5 Important Live Chat Phrases to Add to Your Canned Messages
Delivering great customer service isn't as easy as many of us may think. It takes a deep understanding of what your business focuses on and the type of customers you’re dealing with. If you have some experience with customer service jobs, you probably know that it all comes down to the sentiment, the hidden needs and the effort you put into addressing issues.
So today we are focusing on the importance of the content you’re using to communicate with your customers. This is the key to creating a great customer service relationship.
We have listed what we believe are the most important topics that we must bear in mind when creating canned responses, macro messages, or shortcuts (whatever you want to call them).
If you don't know what these are, don't worry. Canned messages are basically prepared answers that are there to assist your employees in addressing customer questions promptly. So if you consider this, having a list of these prepared messages can increase your customer service efficiency, allowing you to provide a faster chat experience.
Here are 5 common canned responses to save you time, and you can use them as a reference to create your own templates.
1. Greeting
Within a business environment, a greeting should ideally begin with something like 'Good morning' or 'Good afternoon'.
- 'Good morning, my name is... How may I help you?'
- 'Good afternoon, I'm... how can I help you today?'
- 'Good morning/afternoon! Welcome to (Company Name). My name is... How may I help you today?'
Whenever you receive a chat, the first thing you should do is greet and make them feel welcome. You can choose to use either formal or informal language: this is up to you. However, always remember to include your name since this personalizes your interaction with your visitor more.
- 'Hi there, how can I help you? :)'
- 'I'm... Is there anything I can assist you with?'
Use messages that sound natural to your visitors: you should not sound like you are giving mechanical orders. Another tip: be empathetic, and show through your messages that you're happy when they visit your website or are part of your business.
2. Confirmation Request
Every time you get a new visitor or customer starting a chat, they usually begin by describing why they are contacting you. So before we go further, we should confirm what the real question or problem is. Here are some ideal phrases.
- '(Customer Name), thank you for reaching out to us. We have received your message regarding... We're working on... And as soon as we... We'll keep you informed'
- '(Customer Name), I understand you need help with… I will be more than happy to assist you…'
If you have difficulty understanding what the issue really is, do not be afraid to ask.
- '(Customer Name),… I see you're having problems with… Is that right?'
- 'Could you please let me know what the problem is in order to assist you?'
Always remember to confirm what the problem is so you can avoid wasting your time and your customer's time as well.
3. Pause Time
As a live chat agent, there will be times when you don’t know the exact answer to a question, or you need to double-check the information before confirming it to your customer.
- '(Customer Name), I'm checking this for you… please don't leave the chat'
- '(Customer Name), we are working on this matter for you… I will be back in a second'
- 'Sorry (Customer Name). This is something I'd like to confirm before I give you an answer. Do you mind waiting for a minute?'
- 'I will contact the department in charge of that and get back to you as soon as possible. Is that OK with you?'
4. Prices, Plans or Procedures
Whether you’re selling or supporting something, there’s always key information about your product or brand. Many customers will ask the same questions, so, to save time, it pays to create canned responses for cases like these.
- 'Thank you for contacting us! We offer a vast list of protection plans that I'm sure you'd be interested in. With regards to your description, I'd highly recommend this plan… (explain plan benefits)... Let me know if that sounds good to you'
- 'Correct, our price for this product is… However, since we value you as a loyal customer, we are happy to give you a 20% discount on this item... Would you like to complete the order by credit card or PayPal?'
- '(Customer Name), thank you for contacting us about this. Please check this article, which explains exactly how to fix the issue you’re experiencing: (link). I’ll be here if you have any questions.'
- '(Customer Name) please make sure to follow this guidance (link) and let me know if you have any questions by replying to this chat or my confirmation email that will be sent to you once we end this chat session'
5. Resolution
Once a customer issue is resolved, it is important to leave no room for misunderstanding. Your customer should understand this is indeed the proposed solution to this concern and that it is final. If, for example, you provide no final confirmation, the customer may think their issue was not resolved during their first contact with you, so they may come back with the same issue. This will create duplicate tickets and the customer will have to go through the whole explaining process again.
- '(Customer Name), have we answered all of your questions, or is there anything else we can help you with?'
- 'Thank you (Customer Name) for reaching out to us again. Have we resolved all your questions/ concerns?'
- 'Is there anything else I can help you with? If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know.'
At this point, make sure your customer has no doubts about the fact that their questions were answered, and then you can end the chat. On top of that, you can send a canned response as a farewell note.
- 'Thank you for contacting us at (Company Name). We really appreciate your business and hope to see you again soon.'
- 'It has been a pleasure to help you today. Please come back to our live chat support at any time you need help! We are available 24/7.'
On this note, we conclude our article about the 5 phrase ideas you should bear in mind when creating your canned responses.
By following this advice, you will succeed in providing an excellent customer support experience for everyone.
