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.

At long last, we finally arrive at the end of the first Support Ops series.  Here’s the email mashup that we started with:

Hello,

Thanks for your feedback. Our app does not include that tool at this time. I apologize for that inconvenience.

We get lots of requests each day so we’re not able to respond to each one. But do know that we read each and every one of them.

Let us know if you have any questions or comments. We appreciate you using our app.

Have a great day.

Sincerely,

John Doe

The App Team

 

Over the past few weeks, we’ve tweaked this and swapped out that.  Some of the email just got removed entirely.  In the end, we’re got our better feature request email:

Hi James!

Thanks for checking out my Support Ops app!

There’s not a way to login with your Facebook or Twitter info yet. I’m sorry about that!

I can definitely understand why this would be handy, though! Having a single login would save time so you won’t have to remember all the different ones you have for apps that you use.  I’m talking with my development team later this week so I’ll make sure to show them our email conversation and add your vote for this one.

If you have any other questions, just let me know and I’ll be happy to help.  Thanks again for checking out Support Ops and have an awesome Friday!

– Chase Clemons

That’s a better email.  Gone is the cold corporate feel.  The better email hits all the right points in a short, friendly, and personal way.  It’s an email that a customer deserves.

With our first series wrapped up, I wanted to leave you with a gift.  Head over to see our first ever ebook on how to write a better email.  You’ll take everything you learned in this series and put it to work with other common emails support teams get.