6 Guidelines for Delivering Perfect Customer Support

Whether a customer support delivery is good or bad depends largely on its accuracy. Listed below are 6 tips to make your customer support more spot on.

1.    Speak with clarity

Communication is the foundation of the customer support system. In order to communicate efficiently and effectively, clarity is essential.

Clarity is how actionable your communication is. Clarity gives your customers the know-how that is needed to solve their problem and is made up of a variety of factors. These include:

Simplicity: Simplicity is the mother of clarity, but sadly often does not receive the respect it deserves. Talking in a simple manner isn’t easy, especially if the support is highly technical. The temptation amongst professionals is to use more words in order to provide clarity. Unfortunately, though, it does the opposite.

Simplicity is a matter of efficiency. The less mental effort it takes to process the same meaning, the better. To raise simplicity, reduce the length of your sentences and words, minimize commas and dependent clauses, and use common words.

Structure: Structure increases processing fluency. Just consider how you’d go about memorizing the phone number 0814151702. It becomes much easier when you split it up into a clear structure: 08-1415-1702.

It works the same with sentences. For example, a simple structure to stick with is: What? So what? Now what? Or, popular among salespeople, is a Features- Advantages- Benefits structure.

Familiarity: People have a hard time understanding new concepts. That is why explaining through analogy is so powerful. You reduce the core message down to something we can all relate to, which reduces the scare of the topic.

Jargon is a common destroyer of clarity. By using words your customer is unfamiliar with, you give the customer mind cause to doubt and wander off. Please avoid overwhelming your customer and user familiarity.

2.    Speak with a- you focus

Too many service departments communicate with a focus on themselves. For example, a common statement made by companies is

 “We’ve created this feature to help our customers to be faster”

See what happens when you turn this into a- you focus:

 “With this feature, you can be faster…”

One talks about the customer, while the other talks to the customer.

Talking about the customer makes them feel as if they are being used to further whatever you are selling. Talking to the customer, on the other hand, makes your company seem warm and eager to help. Customers don’t care about you or your technology; they care about its impact on their lives.

3.    Don’t hide behind regulations

Somehow the words “because those are the rules” make me burn with passion to break them. A rule isn’t a reason- a rule has a reason. And perhaps that reason doesn’t fit perfectly in the current situation. This is why employees should be empowered to bend the rules. Customer service is highly variable by nature. Rules and policies are the organizational knee-jerk response to uncertainty. They create feelings of control for management but can be extremely devastating for frontline employees and customers.

When a corner-case issue pops up, the employees’ first response will be to consult the rulebook. When the specific situation isn’t covered, they’ll have no choice but to escalate the issue to their managers who might have to do the same. The result is a frustrating customer experience that takes much more time, money, and resources than necessary. Your employees have become an extension of a rigid machine and have lost their humanity in dealing with the customer. Now contrast that to an empowered employee with common sense and authority to solve the customer issue. There are no escalations, no delays and no frustrations.

4.    Talk like a human

In email, many have the tendency to use excessively ‘professional’ language. I imagine that is because you don’t know the person on the other end, but ‚inhumane’ language is never a good idea.

The latest example from an autoresponder I received: “I will endeavour to get back to you as soon as I can.” Who talks like that? Use everyday language when speaking with customers. It will set them at ease and give clarity.

5.    Solve problems proactively

Last but certainly not least, dependable support means showing the customer that you really care about giving them the best experience – not just about closing the current ticket.

You do this by taking on a more holistic approach when you first get in touch with the customer. Instead of only asking about her current problem, you go deeper and try to get a total view of how she wants to use your product or service. This allows you to foresee any issues or questions she might have in the future, and for you to offer solutions ahead of time.

6.    Show yourself

As a service beneficiary, you want to be on eye level with the person who talks to you. That means you want to talk to an individual, not to a group. My bank always signs its emails with: “Kind regards, UBank Customer Service”. They do address me with my name, why can’t I know theirs? Likewise, some weeks ago I couldn’t start a support chat with my bank UBank without first providing my name. But the support rep I was connected to didn’t return the favour; it just said “UBank service”.

Put your customer at ease and let them know there’s a human at the other end of the line. Whether it’s in writing or voice, a name should be part of any service interaction. Similarly, it’s weird to have a chat when the other side’s profile image isn’t actually the picture of a person.