Category: chat customer experience best practices

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenJun 24, 20199:27 AM

4 Secrets About Human Tone In Chat That Nobody Will Tell You

Chat support is not supposed to be rote like an ATM transaction. The idea is to insert a personal tone so you can build rapport and even delight customers. I have my clients do four things in chat interactions to make them more human.

1. Use “I” and “We” personal pronouns because they instantly make the tone personal.

2. Acknowledge customer concern, meaning speak to your customer’s pain point, “I realize this has been frustrating for you.”

3. Apologize, when appropriate. A sincere apology helps you restore confidence and regain goodwill. It can be as simple as, “I’m sorry your tablet isn’t charging for you.”

4. End chats on a positive note. A QVC Chat Agent ended a chat with me positively, like Chick-Fil-A employees always finalize order taking in the first drive-thru window, “You’re certainly welcome, my pleasure! Have a wonderful day and please don’t hesitate to contact us anytime. We’re always glad to help.”

I wrote this article because a workshop attendee wanted to know how to make her chat support more personal. I even filmed a short YouTube video offering these four secrets that you can use to train your employees. Show this video to your employees to help them make chat interactions more personal.

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenSep 8, 201812:00 PM

Do These 2 Things To Make Chat Interactions Pleasant and Easy

When I need to reach out to a company, chat is almost always my preferred contact method. It’s usually quick, and I can be doing other things, like replying to email or making a quick call, while I chat.

Your customers like the ease of chat, too. But it’s not enough for the chat to be convenient and fast. You need to be creating rapport in conversation and speaking your brand voice. That’s why today I am giving you two things you (or your employees) can do to make chat interactions flow like friendly face-to-face conversations.

1. Use Personal Pronouns

Use personal pronouns, I, we, me, you – to make written communication sound more warm and personal. Pronouns, especially “I” and “you” – humanize the employee, and the customer and they bring a personal tone to a chat exchange.

Use personal pronouns in your chat like this actual chat I had last week:

“Oh, Myra, I am so sorry to hear that you received expired products! I credited $7.38 to your account, which will be automatically applied to your next order.”

And don’t write like this:

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenAug 3, 20181:38 PM

What You Can Learn About Chat From Amazon’s Chat Agents

Last week I worked with a fantastic new client in Cleveland on the chat customer experience. After my workshop in Ohio, I chatted with Amazon about a problem with my Kindle Oasis.

I immediately made screenshots of my chat and sent the images to my Cleveland client. My hope is that my takeaways might help my customer as they prepare to go live with chat in just a few weeks.

And then I thought, why not share my chat experience with you, too.

In this post, I have my exact chat interaction because it’s important for you to see the key points.

Click here for larger image.

Here’s what I want you to notice.

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenMar 15, 20183:39 PM

How to Tell Customers What They Don’t Want to Hear In a Chat

I was chatting with a company about a price drop. I’d bought something for my Dad and had it shipped directly to his home. Two days after the shipment arrived, I saw on the company’s website that the price had dropped by $20. So I reached out over chat, and this is what I was told:

“We are constantly looking for the best prices to offer our customers, and that sometimes means a lower price is featured. We do not price match and cannot issue you a refund.”

When I questioned this practice, he wrote:

“Let me see if I can write this in a way that you understand.”

I saw that reply as condescending. Later in the chat, the employee said:

“You can return the item and just reorder it at the new price. But we cannot credit you the difference.”

Now, because this was a gift for my father, I wasn’t willing to drive to his house, take the gift back, package and ship it, re-order, and then send it back to my dad.

So, I didn’t get a refund, and I also walked away from the chat with a very negative impression of this company.

There will be times when you just can’t tell your customer what they want to hear. You can do it better than this company by focusing on two things:

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenMar 12, 20187:52 PM

Use the Right Language to Build Rapport and Sound Personable In Chat

I once chatted with QVC about the status of a return. I just wanted to confirm that my return was received, but I walked away from the chat session with a WOW reaction. The WOW started with this message from the Representative:

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenAug 25, 20179:28 AM

The 3 Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make with Customer Support Over Chat

My website was down for 37 hours this week. Not only was the website down, but we couldn’t send or receive emails. The outage happened because something went wrong in a scheduled site upgrade on Sunday night. My hosting company was to perform a simple process that I thought would take a few minutes.

I reached out to my hosting company more than a dozen times during the 2-day outage, desperately trying to get the issue resolved and to check the status of the problem. In my multiple interactions with the company, they made three critical mistakes in the customer support experience. These are the same three mistakes you can’t afford to make with your customer support experience.

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenOct 11, 20166:51 PM

Fitbit’s Chat Experience is the Best I’ve Seen In Awhile

fitbit

My Fitbit bejeweled with Sterling Silver and Sleeping Beauty Turquoise

I wear a Fitbit to track my steps. My daily step goal is 12,000 steps and most days I exceed that. Last Friday during a full day workshop in Austin, I got 8,000 steps just during the training. No kidding! I talk with my hands and I move constantly, so the high step count doesn’t surprise me.

I love my Fitbit. Two weeks ago, my Fitbit band broke. It just split in half. So, I went to Fitbit’s website and opened up a chat. Jomar at Fitbit helped me out.

Jomar opened the chat with, “I’m sorry to hear about the damage to your fitbit band. Rest assured, I’ll do my best to help.”

Ahhh… I loved that!

Then he said, “To get started, may I know the email address associated with your account?”

I gave him my email address and then he said, “Please allow me a moment to check your account.”

After a little time passed, Jomar said, “Almost done checking. While checking, may I know your country of residence?”

The great news is my Fitbit was covered under warranty and when I heard this I said, “Yay!” Jomar then said, “I’m glad to know I can get you back on track with a replacement to Flex’s band.”

Jomar at Fitbit was excellent. The chat was personalized, he remained engaged, Jomar effectively made an emotional connection with me and the chat was short and sweet.

My Fitbit chat experience got me thinking about something I do all of the time.

Chat customer experience by myragoldenJan 22, 20146:39 PM

Last Week’s Big Event, “Extremely Essential Skills for Chat Agents.”

I’m sitting at my desk reflecting on the tremendous success of last week’s Big Event, “Extremely Essential Skills for Chat Agents.” The training was very well received and I enjoyed delivering this program so much. […]

Chat customer experience by myragoldenJan 10, 20143:53 PM

The Chat Customer Experience Will Always Be Rote, Cold and Unsatisfactory. True or False?

The way your Customer Service Representatives handle your online chat customer support can make or break your reputation with customers. There are dozens of mistakes with the chat customer experience many new and even experienced […]

Customer Experience Design by myragoldenMay 28, 20137:29 PM

6 Things We Can Learn About the Chat Customer Experience from Amazon.com

Yesterday I had to reach out to Amazon.com for customer support for my daughter’s Kindle Fire. I chose Chat for my help, and I’m so glad I did because I received refreshingly excellent service that made me say, “Now that’s Beyond WOW!”

Click the image to see my chat conversation

6 things impressed me and made me say “WOW!”

1. It was a holiday (Memorial Day), and the Chat representatives were working.

This was super convenient for me as a consumer on my day off.

Category: chat customer experience best practices

4 Secrets About Human Tone In Chat That Nobody Will Tell You

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