6 Basic Mistakes When Communicating with Customers

Communicating with the Customers

Communicating with the customers who engage with the brand you’re representing can sometimes be difficult. You can’t always gauge the other person’s mood or the true urgency of their problem at first glance. The best approach is to objectively and professionally assess the situation to understand the facts at hand.

According to published data, 78% of customers are prepared to forgive mistakes if the customer support they receive is excellent. This means that you can protect your brand and help the customer solve their issue in one fell swoop. Here are some of the basic but still critical mistakes to avoid when communicating with customers.

The Role of Communicating with Customers

To understand why avoiding basic customer support mistakes is important, we need to address the role of customer servicing as a whole. Whether you work in a customer servicing agency or a dedicated support department within your company, your customers are the brand’s lifeline. 

Making sure that the product or service they’ve purchased is working as designed is very important, both for PR and customer retention reasons. For you, communicating how a customer can solve an issue they’re facing is helpful because it will further your expertise and career as a customer support professional. Beyond that, here’s why customer servicing should be done as good as possible:

  • Customer support is the extension of the brand it represents
  • Acquiring cold leads is more expensive than retaining them
  • Satisfied customers spread positive word of mouth
  • Good customer support leads to long-term brand loyalty
  • Loyal customers make repeat purchases over time

1. Over-Reliance on Customer Support Scripts

Customer support scripts are a great way for newcomers to learn how to service customers. They’re not however suitable for every situation beyond the initial greetings and closing lines. Every customer will have a different issue they need to resolve, whether they’ve chosen live chat, email, or phone call as their support option. Instead of blindly following support scripts, try to understand what the customer’s problem is. 

You can take some notes and write down different responses, which you can then turn into your reference document. Using Trust My Paper for writing and editing is a great solution if you’re short on time and want to focus on your work instead. Use your customer support scripts only as far as they make sense, and then use your expertise and experience in customer service to help customers.

2. Lacking Information About the Customer

It’s nigh impossible to address a customer support ticket without knowing more about the customer you’re talking to. This is why it’s not a good idea to assume anything – rather, it’s best to check if any information about the customer exists in your internal database. 

In the case of long-term customers or subscribers, you’re bound to have information about them in your system, which you can pull up to find out more. If not, you should ask the customer about the nature of their issue, when they first purchased the product, how they’ve been using it, etc. The more information you find out, the better your odds will be of helping the customer properly.

3. Letting Your Feelings Get in the Way

It’s never a good idea to let your emotions rule your responses in customer servicing. Like anyone else, you might have trouble at home or are in debt and are frustrated about it. These things shouldn’t seep into your work ethic, least of all when it comes to servicing customers who know nothing about you as an individual. 

Leave your personal life at the door when servicing customers, and focus only on what they need you to help them with. Follow your written scripts and make changes to your responses as you see fit. You can also use the help of an essay writer to write personal notes and responses on how to approach different customers. Always take a deep breath before you respond to a customer and don’t let their tone, wording, or attitude get to you – you’re a professional after all.

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Image: https://www.zendesk.com/blog/customer-service-statistics/

4. Not Actively Listening to the Customer

Once you start the live chat or phone call session with a customer, you need to employ active listening. Simply waiting for the customer to finish speaking so that you can say the next line in your customer support script is a mistake. You want the customer to feel like you’re listening to them and trying to help solve their issue. 

Active listening will let you in on a lot of details about the nature of their problem with your brand’s product or service. You’ll quickly learn all the information you need to solve the support ticket and move on to the next customer. Make sure that you’re listening attentively and are focused on the conversation as much as possible, whether you work from home or are surrounded by customer support agents.

5. Taking Too Long to Respond to Customers

Every customer support conversation you have with someone should flow naturally. You don’t want to leave the customer “hanging” for 10 or more minutes on hold while you search for an answer to their problems. Instead, you should ask them more about their issue and try to involve them in the solution. 

This will keep them engaged and give them a sense of agency over the issue so that they can feel better about being a part of the solution. Putting a support call on hold and promptly leaving it for a long time can result in the customer growing more frustrated. They may change their attitude toward you once you pick it back up or drop the call altogether, which can backfire. 

6. Closing Conversations Without Any Calls to Action

When concluding a call with a customer, provide a clear call to action for them to follow up on. Closing a call without solving the issue is not something you should make a habit of. You should try and solve the ticket to the best of your abilities. 

Give your customer some direction on what they should try doing and how they can attempt to fix the problem on their end, if possible. Likewise, ask them to please rate and review you and your customer support services as a whole to bring more engagement to your social media and website.

In Conclusion

No matter how experienced you may be as a customer support agent, there will always come a time when a customer will surprise you with a question or a statement. Always remain composed, actively listen to their statements, and represent your brand in a highly professional manner.

You can easily address many basic customer support tickets on your end, even if the customer who called or emailed you express frustration. Strive to help every customer to the best of your abilities without personal bias – your customers will appreciate it and your managers will be satisfied with your conduct.

If you still feel overwhelmed, Helplama’s outsourced customer service can be the best option for you to efficiently communicate with your customers.

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Bio: Erica Sunarjo is a professional copywriter and chief writing editor at Best Essays Education. She is a dedicated writer who loves her craft and tries to outdo herself with every essay, paper, or case study she writes. Erica spends most of her free time honing her writing skills through journaling, online courses, and reading.