The Importance of Chat Etiquettes
The guiding principle for successfully providing customer service via live chat is to help the customer with the task or issue he or she contacted you about. It’s irrelevant whether you are handling the processing of an order, answering a billing question, or checking the status of a return; your job is the same. You can turn even a disgruntled client into a lifelong fan of your product or service by using appropriate live chat etiquette. Implement these 10 tips and watch your customer satisfaction scores soar.
Know Your Stuff
If you don’t know the product or service you’re supporting, it won’t matter how polite or friendly your sound. The fastest way to frustrate your customer is to display a lack of basic knowledge. Even if you don’t immediately know the answer to the problem at hand, you should at least know how to find it. Familiarize yourself with the visitor-facing portion of the company’s website so you can quickly direct your customer to the correct place if he or she is looking for product details or the FAQ section.
Don’t Lose Focus
While it’s important to be friendly and personable as a part of live chat etiquette, it’s also easy to drift off course into small talk in the name of polite customer service. Remember that your goal is to fix the issue the customer contacted you about. Be ready to gently steer the conversation back to the problem at hand if things seem to be getting off track.
Listen
Most products and services have features that generate questions from users regularly. You may feel that you answer the same queries every day and can make assumptions based on those experiences. However, listening to the customer’s words as they describe what they are struggling with is critical. Don’t assume their problem is the same as everyone else.
Tell the Truth
If you make a promise to a customer, keep it. That seems like a pretty simple principle of live chat etiquette, but operators get tripped up on it often. Don’t offer something that you don’t have the authority to follow through on, and if you do make a promise, stay with it until you know it’s done.
Explain Yourself
Rather than just replying to a question with a yes or a no, provide an explanation for why that is the answer. Even if the customer doesn’t like the answer, he or she is more likely to accept it if they understand the reasoning behind it.
Know When You’re In Over Your Head
If you find yourself faced with a customer support issue that you simply cannot solve, don’t be afraid to admit that to the client. Reassure him or her that repeating the whole story won’t be necessary, and then transfer everything you’ve done so far to the more senior agent to maintain the live chat etiquette.
Speak Clearly
Remember that the person you are communicating with may not be knowledgeable of all the abbreviations, technical terms, and other jargon associated with your product or service. At least initially, ask basic questions in simple terms. If you establish that the customer is more advanced, then you can elevate the terminology of the conversation.
Keep It, Professional
While it’s tempting to lapse into less formal language using slang or shortcut spelling, resist the urge. In a professional environment, stick to proper grammar and sentence structure to build your customer’s confidence in you.
Don’t Leave Your Customer Hanging
If you need to put the conversation on hold to research or get more information, be sure to communicate to the other party what you are doing. If you just disappear, the customer might think something happened to the connection. There’s no such thing as overcommunicating in the world of live chat etiquette.
Try to Fix It With One Chat
Customers feel most confident and happiest with your service when you answer their questions or fix an issue with one call. Having to contact your company again and again with the same problem damages brand loyalty and makes the customer less likely to recommend your products because of a bad customer service experience.
Remember the Impact
Obviously, most consumers wish they never had to reach out for support of a product or service. But if they do need to, the best way to turn around that negative experience is to provide a customer support experience that is so good and so helpful they want to tell their friends about it. In a 2017 study by Northridge Group, 81 percent of customers surveyed reported that the quality of the support experience would be a determining factor in whether they continued to use a product or service. If you need help in establishing a world-class live chat support team, contact Etech.
