Archives for August 2012

From Flickr Artist Hryck

That’s kind of strange advice in this day of teamwork and all, right? So let’s square this away right from the beginning. I don’t mean try to do all the support for something on your own. You’ll need others on your team to help out.

What I mean here is this. Have the customer do as little as possible to fix their problem. As much as possible, go it alone and handle the customer’s problem on your end.

• If your customer wants to cancel their account, go ahead and do it for them. Don’t send them a long set of instructions with links on how to do that from their end.
• If you customer wants to switch their cable TV package, go ahead and switch it for them. Don’t shuffle them off to some other department or require them to go into an actual store.
• If a customer wants to return something to you, pay for the shipping and send a label to them. Don’t make them to figure out how much a package weighs and which option to choose to send it back.

Last week, my card that I have on file for my phone expired. I tried the confusing phone tree options for self-service and go no where. Finally, I just went down to the local AT&T store to have them take care of it. Turns out that it’s something that even they have to call into customer service for.

Thankfully, I had a great rep that did it all on his own. He jotted down some notes about the new card number and what other account changes I needed. He then called in and sat on hold for me. He handled all the back and forth with the other support rep. I literally didn’t have to do anything.

That’s how it should be as a customer. If someone reaches out to you with a problem, fix as much of it as you can on your end. The customer doesn’t want to tie up more time with this ticket.

Take care of it yourself so the customer can get back to work.

When it comes to support options, customers love live chat. It’s quick and easy to use for the customer and the support rep. No one has to search or figure out how to use a chat box. Like email, everyone just knows how to use it.

I’ll talk about three things to remember with it but first, a bit of warning. I’ve been on both sides of live support chat and it’s a two edged sword. Done right, it’s extremely effective. If you do it wrong, customers and reps alike will quickly become frustrated.

Answer quickly

Like phone support, you need to answer quickly. A good rule of thumb with the phone is two rings. That works out to about three to five seconds after the customer starts the chat. Any longer than that, the customer gets irritated thinking you aren’t really there.

Have an avatar

No one likes seeing a default avatar. Often times, it’s a boring shadow of a person that brings no life to the chat. Instead, use a photo of yourself. The customer will appreciate small details like being able to see who they’re chatting with. Whatever you do, don’t use that photo of the guy with a headset smiling into the camera.

Speak their language

When you first answer, keep it informal and human sounding. Don’t go with some weird “Hello. My name is Chase Clemons and I’m your support agent for today. What may I assist you with?” Instead, keep it relaxed and start a conversation like you would normally.

After the first few interactions, you’ll get a feel for how they talk. In the mornings, I sit on my front porch with a cup of coffee and listen to the mockingbirds. These beautiful birds actually reproduce the sound of other birds and animals around them. The mockingbird’s calls are always similar but a little different when they repeat what they hear.

That’s what I want you to do now. Listen to how the customer talks and replicate it. If you’re dealing with a programmer looking into missing emails, it’s okay to get detailed and dive into the world of IP addresses and whitelisting. If you’re working with Grandma trying to clear her browser’s cache, walk her through it slowly with exact info on what she needs to be looking for. Like the mockingbird, adjust how you chat based on their responses.

But wait, there’s more

There’s always more to learn with live chat but these are some great basics. Depending on the app you use (and there are tons out there), you’ll have shortcuts, ways to route chats to the right support reps, and more.

The last thing I’ll leave you with is the same thing we started with – don’t do live support chat halfway. Either commit to it as a team or stay far away from it.

From Flickr artist Oberazzi

But it’s not okay not to find an answer. 

It never ceases to amaze me at how people will try to answer questions even though they don’t know their product.  I was on a call with my Internet company and the support rep didn’t have answers to about half my questions.  His training evidently didn’t include some of the things I was looking for help with.

That would’ve been fine if he promised to get some answers.  Instead, at the end of a line of questions answered with “I don’t know”, he asks if there’s anything else he could help with.  Dumbfounded, I paused and asked, “Are you going to find out some answers to these questions?”.

Never leave your customer in this situation.  It’s okay to not know everything.  When that happens, just let them know you don’t have the answers yet.  Then politely put them on hold while you get some answers.  If it’s the middle of the night and no one else is around, let them know you’ll call them back as soon as you have an answer.

As a customer, I’m fine with a support rep not knowing something.  It’s the lack of effort to find out that’s the real crime.

I just got this email from a support ticket I sent in last week.  It’s an app that I use regularly and have been stuck with the same error message since Thursday.

We received your mail in a satisfactory manner.  You will soon receive personalized attention from our executives to support you with your questions and needs.