who you’re writing to. For example, if you’re writing an email to a colleague you know well, it makes sense to sign off with a friendly “Good luck on your presentation. You’ll do great! Take care.” Now, that wouldn’t exactly work if your recipient is a potential customer you’re contacting for the first time. 
Being business-appropriate doesn’t mean you can’t be conversational or use simple language. Remember, it’s a person at the other end of the line, and a clear, respectful, friendly tone will always be better than one that is full of jargon or contains many formalities; really formal email closings, such as“Yours Faithfully” are hardly ever used in a business context these days!

How to sign off an email professionally

You’re done with an email. It’s clear and respectful, and you’ve added the actions your reader needs to take. Now you need to ensure that the last line in your email makes the recipient want to get back to you. It’s the cherry on top of the sundae. 

Here are four things to consider before hitting send. In other words, learn a good ways to end an email:

1.Know your audience

You probably don’t speak to a family member the same way you would with a potential customer you’ve never met. The same logic applies to your email ending. 

The email’s audience determines your email ending’s tone and how formal or informal it’ll be.

Use formal language with people you don’t know well, managers, colleagues, or customers with whom you have a business relationship. Use professional language, employ a clear structure, and be polite and respectful when writing formal emails. 

Reserve informal language for interactions with friends or family members, or colleagues you have a more relaxed relationship with. The structure here doesn’t need to be as rigid, and you can use more casual language.

Email closing examples:

• Talk later
• Thx
• See ya

These are examples of informal email endings reserved for casual settings. 

It’s a good idea to keep your closings respectful and professional as long as you’re in a business setting.

2. Use a professional email closing phrase

Closing phrases are a regular occurrence in most business emails.

A professional email sign-off phrase is a short sentence that you use before formally ending your email. You’re preparing your reader for the end of the message. Closing phrases commonly express gratitude, send well wishes, or simply say goodbye. 

They are a great way to end a business email gracefully, adding a final touch just before the very last sentence. 

Here are a few ways to end a formal email in a business context. See professional ways to end an email:

• Looking forward to meeting you.
• Have a great day.
• Let me know if you have any questions.
• Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need additional help.
• You’ve done a fantastic job, keep it up!
• Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
• Looking forward to hearing from you.
• Thank you for the productive session.
• Thank you for your time.
• I appreciate all your help.
• Thank you for all the information you’ve provided.
• Good luck with your presentation tomorrow.
• I hope your presentation goes well.
• Thanks again for the reminder.
• Thank you again for the follow-up.
• I’d be happy to jump on a call if you have additional questions.
• I look forward to learning about the next steps of the interview process.
• I’ll be in touch about next steps next week.
• Please let me know if you have any questions.
• Let me know how I can help during the process.
• Please let me know if you need to reschedule.
• Please let me know if that sounds okay to you.
• If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
• Please let me know if there is anything else we can help you with in the meantime.
• Please let me know what works best.
• Please let us know if you have further questions.

3. Sign-offs: stick to the classics

When it comes to sign-off lines, there’s no need to be original. The business world relies on customs to operate, and email endings are no exception.

The following email sign-offs are all good ways to end a business email. Simply select the one that fits with your audience and your overall message.

Learn on how to sign-off an email professionally. Best closings for email:

• Warm regards
• Best
• Kindly
• Thank you
• Best regards
• Thanks
• Regards
• Thanks in advance
• Best wishes
• Wishing you all the best
• Take care
• All the best
• Stay in touch

4. Include an email signature

Your email signature serves as your digital business card, allowing you to present yourself to the outside world. It comes right under the sign-off. 

The basics of a business email signature should include following elements. Learn how to how to sign an email professionally:

• Full name
• Job title
• Company name, including a hyperlink to the website
• Additional contact information, such as phone number
• If relevant, include graphics such as your company’s logo
• You might want to include links to your Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook accounts, depending on whether you use them to promote your brand 

Beyond promoting your personal brand, you can also use signatures to collect customer feedback by embedding an in-signature survey to your email signature. For a clutter free professional link, share a digital business card and add all the details including the survey link as your email signature. You can choose the best digital business card software to create one.

5. Proofread your email ending

Typos in an email can indicate a lack of professionalism at worst (and sloppiness at best). Don’t let a simple typo at the end of your email (“Wishing you all the rest” is not exactly the best) spoil an otherwise great-looking business email. 

Pay special attention to repetitive sentences, apostrophes, misspellings, capitalization, and other details that will make your email look polished. It’s also a good idea to use a spelling and grammar check while you write. 

How to end an email professionally: examples

The language, structure, and tone you’ll use in a business email depends on your goal. Your email closing is no different—it’ll change based on what you’re trying to achieve. Ending a support email to a customer is different from concluding an email sent to a long-time colleague you’ve known for many years.  

Here are five professional email situations and how to best sign them off:

1. Applying for a job or following up on an interview

Thank you for taking the time to review my resume. I’m looking forward to speaking next week.

Best regards,

[Full Name]

Thank you again for sharing this opportunity! I’ve attached my resume. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best regards,

[Full Name]

I appreciate you taking the time to review my resume. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions.

Best wishes,

[Full Name]

Thank you for your time today. It was great meeting you. Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Warm regards,

[Full Name]

Thank you so much for the follow-up. I’m looking forward to meeting you.

Best,

[Full Name]

2. Asking for help or a favor 

Thank you in advance for your help and don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions. I’d be happy to jump on a call to talk it over.

Best,

[Full Name]

______________

I appreciate your support on this matter. Please let me know if I can be of any help to complete this task.

Thank you,

[Full Name]

______________

I’d love to know your thoughts. Please let me know if you have time for a quick call to talk it over.

Best,

[Full Name]

______________

Any assistance you could give would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if I can be of any help during the process.

Thank you,

[Full Name]

3. Accepting a job or writing a team intro email

I am very excited for the opportunity, and I can’t wait to meet you in person.

Best,

[Full Name]

Thank you so much for the opportunity! I’m looking forward to meeting you in person next week.

Cheers,

[Full Name]

4. Saying thank you

I really value your contributions to developing the new feature. It wouldn’t have been the same without you! Thank you.

Warm regards,

[Full Name]

I’m so grateful for your help, and I hope our paths cross again in the future.

Warm wishes,

[Full Name]

Thank you so much for all your help. I really appreciate how you went out of your way to get things done.

Best,

[Full Name]

Thank you so much for all your feedback so far. Your input is valuable and will shape the future of [company], so again, thank you.

Best,

[Full Name]

I appreciate you taking the time to tell us your thoughts. Don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s anything else you’d like to share.

Best regards,

[Full Name]

5. Asking for information

Thank you in advance for the information. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Best regards,

[Full Name]

______________

If you ever have any questions or want to share more, feel free to contact me. We’re always happy to hear from you!‍

Best,

[Full Name]

______________

Please review the above and let me know if you have any questions or comments by EOD tomorrow. Thank you in advance!

Best,

[Full Name]

______________

Thanks in advance for the update. Have a great day!

Best,

[Full Name]

Email endings: from draft to sent

Every single time you hit Send and your email reaches your reader’s inbox, you’re making an impression. The sum of all your interactions with a given customer or colleague adds up—it shapes their perception of you.

Care about your email’s content up to the last word, and you’ll come across as competent while guaranteeing smooth communication. Think about who you’re communicating with first, add a tested-and-proven closing phrase, include a professional-looking signature, and use a respectful tone and appropriate formatting. Lastly, don’t forget to proofread your email. 

Now you’re ready to move that email from Drafts to Sent!

The post How to End an Email Professionally [+Examples] appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Boost customer satisfaction with our 42 expert-crafted live chat scripts. Enhance your team’s service performance today!

Given the choice, your customers would choose your live chat option 100% of the time.

Okay, okay, maybe I’m projecting.

But research shows that 41% of people prefer live chat as a support channel. That’s more than the proportion of people who would choose phone, email, or social media—by a significant margin. 

Live chat support is just so convenient for customers. You get immediate and personal interaction without the annoying experience of waiting on hold (and dreadful hold music). 

But meeting customer expectations on live chat takes a lot of work. Staffing live chat support effectively brings a constant dance between inbound chat volume and available support agents. Giving your team the tools and training to efficiently deliver great chat experiences is essential to your live chat success. 

Live chat scripts are one of those critical tools.

Are live chat scripts a double-edged sword?

There are obvious advantages to using scripts as a support team. It may be self-explanatory, but let’s go through some of them to illustrate:

• They make you significantly faster. 
• They’re a great way to capture and retain knowledge. 
• They can serve as a training guide for agents, helping them hit the right tone and style of communication.
• They provide a fall-back option for agents, especially in high-stress situations.

The problems begin when scripts are used too liberally. 29% of consumers find scripted, impersonal responses the most frustrating of responses, and 38% of businesses agree that their users hate overly scripted responses.

Here’s the easy solution: Use scripts that enhance the quality of your support and always leave room for personalization. 

Believe it or not, 95% of customers would take slightly slower and higher-quality support, rather than get a boilerplate response a few minutes sooner. In fact, organizations with higher wait times tend to have higher customer satisfaction ratings.

Nailing this approach is easier said than done, so we’ve tried our best to provide scripts that can fit into that strategy.

42 expert customer service scenario scripts for live chat support

Below we’ve included scripts for all kinds of common customer support scenarios. These categories include: 

• Personalized greetings
• Asking for more info
• Active listening
• Handling difficult situations
• Transferring or putting on hold
• Closing the conversation

While you can copy-and-paste these scripts to start using them immediately, make sure that they reflect your brand’s voice and tone first. If not, tweak the voice where needed and you’ll be ready to go.

Customer service greeting scripts

You might have heard the saying, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” 

We know instinctively that first impressions matter. 

In the context of business, they can make or break an opportunity. In the context of support, they can influence the customer’s overall satisfaction with your service. Taking the time to personalize your greeting gives the impression that you’re treating that customer as an individual.

Here are a few greeting chat scripts to start with:

1. Hello, [Customer Name]! Thank you for contacting [Business Name]. How can I help?
2. Hey there! We appreciate you using [Service Name]. We’re happy to help you with any questions you have.
3. Hi, [Customer Name]! Thanks for reaching out. Give me just a moment to read your message and I’ll do my best to help.
4. Welcome back, [Customer Name]! It’s great to see you again. How can I assist you today?
5. Hi, [Customer Name]! Welcome back to [Business Name]. Did you manage to resolve [the previous issue]?

Scripts to ask for more info

Some issues, especially if they’re technically complex, need a lot of back-and-forth before you can pinpoint a cause and solution. When you’re a customer contacting support, that back-and-forth can feel like a hurdle to overcome. This is especially true if you need to confirm someone’s identity and ask them for information that’s hard to find. 

That’s why how you ask makes all the difference. Here are some ways to phrase it that can make it feel easier:

1. Sorry, you ran into trouble! I need just a little more info before I can look into this for you, and then we’ll get it sorted. Can you send us [this]?
2. I’m happy to help! I’ll get right to it, but I need some more info from you. 
3. Can you confirm your account number for me? You can find it [by going to your profile settings].
4. Thanks for explaining the issue in so much detail! I’d like to look up the previous case you opened with us. Could you let me know which email you sent it from?
5. Sure, I think I understand what you need. Do you mind walking me through how you’ve tried to solve this?
6. Great, I can help you out with that. What I need from you is [this extra information].

Scripts for active listening

Did you know that 96% of consumers say empathy is essential in a customer support interaction? That isn’t the most surprising statistic out there, but it highlights just how much of a difference empathy makes. 

Demonstrating active listening and making your customer feel heard might be the second most important part of providing support—second only to solving the actual problem. 

Active listening is particularly important if there’s a communication barrier you’re trying to overcome. Here are some ways to start:

1. Let me just make sure I understand you right. You’d like to [rephrase the customer’s question]. Is that accurate?
2. If my understanding is correct, you’re looking for a way to [do this]?
3. Sorry to hear you ran into that issue. The good news is: We can fix it! Here’s how.
4. Let me check that I have this right. You need help with [restated problem], correct?
5. I can totally understand how frustrating that was. Would you mind waiting a couple of minutes while I look into that for you?
6. I hear you, and I’m sorry to hear that didn’t work as expected. Give me a second to look into it on my end and see what I can do.
7. It looks like I can’t reproduce this on my end. Would you mind sending me [a screenshot or video] so I can make sure I’m looking in the right place?
8. Ah, I understand what you’re trying to do. We don’t offer this as a current feature but I do have a workaround. You can [do this instead].

Scripts for difficult situations

Your support agents will inevitably encounter high-stress situations that they have to defuse. There are several keys to tackling difficult situations with customers:

• You have to stay composed and professional.
• Demonstrating active listening and empathy (which we’ve already covered) can help calm the customer down.
• Apologizing and taking responsibility often go a long way. 
• After apologizing, you need to present a solution or an explanation clearly and concisely.
• If possible, involve the customer in solving the problem as well, so they feel a sense of ownership and empowerment too. 

Scripts can be incredibly helpful for these situations because they make it much easier to stay calm.

1. That sounds like a frustrating problem, I hear you. I can recommend [these alternative solutions]. Would you be up for trying that out?
2. Sorry you ran into such a persistent issue. I’m looking into this right now and will get back to you as soon as possible.
3. I’m so sorry you experienced that. We strive to provide a much better experience than what you’ve had today. I’m going to discuss your feedback with my supervisor and see what I can do to help.
4. I completely understand. Let me look into this with my team and see what we can do here.
5. I’m afraid [the offer] is no longer available. What I can offer you instead is [this].
6. I hear your frustration and understand where you’re coming from, [Customer Name]. Let me try to fix this for you. 
7. I can see why you’d like to do that. We don’t offer this feature right now [because of this reason]. Our Product team has heard this request before, and I’ve added your insights as well. Hopefully we can provide a better solution in future.
8. Thank you so much for your patience. Sorry, you’ve had to wait! I’ll look into this right away.

Scripts to transfer or put a customer on hold

Transferring a customer to someone else shouldn’t be that risky, right? 

And yet, 72% of customers with bad support experiences cite having to explain their problem to multiple people as the top reason. 

Here are some easy live chat examples to avoid that:

1. Thanks for reaching out! I’ll connect you with my colleague, [name], who’s the best person to help you out. Would you mind waiting a couple of minutes while I explain the situation?
2. Thanks for explaining that to me! I understand what you’d like to do, so I’ll transfer you to my colleague, who works in a dedicated team for requests like yours. I’ll put you on hold for just a moment while I let them know what you’re looking for. 
3. Sorry about that and thanks for waiting! I’m here to help now.
4. I’m going to have to send you over to my colleague, who can help you out. Thanks for your patience!
5. Alright, I understand. I’ll have to look into this. Would you mind waiting for a couple of minutes? I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. 
6. Please hold on for a moment while I check your account. It won’t take long. 
7. That’s a great question. I’ll need to look into it. Would you rather wait on hold for a few minutes or would you prefer I send you an email instead?
8. Sorry about the wait! It looks like all agents on that team are currently busy. We estimate that someone will be free in [5 minutes]. Are you okay to wait or would you prefer we follow up via email?

Scripts to close the conversation

Last but not least, we’ve got these live chat response examples to help you wrap up chat customer service conversations on a positive note. Closing a conversation can feel repetitive for an agent who talks to multiple customers a day, but each customer contacts you only once (hopefully!):

1. Thanks for reaching out to us today! We’re always happy to hear from you if you have any other questions or feedback. 
2. Thanks for visiting our website! We hope you enjoy [product] from here on out. Have a great day!
3. I’m glad I could help today! Thanks for chatting with us and have a good one.
4. Glad we managed to sort that out! Enjoy the rest of your day.
5. Great! Feel free to contact us again any time you need more help. 
6. There’ll be a brief feedback survey after I close the chat. I’d really appreciate you taking the time to fill it out.
7. We’re always happy to help! If you could take a second to fill out our feedback survey, I’d be very grateful.

Provide faster and better live chat support

All live support channels have an extra element of pressure because you have to provide an immediate response to the customer. Preparing the core of those responses in advance—by creating live chat scripts—takes some of that weight off your agents’ shoulders and gives them room to focus on personalizing the interaction itself. 

Live chat scripts help you enhance the quality of your support because you can take the time to craft them well. 
And if you want to make sure you’re consistently using them properly, there’s no better way than to ask for feedback afterward. Your customers will let you know. For the easiest way to get started understanding your customers, try out a free trial of Nicereply today.

The post 42 Customer Service Live Chat Script Examples & Templates appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Read 5 writing tips that ensure a positive tone of voice and make your customers happy.

Live chat support grows in popularity every year. No wonder. Customers are busy people who value time and don’t want to spend it holding on a phone line or waiting for an email response.

Around 73% find live chat the best form of communication with a company because it allows them to get help within minutes.

For 90% of customers, a quick reaction from support is critical: 60% of younger clients (aged 18-34) communicate with brands via live chats regularly, favoring this instrument for the ability to multitask while reaching out to customer service.

Most businesses realize such changes in customer behavior, opting for live chat support now. While some communication still goes via email software, the number of chats per agent per month continues to increase.

And that’s when we might hit a snag.

With well-defined rules and tons of templates for writing customer support emails, some agents apply the same principles to communication in live chats. Result? Such conversations look and sound impersonal and robotic, hurting a business reputation:

Customers view it as a lack of professionalism, laziness, or total indifference to their needs.

For customer support agents, it’s critical to understand live chat etiquette and maintain a positive tone of interacting with customers to make a great impression on them and boost their satisfaction.

In this post, we’ve gathered the five actionable writing tips to help you master the art of chat communication with customers.

5 Writing Tips for Communication in Live Chats:

1. Friendly greetings and personalization

First impressions matter; live chat conversation isn’t an exception. As a customer support agent, you need to show professionalism from the start:

A warm, friendly, and welcoming greeting is your weapon here.

Why friendly?

Chat communication is less formal and more straightforward than emails or phone calls. A customer expects short, polite, and up-to-point messages, not those too long and filled with unnecessary information.

It’s okay to have a bunch of canned greetings and modify each based on the situation. The following variants are the most optimal to consider:

• Hi!
• Hi there!
• Hello!
• Hello, [name], and welcome to [company]! How can I help you?
• Hello! Thank you for visiting. What can I do for you today?

It’s also okay to mirror what a customer writes to you. But, know the limit! If they greet you with “Yo, pal,” it would be unprofessional to reply so (unless your brand’s tone of voice is the same).

If a customer omits the greeting and asks something from the start, write “hello” or “hi” anyway.

And if they write nothing but “hello,” write the same and encourage further communication with a question on what you can do for them.

Shall I introduce myself?

There’s no need to do that because a customer sees your name and avatar in the chat window. Instead, do your best to call a client by name while greeting them.

You don’t have to ask their names directly: It looks awkward and out of context. Instead, use the form in a chat window asking for a customer’s name before the start of the conversation.
Personalization is critical for building customer relationships, loyalty, and satisfaction: 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions from companies, and 80% are more likely to purchase brands providing that.

2. Conversational tone (But know the limit!)

We all heard that “write as you speak” stuff. It works for live chat communication to prevent agents from sounding too formal, robotic, and impersonal. (Everything that online users hate in the digital age!)

When speaking with customers via chat, sound like a human. Type as you talk and “forget” about formal writing rules. It’s okay to:

• Use personal pronouns (you, I) and contractions (you’re, we’re, they’ve, etc.)
• Add interjections when applicable (Ouch! Phew… Wow!)
• Start sentences with conjunctions (and, but, for, so, or)
• Keep sentences simple and short for them to sound more natural

But:

Remember basic grammar! A conversational tone doesn’t mean poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation: All influence your message’s meaning and the way customers will interpret it. Poor grammar signals unproficiency and indifference:

Indeed, why trust a person who doesn’t know the basic rules of writing or doesn’t even care to review a message before sending it?

So:

Train your grammar skills and invest in digital tools like Grammarly to catch and correct basic mistakes and typos.

Sure enough, they can’t catch everything, so the good practice would be to do self-editing before sending a message to the chat: Whisper it or read it out loud to prevent typos and see if it sounds right.

And yet, there’s a catch:

The problem with this rule of being conversational and friendly in live chats is that some agents try hard to sound like this and be funny. Customers, especially those angry, may interpret it as condescendence.
It’s critical to know the limit and find the fine line here. Say no to:

• Abbreviations like btw, brb, fyi, etc. Not everyone knows what they mean, leading to misunderstanding.
• Double emojis, GIFs, or emojis with double meanings. While it’s okay to use a single smile after greetings, funny cats or smiley faces look too informal, especially if a customer comes with a problem and is not in the mood.
• Professional jargon and tech terms. Customers aren’t experts in your niche, and they don’t have to know all the tech details. Explain everything in plain English.

3. Empathy & sympathy

When talking to a customer, try to look at the issue from their perspective. Reaching out to you may be the last thing they do, and they hope to get help and understanding for a human in the chat.

It’s critical to make them feel you are on their side and you’ll help (or, at least, do everything you can to help) them.Emotional intelligence is a must for a professional customer support agent to develop. Empathy is the most efficient way to build loyalty, and using some conversational indicators during chat communication will signal your attention to a customer’s problem.

Such conversational indicators are:

• Yes, I understand you.
• Oh my, that’s a problem, indeed.
• I imagine that’s challenging.
• We appreciate your feedback.
• Hope it helps.
• I can understand your frustration.
• I’m sorry to hear that.
• Let’s see what we can do here.

Also, remember to add words like “thank you,” “sorry,” and “please:” They make communication, even via email software, smoother. It’s okay to offer apologies and sympathy:

Acknowledging the mistake, combined with a resolution, sounds much better than accusing a client of doing something wrong or bouncing them from one agent to another and forcing them to explain the problem again.

4. Positive language

Live chat etiquette prescribes customer support agents remain positive even when communicating with angry clients or those complaining about something. Most such customers are open to cooperation and may turn into loyal ones if you soften the way you deliver information.

You can achieve positivity in live chat conversation by removing negative language from it. Eliminate phrases like “can’t,” “don’t,” “yes, but,” “you do it wrong,” etc. Examples:

• I can’t do it now.
• You shouldn’t have done this!
• We can’t access your account.
• Stop doing this!
• I won’t help you here.

They frustrate and disappoint customers and can fuel conflicts. Think of alternative phrases with no negative connotation: Positive language in online conversation makes messages 20% more trustworthy, and the positive tone adds clarity, demonstrating your openness to cooperation.

5. Proactivity

Don’t wait for a customer to start a conversation. The reasons they don’t do that are different: A customer can’t see a chat window, they aren’t sure what and how to ask, they simply browse your website, etc. Be proactive and reach out to identify why a customer is here, ask how you can help, or offer some perk.

Your proactivity can boost engagement and influence your website’s overall performance. And even if a visitor doesn’t respond, their overall impression of your platform will improve: They’ll see you care and want to address them.

Prepare a list of canned messages to engage customers and automate parts of your conversations. Something like these:

• Hi! Would you like to know about the special discounts we’ve prepared for you today?
• Hmm… It looks like you’ve checked several pages here already. Can I help you find anything?
• Hello there! I see you visit this page frequently but still doubt purchasing. Just let me know if I can assist you.

Sure thing, it’s up to you to come up with yours and personalize those proactive messages for better engagement.
When the conversation is over, don’t hesitate to ask for feedback: Share a satisfaction survey right after the end of the chat. The results will allow you to measure the quality of your live chat service, determine the progress, and understand the areas to improve.

Over to you

Friendly service and positive communication with agents are top priorities for most customers coming to your brand. In the era of live chats and online messengers, you can give them what they want: proactive, speedy, and professional responses that will build loyalty and influence conversion rates in the long run.

Every detail can make a difference in live chat communication for customer satisfaction: Your words and tone, sentence structure, empathy, and frankness — all count and help you build strong customer relationships. Live chat etiquette has a place to be, so why not make the most of it?

The post 5 Writing Tips for Positive Customer Communication in Live Chats appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Using email templates for customer onboarding can help streamline the process and provide your clients with a consistent and positive experience.

Are you struggling to onboard customers effectively and efficiently? According to a recent study, 74% of customers who experience poor onboarding will consider switching to a competitor. 

This demonstrates that effective customer onboarding is critical for the success of your business. If you’re not properly introducing customers to your brand, they may become disengaged, uninterested, or worse, choose to work with a competitor.

But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. In this blog post, we’ll show you how to streamline your process with seven customer onboarding email templates.

These templates will save you time, ensure consistency, and help you make a professional impression on your customers. 
By the end of this post, you’ll understand why customer onboarding email templates are crucial for successful customer onboarding and have the tools to improve your process.

What’s onboarding and the importance of effective customer onboarding

So, what exactly is onboarding? In simple terms, it’s the process of welcoming and integrating new customers or clients into your business.

And it’s not just a one-time event – it’s a continuous journey that starts with the first interaction and continues throughout the customer’s lifecycle, and email marketing is a key component of it.

Effective customer onboarding is crucial for business success because it sets the foundation for a long-lasting relationship between you and your customers. 

It’s the first step in building trust and loyalty, and it’s a key driver of customer satisfaction and retention. 
In fact, companies with a strong onboarding process can improve customer retention by 50%. (according to Gitnux)

So, if you’re serious about customer service and customer success, onboarding should be a top priority.

Fortunately, customer onboarding email templates can help streamline your customer onboarding process and make it easier to provide consistent and effective communication. 

In the following section, we’ll introduce you to seven email templates that can be customized to suit your brand’s voice and tone, while also addressing the specific needs of your customers at each stage of the onboarding process. 

These templates can save you time and effort, and help you provide a professional image that builds trust and confidence with your customers.

7 email templates for customer onboarding 

The point of a welcome email is to say hello to your customer and make them feel welcome to your company. It’s like giving a virtual high-five and saying “Nice to meet you!”.
A good welcome email should be short, sweet, and informative. It should clearly explain what your company does and how it can help the customer. You can also use this email to introduce your team and create a personal connection with the customer.

_________________________________________

Subject line: Welcome to [Company Name]!

Hi [Customer Name],

We want to take a moment to welcome you to [Company Name]! We’re thrilled that you’ve chosen our product/service to help [solve a problem, achieve a goal, etc.].

Let me take a moment to introduce you to our team. We are a group of passionate individuals who are dedicated to [explain what you do]. We are always here to help you with any questions or concerns you may have.

In the coming days, we’ll send you more information on how to get started with our product/service. In the meantime, feel free to explore our website and learn more about what we have to offer.

Thank you again for choosing [Company Name]. We’re excited to have you on board!

Best,
[Your Name]

__________________________________________________

This welcome email template provides a warm introduction to the company and sets expectations for what the customer can expect from the product or service.

Let’s take a look at the welcome email from Quickbase:

Resource Email Template

Did you know that over half of customers return a product simply because they didn’t understand how to use it?

That’s why providing helpful resources to your customers during the onboarding process is crucial. A resource email template can include links to tutorial videos, articles, and frequently asked questions. 

This not only helps your customers get up to speed quickly but also reduces the burden on your customer support team. 

By providing these resources, you can show your customers that you care about their success and are committed to helping them get the most out of your product.

__________________________________________________________

Subject line: Tips for taking the next step with [product/service]

Hey [customer name]!

We’re here to help you get started with [product/service]! We understand that there can be a lot to learn, but don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Here are a few tips to help you get better acquainted with us and start experiencing the benefits:

[Action/feature #1] – [Optional link and/or corresponding resource to help]
[Action/feature #2] – [Optional link and/or corresponding resource to help]
[Action/feature #3] – [Optional link and/or corresponding resource to help]

If you have any questions or need further assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [contact].

Cheers!
[Your signature]

_______________________________________________________________________________________

 Here’s an example from Restream:

Upsell Email Template

When it comes to growing your business, cross-selling and upselling to existing customers can be a great strategy. Not only can it help increase revenue, but it can also deepen the relationship with your customers. 

An effective upsell email should be personalized and focused on the customer’s needs. Start by highlighting the benefits of the product or service you are offering, and explain how it can help solve their problem or meet their needs.

To make the offer more compelling, consider including a limited-time promotion or a bundle deal. But remember, be respectful of your customer’s time and budget – don’t come across as too pushy or salesy. 

Here’s an example template you can use to craft your own upsell email:

_______________________________________________

Subject line: Get more out of [Product/Service]

Hi [Customer],

We hope you’ve been enjoying [Product/Service] and finding it useful for [Task/Goal]. We’re always looking for ways to help you get the most out of our offerings, which is why we wanted to introduce you to [New Product/New Feature].

[New Product/New Feature] is designed to [Benefit 1] and [Benefit 2]. It’s the perfect solution for [Problem/Challenge], and we think it could be a great addition to your [Product/Service] experience.

As a valued customer, we’re offering you an exclusive discount of [Discount/Price] if you upgrade within the next [Timeframe].

Just log in to upgrade.

[CTA Button]

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out to our customer support team. We appreciate your business and look forward to helping you achieve even greater success with [Product/Service].

Best regards,

[Your Company]

_______________________________________________

Free trial expiration email template 

If you’re running an email marketing campaign and offering free trials, then it’s important to have a solid plan in place for when those trials come to an end. 

Free trial expiration emails can be a must-have in your email marketing strategy to retain those leads and convert them into customers. 

These emails are highly effective in reminding users of the trial end date and encouraging them to take action before it’s too late. 

The key is to make your offer irresistible and showcase the value of your product to encourage conversions.

______________________________________________________________

Subject line: It’s time to add some features to your [product/service]

Hi [Name],

We hope you’ve been enjoying your free trial with [Product]. It’s been great having you on board and we’re super-happy that you gave our product a chance!

As your trial is coming to an end soon, we wanted to remind you that you’ll need to select one of our paid plans to continue using [Product]. Don’t worry, we’ve got some awesome features waiting for you!

We don’t want you to miss out on all the benefits that [Product] has to offer, so make sure to select a plan before your trial ends in [number of days left].

And if you have any questions or need help, just hit reply and we’ll be happy to assist you.

Thanks for giving [Product] a try and we hope to see you continue your journey with us!

Best,
[Your Name] from [Company Name]

______________________________________________________________

Basecamp does this well by sending out end-of-trial emails that inform users about their account status and what they can do to upgrade. Providing social proof can also be helpful by showing that others are satisfied with your product.

Re-engagement email template

________________________________________________________________

Subject line: We miss you! Come back and try [Product/Service] again

Hi [Customer Name],

We noticed that you haven’t been using [Product/Service] much recently, and we wanted to make sure everything’s alright.

Is there anything wrong, or is there anything we can do to help you get the most out of our [Product/Service]? Please let us know if there’s anything we can do to assist you.

We believe that [Product/Service] can really benefit you in [briefly describe benefits]. That’s why we wanted to reach out and offer some tips on how you can get the most out of our [product/service].

Here are a few resources that you might find helpful:

[Link to tutorial video]
[Link to frequently asked questions]
[Link to customer success stories]

We hope that you’ll consider giving us another chance and coming back to use our [Product/Service] again. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our customer support team.

Thanks,
[Your Name]

____________________________________________________________________________________

Tip: Want to show your customers some love and get them re-engaged with your business? A personalized “miss you” animation GIF in your email could do the trick. Let them know you miss them and are thinking about them. It’s a simple and fun way to make a connection and encourage them to come back.

Invite to webinar template

Hosting webinars is a great way to engage with your customers and provide them with valuable insights while also creating opportunities for cross-selling and upselling.

 By highlighting your customers’ struggles and offering solutions, you can encourage them to attend your live webinar and learn more about how your product or service can help them. 

The key is to focus on the benefits that your webinar will provide and to create a sense of urgency that will encourage your customers to take action. 

With the right message and approach, you can create a successful webinar invitation that will not only engage your customers but also drive more business to your company.

Here’s an example template for an effective invitation email:
______________________________________________________

Subject Line: Join us for our upcoming webinar: [Topic]

Hi [Customer Name],

We are excited to let you know that we will be hosting a live webinar on [Date and Time] and we would love for you to join us!

The webinar will cover [Topic] and provide valuable insights on how to overcome [specific problem/struggle].

During the webinar, you’ll learn from industry experts how to [customer’s desired outcome] and have the opportunity to ask any questions you may have.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and connect with other professionals in your field.

Spots are limited so sign up now [insert link] to save a seat!

We can’t wait to see you there!

Best,
[Your Company]

___________________________________________________________________

Feedback email 

If you want your customers to keep coming back for more, it’s important to make sure your product is always improving. And the best way to do that is by listening to your customers! 

That’s where a feedback email template can come in handy. By reaching out and asking for feedback, you can get valuable insights into what your customers are loving about your product and where they think it could use some work. 

This information can then be shared with the product management team to help guide future improvements. So don’t be afraid to ask your customers what they think – it could be the key to your product’s success!

________________________________________________________________

Subject line:  [Customer Name] — Your [period of time] trial is over.

Hi [Customer Name],

Thanks so much for choosing our product/service! We hope you’re finding it helpful so far. We’re always looking for ways to improve and we value your opinion.

We would love to hear your feedback on your experience with our product/service. What do you like about it? What could be improved? Any suggestions for new features?

Your feedback will help us shape the future of our product/service, and we want to make sure we’re meeting your needs.

If you can, please take a moment to fill out our survey. Shouldn’t take longer than [number of minutes needed]

Thanks!

Best,

[Your Name]

________________________________________________________________________________________

Below is a real example from Thumbtack:

Here’s a tip: With Nicereply, you can easily create one-click surveys that are both simple and effective. This platform is designed to help you gather customer feedback and improve your overall customer experience. What’s more, Nicereply’s feedback analytics feature can provide you with valuable insights into customer satisfaction, loyalty, and other key metrics based on your survey results.

Best practices and tips to write better customer onboarding emails

When it comes to customer onboarding, email campaigns are an essential component of the onboarding process. But how do you make sure your onboarding emails are effective? 
In this section, we’ll discuss the 6 best practices and tips for writing better customer onboarding emails.

Use clear and concise language

When crafting your onboarding email campaigns, it’s important to use language that your customers can easily understand. Using complicated terms or jargon can quickly turn off customers and make them feel confused or overwhelmed. 

Instead, try to use simple language that is easy to digest. Keep your sentences short and to the point, and use active voice whenever possible to make your emails more engaging. 

By focusing on clear and concise language, you can ensure that your customers will understand your company’s message and feel more confident about the onboarding process.

Use bullet points

It’s important to keep in mind that your customers are busy people, and they don’t have time to read long, dense paragraphs. By breaking up your text with bullet points, you can make your emails more scannable and easier to digest.

Bullet points are especially useful for highlighting key points or outlining steps that your customers need to take to succeed.

Identify bottlenecks and provide knowledge-based content

These are areas where customers may be getting stuck or losing interest. Once you identify these areas, you can create knowledge-based content to address them. This content can take the form of blog posts, tutorials, or video guides.

By providing helpful content, you can keep your customers engaged and help them overcome any obstacles they may encounter during the onboarding process.

Make your emails sound personable

When writing onboarding emails to customers, it’s important to make them sound as personable as possible.
One way to do this is by using the customer’s name and addressing them directly. You can also use a conversational tone and include some personality in your emails. This will help to build a connection with the customer and make them feel valued.

Additionally, including a personalized message or signature from a member of your customer support team can help to make the email feel more human and less like an automated message.

Personalizing your onboarding emails is a great way to show customers that you care about their experience and are invested in their success.

Test and optimize your onboarding emails

To ensure that your customer onboarding emails are as effective as possible, you should test and optimize them regularly. This involves monitoring the performance of your email templates and making adjustments to improve their effectiveness. 

By testing different subject lines, email formats, and call-to-actions, you can identify what works best for your customers and optimize your email onboarding campaign accordingly. 
Be sure to track metrics such as open and click-through rates over time to gauge the success of your email templates. This will allow you to make data-driven decisions and refine your onboarding process to increase customer success.

Final thoughts 

In conclusion, effective customer onboarding is a crucial step in ensuring the success of your business. By utilizing these email templates for customer onboarding, you can streamline the process and provide your clients with a consistent and positive experience. 

Remember to personalize your emails, use clear and concise language, incorporate visual aids, and test and optimize your templates to ensure their effectiveness.

We hope this blog post has provided you with valuable insights and practical tips for improving your customer onboarding process.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, and we wish you the best of luck in your customer onboarding efforts!

The post 7 Email Templates for Customer Onboarding: Tips for Success appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes can really help you to empathize and keep your customer responses genuine and honest.

Customer service is one of the most powerful factors that affects loyalty and sales. Providing great customer support might seem easy in theory, but it is actually pretty challenging in practice.

Each customer you interact with is different. Emails they get might be the only method of communication they have with your company. And while it is a daily routine for your support team, receiving a response from you is a unique experience for customers, which determines whether they will continue buying from you.

So if you don’t want to lose your customers and your money (as companies lose approximately $62 billion due to poor customer support), your client’s satisfaction should be your number one priority.

Keep reading, and you will learn how to write customer responses that will keep your clients satisfied, even when faced with troubles with your products and services.

1. Pick the Tone

In order to build trust and satisfy customer needs, one needs to learn how to adapt the language and writing mannerisms utilized by customers when writing responses.

Choosing the right tone is a crucial step for any customer service specialist. It not only affects the conversation to follow but also forms the impression that your company gives them.

Formal or Casual?

A report by Software Advice states: 65% of customers admit that responding too formally doesn’t help in establishing reliable communication. Speaking informally helps to put customers at ease, and almost always makes a good impression.

Keep your tone friendly, but not overly so – keep away from slang and familiarity, and understand that while cordiality is expected, this is work, not a casual conversation with your friend. Remain friendly in every situation, and do your very best to stay polite and courteous, even if your client becomes aggressive or offensive.

You must also keep your messages free from grammatical errors – consumers will not trust a consultant who does not write well.

2. Be Human, Not a Robot

It’s essential for customers to know that they are speaking to a real person and that their problems are understood and can be resolved.

Empathize with a customer’s feelings. The best thing you can do while writing a customer response is to show that you understand why he or she feels the way they do and that they have every right to feel that way.

Mention a personal experience. This is not about telling your personal story. This is about you empathizing with the reason behind your customer’s indignance.

For example: “I know how waiting for a package can be challenging. If I were you, I would feel the exact same way,” and so on.

Take responsibility. When consultants use the word “I” instead of “we”, it gives personalized customer responses and shortens the distance between a customer and a support specialist. The pronoun “we” sounds too formal, and implies communication with a group of people who represent a big corporation.

For example, “I will keep you up…” sounds much more personal than, “We will inform you…” The more customers feel that they are communicating with a real person, who is responsible for helping them, the more they trust that communication.

Personalize. Greet your customers by name; thank them for their queries, and assure of how you will try to solve their problems as soon as you can. Personalize your messages and try to avoid promises that you can’t keep.

Avoid cliches. The way you end your letter is also very important. Adding your name and even a picture will help a lot – for example: “Warm regards, Calvin Dodson.” It’s better to avoid phrases, like: “We appreciate your patience;” “Thank you for being our loyal customer;” “We’ve received your request;” “Your letter is very important to us,” as they make you sound robotic and can frustrate your customers.

Case study:

Nila Towstone, the head of the customer support team at EssayTigers, shares her experience:

“Once we had a case when a person closed a chat with the message: ‘I would rather speak to a real person.’ It was frustrating because they were speaking to a real person. That was the moment when we realized that the tone of our consultants might be confusing to clients who don’t see them sitting in front of the screens in our office. Since then, we try to avoid cliche phrases and spend a lot of time training our consultants to hold the right manner of conversation.”

3. Use Positive Wording

Phrases you use in your text play a significant role. It is known that certain words highlight your empathy and make the text more trustworthy.

For example:

• Feel
• Definitely
• Completely
• Fantastic
• Absolutely
• Interesting
• Generous
• Exciting
• Impressive
• Friendly

Words with -LY ending tends to make the words following them more persuasive and truthful. It’s a little trick typically used in marketing.

Positive words, like “marvelous,” “excellent,” hold a more informal tone and make your customer responses sound more optimistic and upbeat. They are commonly used in positive scripting – establishing communication with customers in order to guide them toward a certain action or mood.

Powerful phrases to use in your emails may include:

• I’d be happy to help you.
• Is there anything else I can help you with?
• Thank you for letting us know.
• I will find out it for you.

Words and phrases exist that can make your emails sound accusatory. A person who might receive such an email may feel angry or guilty, instead of feeling comforted and happy. Avoid words and phrases such as:

• Fault
• Misunderstanding
• Calm down
• It seems
• Protocol
• Policy
• Unreasonable
• I can’t help
• You’re wrong

Pay attention to the way your customer writes to you – try to use the same language and tone. This is a common practice in psychology, as it helps to establish a rapport with the person you are speaking to.

4. Respond Quickly

No one wants to wait for customer responses for too long. That’s why the faster you can answer such an email, the better. Research by Super Office shows that an average time usually takes up to 12 hours to satisfy customer service requests, while most users expect a response in one hour or less.

These statistics give us a better understanding of customers’ behavior and why 84% of consumers are not satisfied with their latest interaction with customer service support.

So, keep in mind how the time it takes you to respond to a customer is just as important as what you write to them. Many companies use automated emails which help them communicate with clients.

Typically, this type of email is used to let customers know that your company has received their emails, and will work on solving issues as soon as possible. Automated emails have obvious advantages:

• They help to communicate with multiple customers.
• They give you extra time to solve customer problems.
• They show that you’re not ignoring complaints.

However, automated emails can’t be personalized as much as they should be, which is why they can’t substitute direct contact with a customer support manager.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Apologize

Each entrepreneur knows that things can’t work smoothly all the time, even if you hire the best managers in the world.

Thus, deliveries may get delayed, items may be out of stock, or clients can be disappointed with the product quality.

Your team has to be ready for all sorts of complaints and begin apologizing for your mistakes. The ability to admit to mistakes, while keeping the clients satisfied, ensure companies maintain consumer loyalty in cases that could ruin their reputation.

Do Everything You Can

Giving people more than they expect helps provide service that keeps customers’ loyalty and decreases the influence of previous negative experiences on the overall impression of a brand. If, for example, a person needs an item that is out of stock, put a link to a similar product on your site, or inform them about when this product might be available again.

The easiest way to support your apology is to provide discounts, coupons, or free products. According to a study by the Carey School of Business, offering compensation (refund, certificate, or discount) will increase satisfaction levels from 37% to 74%.

6. Be Specific

When consumers contact you and discuss certain issues, they only really want to know when their problem will be solved. Commonly, they are not interested in the actions you will take, they simply want to get a service or product they were expecting.

The results are more important than the reasons. There is no need for you to explain why an issue occurred – do what you can to solve the problem instead of talking about it.

That’s why you should be as specific as you can be about time frames. For example, when a person needs a refund for a product, all you should give them is the time frame around when they should expect their money.

“Your refund will be deposited in 3-7 days” is much better than “Your refund will be deposited soon.” Provide verified information and make sure to keep up with the customer till the problem is resolved.

It’s important to understand what you’re apologizing for, as well as what has your client angry or upset. Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes can really help you to empathize and keep your customer responses genuine and honest.

Wrapping Up

Customer support is all about keeping customer loyalty by all means.

While attracting new clients is important, retaining customers is crucial. To keep customer loyalty, customer care managers should follow certain standards, such as remaining polite and friendly no matter how a client acts and doing everything possible or impossible to satisfy client needs.

If you want your service-based business to prosper, you should put in much effort to teach support managers on how to communicate with clients effectively.

The post 6 Tips for Writing Satisfying Customer Service Responses appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Use strong, clear language when writing your support email. Be direct about what steps the customer should take next – after all, you’re the expert!

As a business, you’re probably well aware that the days when customers call up to communicate with your business are slowly disappearing. Instead, customers are much more likely to fill out a contact form, talk through a live chat system or write you an email.

But to send out the best support emails, you need to ensure that your writing skills are spot on. Every support agent has a different style and a completely different way of making their customers happy.

Simply we all have our own tricks of the trade. There is no “one size fits all” solution.  While not all support emails are created equally, we do think there are a few key tips for writing the best support emails. 

Here are 13 examples of how you can get the most out of your support emails:

1. Tone matching

Have you ever been told to “read the room” when telling a joke? Tone matching in a support email is like that. If a customer is casual, makes jokes, and uses smiley faces liberally – you’re likely welcome to do the same. A customer who has had a pleasant experience is more likely to talk about it and recommend you. This is why humor is something you may consider using. 

But one thing you should never do is try to navigate the conversation to the point where you can be funny. If the customer is irate or overly formal, it might not be the best place to use your favorite cat gif. It will make you look unprofessional and it can result in a bad customer experience. Avoid bombarding customers with a bunch of unrelated emoticons or gifs just to force fun and positive interaction. The opposite effect will occur as a result.

Example:

Hey Support!

I’m having the hardest time creating a new account for my new employee. I keep getting an error message, and I’m sure the problem probably is coming from my side (I’m the worst at tech!) but can you help me out?

Thanks,

Glenda Smith

Hey Glenda!

Thanks for writing in, happy to help. I know that feeling – sometimes it feels like the computers are all conspiring against us.

It looks like you’ve got one too many users on your account, so you’ll need to either downgrade one of them or upgrade your account to have more seats available. Let me know if I can help!

Thanks,

Stephanie Mozer

Help Champion

Make sure you read the situation and how the customer feels and be proactive in matching your language and tone of voice so they can relate and understand.

2. Use white space

Humans tend to read the first and last sentence of a paragraph and skim most of the content in the middle. Rather than burying your important information in a block of text, use whitespace to help busy customers skim more effectively.

Not using whitespace in emails:

Dear Steven, 

Oh no! Let’s get this sorted out right away. First of all, what format is your image in? It should be a jpg, or png file smaller than 5MB. If it’s still not working, let’s try uploading it in a different browser. We find the file uploader works best in Chrome. Let me know how that goes! If it’s still not working for you, please attach the image on your reply and I’ll try to reproduce the issue on my end. 

Thanks, 

Harvey Port, Technical Support

Using white space in emails:

Dear Support, 

I’m trying to upload an image, but every time I refresh the page it disappears. Can you help me sort this out? 

Thanks, 

Steven Klimmer

3. Use Tools to Improve Your Writing Skills

You’re not alone when it comes to improving your writing skills. When writing, you don’t want your written communications to be full of spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, and grammar issues. It makes your messages hard to read as well as making the business look unprofessional. In fact, to guarantee the best accuracy, it’s recommended that you enlist the help of tools such as these;

• Grammarly – Grammarly checks your text for hundreds of common and advanced writing issues. The app works well as a free browser extension for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge, which corrects hundreds of types of errors.
• Thesaurus – A tool that will provide you with useful and creative synonym suggestions in their convenient Word Swap tool.
• Hemingway Editor – An editing app that analyzes text, and it promises to highlight lengthy, complex sentences and common errors.

4. Bullet points are your friends

If a customer needs to do several things, in order, it’s much easier for them to follow steps if they are visually listed.
We want to make it as easy as possible for customers to resolve their issue – that’s the whole idea behind CES. The easier it is to follow the instructions in the support email, the more likely the customer is to resolve their issue and continue being a customer.

Example:

Dear Support,

I’m trying to integrate my surveys with a new Help Desk. Can you please help me with how to do this?

Thanks,

Joshua East

Hey Josh!

Thanks for getting in touch, I can definitely help you out with this. Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

• The API key from your Help Desk. You can find that here.
• Your favorite survey images. 
• The questions that you want to ask.
• An email address that we can test with.

Once we’ve got that already, head to your admin section and….

5. Link, but don’t abandon

Do you have really great resources that your customers would find helpful? Cool! By all means, link to the more thorough answer in your email reply. But don’t just link and walk away.

Simply linking to a help center article or intro video might be seen as dismissive. Instead, explain the answer they need as briefly as possible first, and then refer them to the resource if they find it necessary. Aim to explain 80% of the solution in the support email, and leave the details for the resource to further clarify.

Instead of…

Hi Dave!

This article will solve your problem.

Thanks,
Sarah Crew

Try….

Hi Dave!

Great question.

• Open the admin panel
• Click on Settings
• Update your timezone preferences to your current location
• Click Save to update.

If you need more assistance, we’ve created this great walkthrough with screenshots and more information about how time zones work. Please let me know if I can help any further!

Thanks,
Sarah Crew

Customer Support Lead

6. Abandon business speak

Say what you mean, don’t hide behind empty business-speak phrases. What does business speak mean? “We appreciate your business” or “We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused”. We tend to fall back on tired expressions like this when we don’t know what to say – either because we feel uncomfortable in the situation or because we’re worried a customer might react poorly.

Instead of defaulting to business speak, think about what you’re actually trying to say. Are you sorry that an outage disrupted their workday? Say that! If you read your support email out loud it should sound like you… not some business bot.

7. Break complicated questions down

While customer support agents might be communication geniuses, our customers are often not. You might get stream-of-consciousness emails where every little question they’ve ever had comes pouring out in one block of text. Or maybe there are so many emotions in the email it’s tough to decipher what the actual question is.

The key to answering these is to break up the noise into answerable questions. Just because they sent you a block of text doesn’t mean you need to send one back in your support email.

8. Be direct

If you need customers to do something or come back with additional information, make what you want them to do clear for them.

Sometimes it can feel too forceful to ask for things. When we’re trying to make the interaction easy, the last thing we want to do is add more hassle for our customers! But in fact, the opposite is true. It’s actually a much more frustrating experience for the customer if they read your reply and are left wondering “What next?”

Use strong, clear language when writing your support email. Be direct about what steps the customer should take next – after all, you’re the expert!

Example:

Hi Terry!

That’s a great question, and I can definitely take a look into your account and see what we can do for you. Before I do that, I need three things from you:

• Your billing address for security validation
• The logo you want to be uploaded, in png or jpg format
• xyz

Once I have these things, I can complete the registration for you.

Sincerely,

Sheryl North

Customer Champion

9. Repeat and rephrase

If you’re not quite sure what the customer is asking, take your best guess. Repeat their question in a different way and suggest an answer. Then, offer more assistance if you haven’t got it quite right. Sending back a virtual shrug gets you no closer to solving their issue.

Example:

Dear Support,

I’m having a hard time making the file thingy sit properly in the viewfinder. Can you help?

Thanks,

Philip Roth

Dear Philip,

Thanks for writing in! I’m happy to help out.

I think you’re referring to centering an image in the middle of your browser. Is that right? If so, check to make sure your browser settings are correct. This article will give you a full list of what you need to check.

If that’s not what you’re looking for, apologies! Send me a screenshot of the part of the program you’re looking at and I’ll take another crack!

Thanks,

Margaret Radler

Happiness Hero

10. Be Honest

Whether you’re having a bad day, or you’ve just got a lot to do, it can be easy to lie to a customer, just to get them off your back.

However, this can have catastrophic consequences for your business and what started out as a small problem can get escalated into something bigger.

If you don’t know the answer to a question that your customer is asking you, don’t lie to them. If your customer is asking you customer service questions, simply admit that you don’t know. However, in the light of good customer service, be willing to go out of your way to find out.

All you have to do is let your customers know that you’re going to go and find out the answer as quickly as possible and you’ll be with them shortly. Lying is only going to cause unhappy customers, but letting the customer know that you can apologize afterward, only shows them that you’re giving the best experience you can.

Example:

Hello Nicereply Team!

I am having trouble with our company’s feedback not getting through to our Nicereply app. We can see it directly in our Zendesk tickets, but not in our Nicereply rating feed. Can you please help?

Thanks!
Sandra Green

Hello Sandra,

to be completely honest I have no idea what is causing this issue, I went and checked with my colleagues from IT support and they are completely surprised by your issue as well. We are going to investigate it and I’ll let you know as soon as I have more information about what is causing this.

Sincerely, Samantha Smith

11. Say sorry!

People love an honest, genuine apology. In a study by the Carey School of Business, satisfaction with service recovery doubled (from 37% to 74% satisfied) when an apology was added on top of other compensation (like a service credit).

When the occasion calls for it, apologizing is an easy way to regain goodwill with your customers.

Here are five examples of how to apologize to your customers:

• I’m really sorry that this affected…
• I know this was really frustrating, and I’m sorry for the trouble.
• Our apologies for the hassle this has caused, it’s definitely not up to our usual standard.
• I want to apologize for …
• I’m sorry.

Example:

Hello support,

I ordered supplies of multiple vitamins from your website weeks ago and still did not receive any package. I contacted your support number of times, and your colleagues reassured me that I will get my package within two weeks. It’s been 23 days now and the issue is still not resolved.

Can you please let me know whether I will get what I ordered or whether I should just cancel the order, Thanks!

Jake Robinson

Hello Jake,

we had issues with our carrier. The problem is now resolved and your package is on the way to you. It will arrive within the next 3 days. I would like to apologize for the issues you had with your order and we would like to offer you a 20% discount for your next order as a way to say thank you for being so patient.

Hope you’ll be happy with the goods you’ve ordered!

Have a nice day!

13. Keep it simple

Einstein has said that if you can’t explain it to a 5-year-old, you don’t really know what you’re talking about. Never is this more true than in customer support. Your customers come from a variety of backgrounds, and most of them don’t have a diploma in computer science (unless you’re supporting NASA engineers [if you are, that’s really cool, please email us and tell us about it]).

Keep technical jargon to a minimum and don’t assume customers know how to do things like opening an incognito browser or clearing their cache. When there are simpler words available, use them in place of long unnecessary words.

If you’re asking someone to open up an incognito browser window, provide steps on how to do so. If someone is trying to access the API for the first time, make sure they know how to use oAuth. Just because it’s familiar to you doesn’t mean it’s familiar to everyone.

Your turn to create the perfect support email!

Here’s a checklist for you to go through while writing your perfect support email:

• Is your tone matched with your customer’s?
• Did you check your grammar?
• Is your email easy to read?
• Does your email link to all the necessary resources?
• Did you use clear language without generic business-speak??
• Are you addressing everything your customer wrote you about??
• If you are unsure about something, are you being honest about it?
• When it’s needed, did you apologize to your customer?

If you’ve answered Yes to all of those, it’s time to hit that send button, and move on to another ticket!

What’s the best tip you have for writing the perfect email reply? We’d love to hear it!

The post The Nice Guide to Nice Replies: Writing the Perfect Support Email appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

People who are unhappy or who need help want a solution as quickly as possible, and a phone call is typically the way to make that happen.

Most customer service communication happens over the phone. It’s both more immediate and more personal than email exchanges, and results typically come faster.

Many of these phone calls aren’t particularly pleasant to start out with. Customers are coming to you confused and needing information or even breathing fire on the other end of the call.

The burden is placed on the customer service representative to turn a generally unpleasant experience into a decidedly pleasant one, especially if they want to keep the customer happy.

So how can you make customers happy through the phone call, no matter what they’re calling for?

In this post, we’re going to go over 6 ways to make your customer happy over the phone, all of which are used daily by the best expert agents to deliver customer service excellent every time.

1. Direct them where they need to go the first time

When you go to the doctor’s office, you’ll have to go over the full story of what’s going on with the nurse, and then again with the doctor, and potentially a third time for a medical student.

It is exhausting to explain the same thing over and over again, so when you’re on a phone call with your client, you never want to have to ask them to repeat their story multiple times.

Not only will that alone be aggravating, but it can increase their overall frustration, hearing their problems over and over again.

Bypass the game of hot potato and make sure that your customers get to the person they need to speak to the first time around. Tools such as an auto attendant make this possible, think “Press 1 for new patients, Press 2 for existing patients” etc.

This will make things easier on you as well as significantly improve the client’s experience.

2. Reduce wait times

Everyone is always in a rush. No one wants to spend 20 minutes listening to your waiting-on-hold song for twenty minutes. By the time that they’ll get to your customer service representative, they’ll be about ready to blow if they weren’t when they got on the call to begin with.

Do everything you can to reduce wait times customers experience before they get to you. If this means adding more online options for them to get in touch, you can do so.

In many cases, it means adding additional team members to your customer service phone lines or recruiting third-party call service agents to represent your business well.

Another great option is to give customers the choice to leave a callback number so that they don’t have to wait on hold. Their spot in the queue is reserved, and the agent simply calls the customer back when they’re available instead of having them wait.

If you can’t get away from long call waits, this will improve your customer’s experience significantly.

3. Make small talk

Small talk almost always improves the quality of a phone call. Not only will it distract a customer during a long wait time while you look up information or flag down a manager, but it also provides a powerful relationship-building opportunity.

Customers want to work with brands that treat them like real people. They also want to be working with real people in return.

Asking them about their day and making a joke (if the tone of the call is right) can go a long way in showing customers that you are invested in the conversation and them.

If you hear a dog bark in the background, for example, you can ask what kind of dog they have. Swapping stories about your dogs only takes fifteen to thirty seconds. But can make a big impact on the customer’s feelings about the call by establishing trust and focusing on something positive.

4. Use positive language

How you frame the situation will affect the user’s outlook on the entire call. Apologize for their negative experience if appropriate, but then launch into using positive language as soon as possible.

Instead of saying “Sorry for the wait,” switch to “Thank you so much for your patience.” Swap out “Unfortunately we can’t do that,” and focus on “Here’s what we can do for you.”

This will help you to make sure that the customer is left with a better taste in their mouth, and small subtle changes in language can make an impact on how they view what’s going on.

5. Be an active listener

A lot of customer service representatives are busy.

That’s even more true for their managers or for the owners of a business. We all have a million things on our minds at any point. But when you’re on the phone call with a customer, you need to put those other things aside and focus on the conversation at hand.

Customers will be able to tell the second they don’t have your full attention. Be an active participant in the conversation. Ask for clarification if and when relevant; don’t want for someone to go through the whole story and then say you didn’t understand.

If necessary, jot down notes so you can remember the key facts at hand so you don’t need to ask users to repeat themselves.

Other active listening tips include:

• Using the customer’s name throughout the conversation
• Go over a quick recap of the problem at hand to ensure that you’re on the same page
• Don’t interrupt, and wait for them to finish their thoughts

6. Offer additional follow-up if needed

Sometimes, you won’t necessarily be able to resolve a problem instantly on one call. You may need the customer to submit paperwork or files. Take certain steps, or wait for something to process before you can complete their request.

If this is the case, let the customer know this upfront. Then explain why they’ll need to go through the multi-step process to prevent frustration. You should also let them know exactly what’s needed next, how to get back in touch, and who to reach out to for the next steps.

Think about the last time you or a friend was in a car accident because someone rear-ended you. You call the other driver’s insurance, and you know that multiple steps will be needed and multiple people will need to be spoken to before you can get your checks and repairs as needed.

You want a representative who will be happy to answer all your questions upfront and explain the process, even if it will take time to go through it in its entirety.

When customers call your business, they want quick but complete solutions to any concerns they have. Even if that’s just getting information about a product or service your business offers. Even if the customer is unhappy, you can use a positive phone call to turn the situation around and rescue the guest experience.

Ensure that your customer service representatives are trained in each of these methods because small differences can make huge impacts over time.

The post 6 Ways to Make Your Customers Happy Over the Phone appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.