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The way you talk to customers will always have a huge impact on your brand.
In fact, nailing those regular interactions well can ensure all-around success for your business.
After all, 45% of customers are willing to pay more for better customer service.
However, not many companies invest in learning or following the art of communication even if it could ensure great experiences for customers.
Your business should avoid that kind of mistake and find the right strategy to engage customers with consistently delightful communication.
The right approach is always to let the focus of conversations be centered on conveying information to customers and adding value to the engagement.
And unless you know how to talk well to customers, nothing substantial can be gained on the front of customer service.
Great communication is always an art. And if you want to be the artist at it, you need to learn what customers expect. The golden rule is always to say what customers like to hear, or say in the way they prefer. To achieve this goal, you need some planning and a trained team so that the flow of customer interactions is driven in the right direction, always.
Your business stands to gain a lot when it is aware of the techniques of conversations and when it knows the different ways to talk to customers.
Let’s look at each of the ways in detail.
Customers are the king. And they like being treated that way during conversations as well.
When you’re engaging with customers, the strategy should always be of “talking less and listening more.”
By talking less, you are deliberately putting customers on a high pedestal and giving them the space to convey their problems.
And by listening more, you can easily understand and identify the customer problem accurately from the beginning of the conversation itself.
This approach will not only lead to positive customer service communication but can also help in a quick resolution of the error.
Customers often approach a business with some questions or doubts and want a quick resolution of the same.
So, your only goal should be to deliver relevant responses and stick to the context as sought by customers.
Similarly, you need to make sure the conversation with your customer is heading in the right context.
Like, if the customer has approached with some sales-related query or information, the conversation has to revolve around the context.
Deviating from the matter is not good customer service etiquette and may not add any value to the conversation at all.
79% of buyers only consider brands that understand and care about them.
Personalization adds a bit more zing to the otherwise boring customer conversations.
In fact, connecting with customers at a personal level always paves the way for personalized experiences and ensues delight communication as well.
When the conversations are more towards of one-on-one type, it creates a sense of connection to customers who, in return, stays on for longer compared to times when the talk is generic.
Using the first name to address the customer, getting a bit deeper to learn the problems, understanding the requirements, are some of the easy ways to personalize the conversations.
Customers always remember positive experiences. They may come back for more when the earlier interaction was great.
After all, conversations that are positive in tone and intent always dazzle the audience — and when they are laced with positive words, it often ensures great experiences for customers.
To maintain positivity during communications, each member of the support team has to maintain a unique voice without sounding robotic.
It also means valuing whatever your customer speaks, listening to it, and replying courteously irrespective of the communication channels used.
Never forget the golden words – “The customer is always right”. Without being negative or using blaming words, you have to deal with every one of them with an open heart.
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Showing the intent is important when you’re talking to customers. Without it, any communication would feel drab and soulless.
And when it comes to showing intent, being proactive is often the most vital ingredient as it helps deliver conversational customer engagement in a hassle-free manner.
If you’re ready to help and reach out to customers, it will reflect in the conversations.
By proactively reaching out to customers means, you are ready to go out of the way to help.
For example, if a customer comes up with a request which is not possible to fulfill, rather than denying the request straight away, your response could be, “Let’s us see if we can do something.”
Giving customers the option of different channels of communication is important.
Even more important is to match the conversation according to the channel they are comfortable with.
You always need to ensure the flow of conversations is in tune with the channel of choice.
For e.g., you can engage in some banter on social media as these platforms are meant for quirky conversations. However, live chat is not the medium to be light-hearted about customer conversations.
Similarly, compared to social channels, email conversation can be excellent for highly technical conversations as it provides a direct point of reference for complex details.
If you want a consistently delightful engagement with customers, make conversations about them and not about yourself.
During the communication, information extraction has to be the key which is only possible when you allow customers the space to put forth their problems.
These conversations shouldn’t be about your product and services only but how customers use them to resolve the problems they encounter.
And if you’re able to tie interactions to your customer engagement strategies, it will definitely have a great positive impact on the bottom line.
77% of happy customers spread positivity about a company that has offered consistent and satisfying help.
Such help can’t be offered unless your team is trained on the standards of conversations.
You should always invest in the team and let it have a complete understanding of how to talk to customers so that great experiences can easily be delivered.
“A job half done is a job not done at all.”
So, it’s always important to complete the conversation that you begin with your customers.
Neither should you leave a chat mid-way nor let a conversation finish without any proper resolution.
Similarly, don’t let the conversations end there itself particularly when you feel the customer did not feel good about something. Go one step further and do a follow-up in cases where it feels necessary.
Even when the interactions have not gone down well according to the plan, you can still pursue the customer and offer help.
This is where having a follow-up action is important to let the customer know what else they can expect next.
68% of customers believe a polite customer service representative is always the key to great customer service.
Since saying “no” to customers is a part of the service process, you need to make sure the team is trained in the art of politeness.
You also needn’t hesitate in declining a customer request but the focus should always be on doing it with a touch of empathy and without sounding rude.
Declining a request is always a vital aspect of customer service so you have to learn how to do it without being offensive or without harming the interest of the business.
Customers like sharing their opinion; and above that, they like when they are valued.
So, you need to start talking more about customer experience with you and get the conversation going.
Similarly, customer feedback helps to enhance customer conversations. You can opt into services like SurveyMonkey and gather feedback from customers.
Google has its own survey mechanism through which it prompts users to give brief feedback of product (like Play Books, G Suite, etc) satisfaction.
For efficiency, they keep the feedback form short and snappy, making it easier for the customer to respond and for their team to analyze.
Timing is everything when it comes to customer communication.
If you’re not timing the response well, customers may feel frustrated and ditch your business forever.
So, make responding to your customers a priority.
When a customer reports some specific issue, he/she expects a quick resolution.
Replying instantly and fixing the issues on time make the customer feel valued.
You need to adopt a customer-centric approach and train the support team in a way to instantly see the customer emails that give immediate attention.
Customers not only like quick responses from the support team but also expect a touch of politeness and professionalism as well. With meaningful conversations in a timely manner and by following the communication etiquettes, you can significantly improve your customer relationship manifold.
And if you’re able to talk to customers in the way they like, it can open the gateway to opportunities for long-lasting business relationships. So, you need to set the stage for productive, relevant, and spontaneous customer conversations and win new customers with ease.
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