Entering part two of our “Improving Customer Service: Live Chat” series, we’ll start with these stats for context:
- More customers prefer live chat (46%) to email (29%) and social media (16%).
- Live chat satisfaction rates (85%) outperform emails (82%).
- Three-quarters of survey respondents like live chat better than all other channels.
Now, we’ll further explore how to ensure your janitorial supply company’s live chat support delivers results that boost your bottom line.
Live Chat Representatives Must Be Empathetic.
Empathy is one of those things that seems easier to convey in person.
Specifically, digital communications eliminate the nuances of body language and voice inflections, meaning your live chat reps must choose their words carefully.
Say a customer reaches out saying they had a severe allergic reaction to one of your cleaning products because it had an ingredient a sales rep didn’t tell them about.
Imagine the live chat rep types, ““We offer our sincerest apologies for any issues you’ve faced. I require more information to determine whether the product in question contained anionic surfactant.”
Here are some words in this response that could worsen the rift between your company and the customer:
- “We” and “our” should be replaced with “I” and “my.” As it stands, it seems the rep is hiding behind your brand, which will rub the customer the wrong way.
- The word “any” as it applies to “issue” makes it seem like the rep doesn’t believe the customer.
- “Require” is an impersonal term and puts the onus on the customer to give the company what they need without showing empathy.
- “Anionic surfactant” might describe the potential source of the allergic reaction, but it’s jargon, disrupting rapport and creating distance. The rep should match the customer’s tone and language.
Empower Your Live Chat Team To Enact Positive Changes.
Successful customer service–including on live chat–often requires strict protocols and scripting.
Encourage your reps to be part of establishing these protocols and scripts. While leadership might add more high-level thinking to the process, those in the trenches have real-world insights.
Of course, changes shouldn’t be made arbitrarily. Plus, all protocols should be approved, but reps should be active in developing your online chat methods, approaches, and scripting.
Keep Notes On Customers.
It can annoy customers when they must “start over” each time they speak to a chat rep.
Clients who have a history with your company should feel like they have a history with your company. It can come off poorly when they speak with your reps for the fifth time and are treated like it’s the first time.
Sales teams should keep notes when they speak with customers and add those notes to a CRM. The related insights will be seamlessly available to your live chat support team from there. Also, live chat reps should take notes and add them to the CRM.
This additional context enables your rep team to read previous conversations before starting a new one. Then, they can approach the current discussion with the appropriate tone and solutions.
So ends part two of our Live Chat series. Part 3 will be our last and potentially our most illuminating. However, feel free to inquire with us about other digital design and marketing topics.