Good customer service teams can help maintain healthy customer relationships and regain trust lost due to a bad experience. Conversely, a poor support team can have the opposite effect, leaving customers with the feeling that their money could have been better spent elsewhere.
By properly training customer service teams to address the myriad of issues that can arise, customers can maintain a positive view of your business and keep them coming back again and again. To help you with this, a panel of Council for Young Entrepreneurs members share the best advice a leader can give their staff while training in one of the more popular forms of customer support: live chat.
Young Entrepreneur Council members share their best live chat tips for customer service representatives.
Photos courtesy of individual members.
1. Read for understanding
Read the customer’s question before copying and pasting a script. Nothing sets a negative tone in live chat discussions faster than copying and pasting a script that asks for information that the customer already provided in their original question or previous message. Read first, then respond so customers don’t have to repeat themselves. That shows that you really listen and care. † Jonathan Prichard† MattressInsider.com
2. Put the customer first
I want my customer service reps to put people first and we train them thoroughly for that. The main motivation behind setting up a customer service department is to help our customers find the solution they need. So it’s our duty to put people first, even if it means going the extra mile. † Thomas Griffin† OptinMonster
3. Be quick and direct
The key points of that job are being quick to respond and having a lot of patience. You also want to work on the employees’ ability to write concisely and clearly. The faster and more direct they respond, the faster they can interact with the customer and perform other tasks. Customers also appreciate timely solutions. † Salvador Ordorica† The Spanish Group LLC
4. Try the ‘Hey, Gorgeous’ Technique
I recommend the line “Hey, beautiful” to help the support staff write friendly and helpful responses. It goes something like this: If the sentence you’re typing could start with “Hey, beautiful,” then your sentence is great. If that doesn’t feel right, rewrite it to match how you would talk to someone you were kind enough to say so. It also helps to eliminate condescending tones in a response. † Nathalie Lussier† AccessAlly
5. Avoid Pre-Planned Responses
My best advice is to avoid canned responses. It’s important to sound like a real person who is genuinely interested in helping the customer, not a robot. This can be difficult if you’re dealing with a large number of chats, but it’s important to take the time to read each customer’s message and respond in a way that suits them. † Syed Balkan† WPBeginner
6. Greet the customer right away
Greet the customer as soon as possible. You can follow up on this by asking them to provide as much information as possible about why they are contacting customer support in the meantime so that your team can quickly resolve their question when you come back to help them. When you are ready to take that ticket, the information is already presented to you. † Mary Harcourt† CosmoGlo
7. Ask for feedback
Using your site’s live chat feature, you can improve your customer service by asking for feedback at the end of every interaction. This could be a simple survey or a few quick questions. You may not receive a response from every user, but those that do will give you vital data on how to improve your live chat marketing strategy. † Jared Atchison† WPForms
8. Train for Common Objections
When we train new customer support agents, we provide them with a list of common customer concerns. I tell team members to read these objections and anticipate that they will come up at least once a day. I found that this helped new hires better understand our audience and the benefits of our products. † John Turner† SeedProd LLC
9. Have a chat
Don’t be afraid to add personality to the conversation to provide great customer service while using live chat on your website. It’s okay to chat during wait times, such as entering customer data or waiting for data to load. Small changes make for a more personalized experience for users, even through a screen. † Stephanie Wells† Formidable shapes
10. Know the product well
I would recommend them to know the product or service we offer inside out. They have to use it regularly, troubleshoot and solve problems on their own. Often the customer may be confronted with a problem, but they are not able to express the problem correctly. With the right knowledge, the support staff is in a better position to identify problems and resolve queries faster and smoother. † Benjamin Rojas† All in one SEO
11. Treat Customers Like Individuals
My only advice is to view each person and situation as unique. So many of the live chats want to categorize issues in a specific area and give them a standardized approach. Customers can smell it a kilometer away and have the feeling that they are being brushed away. Every case is different, even if some have the same problem. Each customer should be treated as a unique case and their chat should be personalized. † Baruch Labunskic† Rank Safe
12. Present the problem to the customer
It may sound simple, but relaying the issue raised by consumers to them can dramatically improve your customer satisfaction score. When your audience has communicated their problem to them, they know your team is listening and wants to help them find a solution. † John Brackett† Smash Balloon LLC
