The Support Email And Call Flow
TeleworkPH
Published: October 3, 2022
Customer service is one of the critical moving parts of a business. It is also one of the most complicated and challenging arsenals today.
As more products and services now look almost the same and are priced closely, it’s become increasingly tougher to differentiate one business from another.
That is why your customer experience strategy matters.
Hiring a customer support team that knows the support email and call flow by heart is essential. It will make your customers feel confident that you will take care of them in every way possible.
Now that your brand’s perceived value in terms of pricing and product or service quality can be vague because of stiff market competition, it is customer service that will make that striking impact so you can outshine rivals and win the customer support game. Ready?
Support Email and Call Flow
Email still reigns to be most preferred by business owners and even customers when interacting with a brand. Social media can be extremely busy with a lot of distractions which makes emails the best way to communicate with customers and keep them warm and highly engaged with your brand.
On the flipside, customers’ first point of contact would always be via a phone call especially when they’re pressed for time and want immediate results. They want to talk to a human or customer support right away because they have problems that need quick resolution.
A customer support email and call flow are important because practically everyone has been a customer once, and you would know how excruciating and frustrating it is to be put on hold for an unreasonable time. Not fun at all.
Use Positive Scripting In Your Support Email
The words used in conversations can influence customer experience. Whenever a customer contacts you via email or call, always incorporate positive words to start by greeting and acknowledging their concerns especially if it concerns a product or service complaint or issue.
A bad customer support experience can result in losing clients you won’t get back.
You only have seven seconds to make a good impression, so you have to make that count.
Your customer service team must always be accommodating, responsive, courteous, and helpful. Empathy should always come first in customer service, especially when handling complaints. This can be entirely challenging especially when you encounter customers who can be extremely difficult and overbearing. However, it’s important to respond but never react to a customer’s outburst.
At Telework PH, our customer service teams are professionals and trained to use positive scripting when handling even the most complex product and service problems.
With the use of positive scripting, certain pre-defined responses are used to acknowledge and pacify customer disappointments and anger and steer the communication flow in the right and positive direction.
Positive scripting comes in handy, especially when dealing with difficult customers. This also gives customer support a guide on the positive direction to take when handling customers.
However, positive scripting shouldn’t be used inappropriately or must not be overkill because most customers can tell if it’s rehearsed or played up. Be confident, and spontaneous, and use positive words to pull your customers to a good and safe place.
Greet Your Customers
First contact or conversation is crucial as it sets the stage for your communications. The greeting should be warm, friendly, and genuine. It’s important to address your customer by name because this allows instant rapport and connection.
Acknowledge Your Customers
Don’t underestimate the power of listening. More often than not, customers get hurt or disappointed when they feel their feelings are not acknowledged or validated. Some customers tend to repeat themselves because the customer support does not seem to understand the problem at hand.
Understand that your customers are frustrated with your product or service which triggered them to react in a repulsive way. Sometimes demanding customers can be energy vampires but don’t allow them to get the best of you. Always be rational, composed, and courteous when you respond.
Show Empathy In Your Support Email
According to Time Doctor, “68% of customers expect the customer service team to demonstrate empathy.”
Listening is the key to reducing friction.
Be empathetic or show them that you completely understand their feelings and respond with the assurance that their problem will be resolved as quickly as possible. Provide them a timeframe if you can to set expectations.
Apologize
When bad things happen, it’s normal for people to look for someone or something to blame. As a business, you have to show your customers that you acknowledge the mistakes or shortcomings and apologize to them.
Show your customers that you understand how they feel and you’d feel the same way if that happened to you.
Then the next step is to apologize for the inconvenience and stress that the problem has caused them.
Probe
Once you asked for the details of the problem and the customer has described what transpired, you may need to probe or ask for more information about the issue. Probing is important to gather more insight to properly diagnose and fix the problem.
Troubleshoot the Problem
If for instance, the problem involves a laptop, use language that is not technical and can be easily understood by the customer. If troubleshooting, guide the customer on the action required to diagnose or remedy the issue.
Some customer support calls can be easily resolved right then and there with proper step-by-step instructions. Help your customers by guiding them with easy-to-follow instructions to troubleshoot the problem.
Provide Solutions or Alternatives In Your Support Email
Talk is cheap, so customers will ultimately want solutions. They have these pressing problems and they want fast results. At this stage, you mustn’t further agitate the problem and reassure them that you’re working on it and will provide fast solutions. Customers don’t want to be waiting around in vain or without a certain timeframe. Give them a timeline to set expectations right.
Close with Confidence
A service call or email conversation is just as important as a greeting because this will seal the customer experience. It’s important to thank your customers for calling and getting their problems or feedback across. Be intuitive and encourage your customers to call you again if they have any questions or need help with anything else.
Improve Your First Call Resolution (FCR)
How is your First Call Resolution (FCR) rate doing?
Customers will always want fast or instant resolutions to their problems. They don’t want to be repeating information or be transferred to multiple agents. Look into your call center metrics to determine if you are providing high-quality and responsive customer service. More so, improving and adopting cloud-based and advanced technologies like AI can enhance customer support efficiency so you can provide real-time solutions right away.
At Telework PH, conversations with clients don’t exist in siloes, we have integrated the information into an omnichannel flow. We hate to play tag and make you wait, so we route you to the right person to contact right away. Discover how we can streamline your email and call flow to fast-track your business success. Don’t wait around, let’s make it happen. Contact us today!
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