We want to share a summary of what caught our attention most, pulled out as key points for improving any communication process between customer and supplier.
The why
The way we communicate with customers has a big impact on our brand, and nothing beats clean, pleasant communication for making a customer feel satisfied with the value we deliver. Investing time and effort in thinking about how you deliver information to your customer (and how you collect good feedback) pays off far more for your business than relaunching a logo or handing out discount coupons whenever you can.
But what does it mean to "think" about the way you communicate with a customer? What is the strategy for having successful conversations?
The best customer service companies in the world start from treating humans as humans. With the tips and guidelines below you are guaranteed to improve your communication in your own way.
Keep a consistent tone
Part one
As in music, without tone the whole piece falls flat. "Anything else?" and "What else can I help you with?" are conceptually the same question but very different in the tone they use.
Defining a collective "voice" for the support or sales team builds a set of standards for more personal, human conversations. That lets each member keep one single voice without sounding like a robot reading from a script.
1. Picture tone as a spectrum
Taking the earlier example: "Anything else?" and "What else can I help you with?" The first clearly edges into curt territory, while the second sounds friendly and still professional. That is where most of your customer interactions need to sit.
2. Use positive language
Positive language keeps the conversation on less confrontational ground and avoids misunderstandings. Words like "can't" and "won't", and phrases like "you have to" or "you should", usually read as negative
Examples of bad phrasing
Bad
"No, we don't do that"
Less bad
"I can see how that would be useful, but I'm afraid we have no plans to add that feature"
Examples of good phrasing
Good
"There's no way to do that at the moment. We appreciate you taking the time to let us know what you want; most of our improvements come from ideas and suggestions like yours, so thanks for the tip!"
Now say one of your products will be delayed by a month and you need to tell your customer right away. Consider these two replies:
With negative language
"We won't be able to deliver the product for a month; it's pending shipment and isn't available right now. You'll have to wait a few weeks, but I'm glad we can at least place the order immediately!"
With positive language
"It looks like the product will be restocked and available in a month. I can place your order right away and we'll make sure it ships as soon as it reaches our warehouse!
Steer the conversation from the negative toward the positive by keeping the focus on possible solutions. When the conversation centers on solving the problem, the customer is far less likely to feel unnecessarily annoyed.
For those difficult situations where we know the customer "has to" do something, positive language reminds them (and us) that this is teamwork
With negative language
First, you'll haveto check...
Now, you'll need to configure
Then, I need you to....
With positive language
First, let's check...
Now, we can configure...
Then, the best option is if we...
3. Be brief but not brusque
However good your answer is, most customers will ignore a 1,000-word email. Keep sentences and paragraphs short. Faced with a long block of plain text, the reader will almost certainly skim it.
To keep a reply concise, use images, videos and links to other knowledge bases. If your knowledge base is easy to reach or integrated into your Helpdesk, replying gets easier because you don't wander as much in the answer.
The goals of a reply are that the customer feels heard and that their concern gets a timely answer. It will always be better to reply with a couple of sentences that make them feel they are talking to another human being than to send a bare link dropping them into a knowledge base where they can find the answer. Combine both.
4. Responde oportunamente
When you have a reply template where you only change the recipient's name, tell them you are aware of their issue and send it barely 30 seconds after their message arrives, people may doubt you even read the email. It is fine to let "non-urgent" emails sit in your inbox for a while.
Obviously, customers whose house is on fire needed an answer yesterday. Organize your replies by priority.
Try keeping a separate folder for every message queued for attention, where you can filter out the ones that don't need the "template reply". There you can see exactly which emails are urgent and need immediate attention, so you and your team can start on them.
5. Always use the customer's name
If you don't use the customer's name when greeting them, you are missing a great chance to take advantage of customer behavior psychology. As Dale Carnegie put it, "a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language".
Your helpdesk platform should let you automate including your contact's name in the replies you send by email.
To be clear, use exactly the name that person uses: Sérgio is Sérgio, not Sergio. Katie is Katie, not Kate. If you don't have their name, go with a friendly generic greeting: "Hi there, good to hear from you!".
6. Match their tone
Matching your customer's tone tells them you are standing on the same side of the street. If your customer is formal, avoid emojis. If they are more casual, relax your tone. Always adjust to the tone of your customer's email. If they are clearly angry, don't play the flawless expert; try to be understanding. If they are excited about something, write with energy.
In most interactions the key is to be "somewhat like your customer" without turning into a caricature of them.
Mirroring the tone builds rapport and puts the customer at ease, cutting the extra effort of working out what you mean.
7. Be careful with jokes
Gauge your rapport with the customer carefully before using jokes, sarcasm or irony; remember that text carries no intonation and leaves no room for unwritten readings, so it is very easy to be misread when you try to say something "between the lines". Emojis and GIFs help, but there is no such thing as a sarcastic font. That is why words have to be chosen carefully when writing.
If the customer writes in a playful mood, there is nothing for it but to ride the wave and make their day with a joke or something funny.
8. Create a style guide
A style guide largely serves to document what makes your brand unique, which is why every team member should help shape it. The document sets guidelines without suppressing creativity. On language, focus on the DOs and DON'Ts of tone, and illustrate with real cases from other companies you admire.
A good style guide covers everything, from what customer emails should be called ("conversations", not "tickets") and which words to avoid ("inconvenience", "unfortunately") to how phone numbers should be formatted in writing.
Creating a distinctive language, or making certain phrases part of the house style, spreads the values you want your team to carry more easily, reminding them what they represent and the standards they should always work to.
Build your own vocabulary
Consider building your own lexicon, phrases your team can always fall back on to get a clear message across, such as "always a pleasure to help you" or "that's an opportunity to improve". A lexicon of your own is like a color on the uniform: it says "this is who we are, this is how we do things". When those values and beliefs are taught from the start, the service you provide is perceived with a stronger identity.
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9. Design templates for default replies
A database of default replies saves your team time answering frequent questions, whether in support or in sales.
Default replies keep you out of conversations that add no value to the company. A new customer who doesn't know how to reset their password to get into the application needs attention, but it is exactly the case for a default reply prepared in advance as a template.
Set out a flexible set of rules for creating new templates of this kind too. Usually "I feel like I've given this same answer many times" is more than enough reason to justify one.
10. Give clear instructions, in order
A golden rule: if you can do something for your customer, do it yourself. The less effort they feel they had to put in to resolve the case, the higher they will rate your support.
When you do need your customer to do something themselves, be as clear and specific as possible in the instructions. Use numbered lists, bullets, diagrams and so on. Say you need them to run a traceroute to help you find out why a certain page is slow, and you have genuinely exhausted every avenue on your side:
11. Review support replies across the whole company
Having the whole company able to give support is fantastic for several reasons, but letting people untrained in the craft do it without an expert's supervision is not a good idea.
Look for a helpdesk system that lets you mention a team member so they can give your message a quick internal review before it goes out. Remember, customer service is demanding, specialized work; not everyone can do it.
12. Offer more help
Avoid the kind of ending where the customer feels you are running off to something more important. Leave the door open for future conversation instead:
"Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you. Happy to help."
Make sure your customer knows you are glad to help with any concern or question they may have, however silly it seems. There are no silly questions in customer service.
13. Show, don't just tell
Recording a quick clip of what you want to tell the customer beats listing or writing out a long paragraph of actions to take.
"Instead of telling the customer what to do, show them!!
14. Clarity, clarity, clarity
Use accessible, candid, precise, plain language. Avoid passive-aggressive or lecturing phrasing ("actually", "you should", "if you think about it"), argot, colloquialisms or technical jargon. To make this point land better, we recommend these readings.
15. Stay away from customer service clichés
Which of the following do you think is more appropriate?
"You are being transferred. Your call is very important to us."
"Hi Patricia, let me introduce you to José, our customer service specialist, who is much better placed to handle your request."
Easy. One is a worn-out line people are tired of hearing. The other explains why the transfer benefits the customer. The right words can make an enormous difference.
16. Talk to your customer like a person
... because that is what they are. Consider this example:
Disappointing
Hello,
We have just received your incident. We will respond regarding your request as soon as possible. For your records, the support ticket number is #54321. Please include it in any future communication.
- The support team.
The customer is literally treated as a number. The ultra-formal tone doesn't engage them at all: is this an "incident" or a conversation with a human being?
Be friendly, personal and casual. Here is a better example:
Exceptional
Good to hear from you!
Thanks for placing an order with us! This is an automatic email just to let you know I received yours. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
Thanks!
Pedro Pérez
Customer service
Customers want to be treated with respect. The day you stop talking to them like an ordinary person is the day you lose the touch and the relevance. After that, you start losing customers.
17. Keep it simple with customers in other languages
When a customer contacts you in another language, use a translation tool and get your message across with an active voice and simple words. A good way to catch your reader's attention is to tell them a story. Anything you consider writing can be a story. Great stories have personality. Consider telling one that brings personality with it. Writing a story with personality for potential customers helps create a connection. It shows in small details, like distinctive words or phrases. Write from your own point of view, not from someone else's experience.
Great stories are for everyone, even though they are written for one person. If you write with a very broad audience in mind, your story will ring false and come out weak. Nobody will care about it. Write for one person. If it is genuine for one, it will be genuine for the rest.