As consumers are becoming more tech-savvy, they are looking for alternative ways to reach a business – the ones that do not involve waiting in a call queue. Today, a large section of consumers prefer interacting with a business via email rather than over the phone. Email has become one of the fastest-growing customer service channels.
However, some customer service experts have expressed the concern that email customer support may lack the same level of interaction as talking to a live agent and may affect customer satisfaction. Fusion CX respectfully begs to differ.
We believe that when done right, email support can deliver the same level of customer satisfaction as phone customer support. One just needs to get the basics right.
At Fusion CX, we keep in mind that though we deliver email support to a large number of customers every day, to a customer it is the only interaction they have with our clients. Therefore, every email should contain a sincere effort to resolve customer’s issues and deliver impeccable customer service at the same time.
On this National Email Week, we share a few tips that we follow while delivering email support:
- Always use correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization: Improper punctuation can change the meaning of a message completely. Misspelled words and poor grammar also reflect poorly on a business and its staff. There is no substitute for good writing in email customer service.
- Keep the tone conversational: Avoid sounding like an IVR and keep the language and tone of an email conversational. It will put the customers at ease.
- The agents should introduce themselves: Email support is above all a corporate interaction. Therefore, an agent answering an email should always introduce himself or herself at the beginning of the email just as they would have done in the case of an over-the-phone interaction.
- Narrate the solution in an easy-to-understand way: Make sure to explain the solution or the lack of it in an easy-to-understand manner so that everyone can get the message right. Avoid using technical jargon and uncommon abbreviations.
- Provide links to longer Instructions: In case there is a detailed instruction of a solution available, make sure to include a link to that page in your email. Also, links to additional documents, or digital version of any instruction manual that a customer might need can also be included in the email.
- Pay close attention to how you deliver good news and bad news: According to researchers at UC-Riverside, delivering the bad news first followed by the good news will make a customer happy. But if a company wants a customer to act upon them, then the good news should be delivered first followed by the bad news.
For example: In case there is no permanent solution to a problem, the email may read:
Unfortunately, we are yet to find any permanent solution to the problem as of now, not that there is a lack of trying. However, there’s a way to fix the issue for the time being.
This approach will make the customer a lot happier than he is ought to be.
But if you want the customer to act (renew a subscription, upgrade account etc.), the email should deliver the good news first.
Great news, the feature that you are looking for exists. Just upgrade to our premium package and get access to the feature.
- Replace the negative words with positive ones: Positive words have a powerful impact on customer satisfaction. Use them as much as possible and give the not-so-positive ones a miss.
Other ways to achieve better email customer support:
- Respond to a request at the earliest: Keeping the customer waiting for a reply will lower their satisfaction level. Therefore, make sure to reply as quickly as possible. Replying immediately will show them that you are attentive to their problem and are taking it seriously.
- Solve the problem: just responding to an email is not enough. You need to solve the problem the customer is facing ASAP. If there is no ready solution, recognize that in your email and include a time-frame within which the problem will be resolved.
- Follow-Up: Even after a query or an issue is resolved; the company should send a follow-up email to ensure that everything is running smoothly.
- Deliver more than expected: An agent should go beyond the canned response and templates to help a customer. Include useful documents, element of surprise or a personal touch to make the customer feel special.
Fusion CX encourages each of its agents to go that extra mile to bring a smile on the customers’ faces. No matter what the customer channel is, we settle for nothing short of excellence.
