- February 21, 2022
- by Last expert
- Blogs, Chat Support, Non Voice Support
- 0 Comments
Are you aiming to provide outstanding customer service? You already know that a positive customer experience results in a loyal customer base, people willing to pay a premium for your products, and customers who post positive reviews. And if you’re providing or considering providing live chat customer service, you’re undoubtedly already aware of the advantages, which include improved sales, increased customer happiness, and lower customer support costs.
What happens, however, if you don’t provide good customer service? As in this case, where the customer care employee addressed his male customer as “ma’am” during the chat session and didn’t comprehend the problem? Or how about this client who had to wait 20 minutes to speak with an agent and received a scripted response that didn’t fix her problem?
Frustrated and disgruntled clients cause negative reputation for your company, and a large number of lost customers can all result in poor customer service.These live chat operators just didn’t follow some of the basic standards of live chat etiquette, or even normal customer service politeness, in the cases above. While hiring Live chat agent you have to look for his skills and qualifications.
What is Chat Etiquette?
Chat etiquette is a set of rules that a chat agent should adhere to when communicating with clients via chat. Customers are increasingly using chat for help these days. Using colloquial language or giving poor chat service can reflect poorly on your company. Following chat etiquette allows you to give excellent chat support while also building a positive brand image.
What are the Basic Rules of Chat Interactions?
If you don’t want to end up like the companies mentioned above, make sure your support team follows these 15 live chat etiquette tips.
Rule 1: Don’t Keep Your Customer Waiting
In terms of live chat, the quicker your agent responds, the better. According to research, more than half of all consumers feel annoyed if they don’t get a live person straight quickly, and 45 percent of customers will cancel a transaction if they don’t get a response from customer service right away! Consider having your live chat operators accept live chat requests automatically to give clients quick access to the information they need.
Rule 2: Good Grammar, Spelling, and Use Of Language
Ensure that your live chat operators have excellent grammar and spelling abilities in the language in which they are providing assistance. A customer service representative with poor language or spelling sends the message to your customers that you don’t appreciate them and makes your entire company appear unprofessional. Provide resources such as infographics with frequent grammar blunders to avoid or a dictionary widget for their browser. Your live chat worker should also avoid using social media terminology (such “lol” or “brb”), shorthand, or typing in all caps (which may indicate that the agent is shouting). To avoid the consumer becoming confused, jargon or technical phrases should be reduced to a bare minimum. To make the chats error-free, follow these guidelines:
- Before sending the chat, make sure it’s error-free.
- Making communication skills a priority in the employment process is a good idea.
- Invest in a grammar programme like Grammarly or ProWritingAid.
- Don’t take on too many chats at once; this can lead to mistakes.
Rule 3: Provide a Proper Introduction
A little familiarity goes a long way toward establishing an emotional bond between your customer service representatives and your customers. Your employee will provide a personal touch to the transaction by introducing themselves, making the customer feel more comfortable sharing information with your customer service staff. Here are a few examples:
- [Product Name] is delighted to welcome you! What can I do to assist you?
- Good day, there! Do you need help logging in?
- Do you have any other inquiries? We’re here to assist you.
Rule 4: Be Friendly and Cheerful
Being nice and upbeat can make the difference between a chilly, uninteresting interaction and one that is pleasurable. When interacting with customers, your customer service representative should be able to employ a nice, approachable tone. In fact, according to one study, about 75% of all customers anticipate their customer care agent to be pleasant, implying that customer service friendliness is expected more than receiving the assistance that customers require, highlighting the value of being nice. To have a polite conversation, follow these guidelines:
- Emojis can be used as needed.
- Address the buyer with his or her first name. Use generic, gender-neutral greetings if you don’t know the person’s name.
- Strike up a conversation — not with “Where do you live?” but with “Did you watch the Super Bowl?”
- Know when to go back to a warm and outgoing tone.
Rule 5: Always Be Honest
You should never deceive or lie to your customers. When a customer’s needs can’t be met right away or there’s bad news, your live chat agent should be upfront with them while looking for the next best option. If your live chat worker makes a promise, make sure they follow through on it. Above all, avoid being bluntly honest. Honesty should be done gracefully. By their very nature, digital discussions are more complicated than face-to-face conversations. A little more time spent polishing your words will go a long way. Consider the following examples:
X This is against our company’s policy.
✓ I’m afraid the company policy does not allow for this. Could you tell me more so that I can make a recommendation for the nearest alternative?
The first statement ignores and alienates the customer, but the second appears to be welcoming and kind.
Rule 6: Keep The Chat Positive
Your live chat agent should make every effort to keep the dialogue positive. If there is bad news, your representative should deliver it at the start of the encounter while “saving” the good news for the end, as this has been proved to improve customer satisfaction. Talking in the affirmative, regardless of the information delivered, is a good approach for keeping the conversation positive.
X The item is currently out of stock. Check back in 2 weeks.
✓In two weeks, the item will be back in stock. When it happens, I’ll let you know.
Rule 7: Stay On Topic
While being polite is necessary, it’s even more crucial to never lose sight of the aim of solving the customer’s problem. Resist the impulse to become involved in a conversation that isn’t about the problem. Even if the customer wishes to deviate from the topic at hand, your customer service representative should politely return the conversation to the topic at hand in order to retain efficiency.
Rule 8: Be Caring and Empathetic
Customers that are furious or frustrated will occasionally contact your customer service team. Rather than arguing with them, your customer support team should try to calm the situation down. They should apologise for any inconvenience and be willing to give the customer a sufficient amount of time to calm down. Your agent must be willing to empathise with your consumers, reassuring them that they are on their side and that their frustrations are understandable.
Rule 9: Check In
Customers who are using a live chat service frequently take breaks. They might be taking a toilet break or taking a phone call. Whatever the reason, it’s critical that you don’t end the live chat session if you don’t get a response right away. You should give your consumers at least two chances to answer while they’re away from the computer, with each chance lasting at least a few minutes before you end the conversation.
Rule 10: Keep it Simple
Customers are frequently assumed to be educated about particular topics by agents. It’s possible that this isn’t the case. Customers may not understand the technical jargon you employ on a daily basis. Keep things clear and understandable while troubleshooting or discussing an issue. Always begin with the fundamentals. If the consumer insists on going technical or appears to be educated about the subject, go ahead and do so. To make your chat messages easier to understand, follow these guidelines:
- Keep your messages to a minimum.
- Long sentences should be avoided. Make it into a series of brief messages.
- Use just simple abbreviations and jargon.
- Frequently inquire whether they are able to follow.
Rule 11: Use Canned Responses Mindfully
Fast responses are something that no customer can say no to. Chat workers can use canned responses to respond to frequently requested queries fast and effectively. Customers, on the other hand, despise robotic, impersonal responses. Take the time to write personalised scripted responses that your consumers will like. The following are some examples of canned responses:
- Do you have any more inquiries?
- We’re currently working on resolving your problem. We will respond as quickly as possible.
- Thank you for your input! Your feedback is extremely useful to us.
Rule 12: Chat as You Talk
What are the most important chat etiquette dos and don’ts? Don’t be overly formal in your conversation. You can chat while you’re talking. If you seem too formal, you’ll come across as robotic, while if you sound too casual, you’ll appear unprofessional. Strike a balance and speak in a tone that the customer will understand.
- “You’re” and “I’m” are examples of contractions.
- It’s crucial to use personal pronouns like “You” and “I.”
- If the consumer uses internet slang like “Lol” or “Btw,” don’t use it.
- As much as possible, use the customer’s name.
In a nutshell, imitate the consumer (except when the customer is frustrated).
Rule 13: Handle Humor with Care
Humor is a unique type of conversation help that is difficult to provide through other channels, such as chatbots. You can use humour to start a dialogue and grasp the customer’s mental state. Humor, on the other hand, should be handled with extreme caution. Humor has a place, but when used inappropriately, it can backfire. Use humour sparingly, and avoid sarcasm at all costs.
Rule 14: Be Proactive but Not Intrusive
The capacity to provide proactive support is a huge benefit of live chat. With a single click, you may speak in real time with a website visitor or potential customer. You can assist customers in making a purchasing decision more quickly. But how many times have you been annoyed by an unwelcome pop-up ad or a text message? Your customers are probably thinking the same thing. Only intervene when necessary, and ask for feedback from the customer at the conclusion of the discussion. You can fine-tune your proactive efforts in the future based on the comments.
Rule 15: End On a High Note
Don’t end a chat session just because you think you’ve figured out the problem. To ensure client satisfaction, your agents should have a conversation closing protocol in place, which should contain the following:
- Thanking the consumer for taking the time to talk about their problem.
- Inquiring if the customer’s problem has been remedied and if there is anything else for which they require assistance.
- Wishing them a pleasant day and bidding them farewell.
These basic guidelines will help you swiftly transform a transactional consumer relationship into a meaningful one.