Investing in a software or hardware to improve your customer support is just as important as investing in training customer support agents. Live support software is an invaluable asset for the customer support department. But handling customers through it is a very delicate task. There is no eye contact or body language. It all boils down to finding ways of passing on the message by using only text.
Conveying the message, you want to send out via live chat requires special skills. One wrong sentence and you can really anger an already frustrated customer. Achieving a professional level of communication as a live chat agent takes a lot of practice and knowledge. This is why we are offering you 7 no-no phrases which you should avoid using during a live chat.
“This is against our policy” and Similar Phrases
Referring to policy is only good if you are on the legal team of your firm. Using the policy excuse won’t help your customer nor will it help him feel better. This is simply because an average customer can’t make any sense out of it. A live chat agent should never hide behind the policy. Instead, they should use it to determine their limits, so that they can explain to the customer why they can’t help and what else the customer can do. Let’s take a closer look at this through an example:
Client: “Can you please change my account details?”
Inappropriate response: “Sorry, that is against our policy.”
Good response: “Sorry, *customer name*, I don’t have proper authorization to change your account details. We take security and privacy of our clients and their information very seriously. This is why you will have to update your account details first.”
“What do you want?” and Similar Phrases
This type of response to a client via live support software is very rude. If a customer support agent is unclear about the needs of the customer in distress, there are other ways to express it. By asking “What do you want?” you may seem rude and the customer is more likely to be displeased. Here are some examples of how to sound more professional when you are uncertain about what a customer needs:
“I am really sorry; can you please be more specific about your problem?”
“Sorry, would you be kind enough to clarify what kind of problem you are experiencing?”
“Excuse me, I am not sure I completely understand what you said correctly. Are you having a problem with …?”
“Be right back” and Similar Phrases
“Be right back”, “Just a moment” and “Just a second” phrases are commonly used when live chat agents want to put the customer on hold. But putting it out there in this simple form doesn’t assure the customer that you are attending to their problem while they have to wait. Maybe it is understood from the context, but it is always better to use the following sentences when you want to put the customer on hold:
“Let me check your problem, give me a moment please.”
When you are aware that it will take more than few minutes, it is advised to inform the customer as you don’t want them to feel abandoned.
“*Customer name*, I will look into your problem, but it will take a couple of minutes. Do you mind holding?”
“I have already told you this” and Similar Phrases
Sometimes talking with customers via live support software can be frustrating, as they might miss some information during longer conversations. Instead of replying as a frustrated support agent, you can use following phrases:
“Can you please refer to the information I posted above?”
“You can fix the problem you are experiencing if you check the information I have provided above”
Or you can simply rephrase your answer whenever you are faced with a repetitive question.
“We will not do that for you” and Similar Phrases
It is very common to face customers who can’t be helped. During that time, it is important to provide them with an explanation or offer them some alternatives. This is how you can do this:
“What you are asking us to do is not possible, because of *reason*”
“Sorry, *customer name*, it is not possible for us to do what are you asking, but you can *alternative*”
“You can do that by yourself” and Similar Phrases
Even if your intention is to encourage the customer this way, it doesn’t sound like that. It’s like you are saying “That’s not my job” or that you don’t know how to do it. The customer is asking for help and you have to do all in your power to help them, even if it exceeds the scope of your expertise. Here are some examples:
“Sorry, *customer name*, what you are asking exceeds my expertise, but John from IT support will be able to help you. Do you mind me connecting you with him?”
“I don’t know how to help you” and Similar Phrases
Instead of being honest with the customer in this way, you can make it sound a bit more professional:
“Sorry, *customer name*, I am not sure about that, give me few moments to find that out for you.”
“I’m really sorry, but I don’t have the information you are seeking. Do you mind me putting you on hold for a couple of minutes, while I am looking into it?”
Conclusion
Avoiding these phrases in live chat conversations will help you avoid frustrating your customers. Using the alternatives ones that we have offered instead, will help you build a connection with a frustrated customer and show them that you are their ally. The main goal of every agent using live support software is to give their best to build such a vocabulary that will help them provide a pleasant human interaction for the customer. This will not only improve your customer satisfaction rate but also customer retention and loyalty.
Publish Date: September 27, 2017 12:30 AM |
When someone says Wiki, the first thing that comes to mind is Wikipedia. In the business concept the word wiki means much more and it can bring great benefits to companies that take the decision to implement them. Knowledge centralization, avoiding “reinventing the wheel moments”, content curation, social collaboration are just some examples of the benefits that can be obtained.
Having the right software to create corporate wikis is a great starting point but it is also important to take into consideration certain secrets that will help us take advantage of the myriad benefits wikis provide in order to boost business performance.
1)Align wikis with your company´s objectives.
Information that is stored in your wiki must be aligned with the company's objectives in order to secure results and avoid handling information with little value. For example, in CRM, providing customer assistants with the right answers in order to handle customer requirements is a must issue and in turn this becomes a critical industry knowledge.
By identifying critical knowledge we can prioritize efforts and understand what really is required from a business point of view.
2) Boost team and customer staff performance
Enterprise usage has given wikis a whole new meaning and value. They help companies create authentic knowledge repositories which can be constantly updated and co-created, which is a critical component in modern organizations.
You can also use Wikis to empower users to co-create content regardless of their location and by doing so they are reducing the natural barriers that usually interfere in knowledge management.
Also by centralizing key knowledge, companies allow employees to connect with subject matter experts as they can be called to handle content generation and curation. You can also track document history and constantly update content without hassles.
3) Use Wikis to foster CRM
How many times a day do your customers call support when they have questions regarding your products or services? In turn, how much time does you customer support staff spend answering the same questions over and over again?
By creating Wikis and centralizing content you can make sure your customer staff has access to the right information. Also, customers can use wikis to find answers themselves and by doing so they help promote proactive customer relationship.
4) Integrate with popular and existing tools
Wikis are powerful tools but they can become even more powerful if they are integrated with other existing software and company tools.
Wiki software such as Proprofs allows company to integrate their wikis with various tools such as Zendesk, Google and Wufoo. You can even create single sign-on options so that access is completely centralized and important security measures are in place.
5) Avoid expensive costs using the right software
Open source wikis are great but often carry out various customization tasks which will summon the support of your IT staff. Applying existing software (which can also be cloud based) will avoid you the hassle of having to deal with installation, maintenance issues and storage.
In this sense you can get your team to deliver content immediately. In short, no coding needed! Finally this will avoid you other costs and will help you integrate content rapidly into your organization's fabric and modus operandi.
6) Include wikis as part of your onboarding process
Spending time training new employees can be a hassle when companies need team members to rapidly assimilate knowledge and lesson learned so that mistakes can be avoided and best practices replicated.
Even if you hire experts they won't be able to do much unless they have access to the information they require to carry out their processes. In this sense wikis become a helpful companion during the onboarding process as they complement e-learning efforts and offer new candidates access to necessary knowledge.
Finally, we can sum up saying that wiki software is a vital companion for company that are seeking to create an additional source for competitive advantage. We live in a world that demands shorter attention times and customers are proactively waiting to get engaged with your product and service value proposition. In this sense, don´t miss out on the myriad benefits that wiki software has to offer and start designing the best customer journey.
Publish Date: June 8, 2016 4:32 AM |  | 1 |
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