Responding to Customer Queries

Quick reference

• 00:05 When a customer contacts an organization, they're handing you a gift,
• 00:09 you now know what's on their mind.
• 00:11 This is information people pay lots of money for so
• 00:14 that they can start figuring out how to meet customers needs, but
• 00:18 they just communicated that need to you for free.
• 00:21 So how do you capitalize on that gift?
• 00:24 One is by being prepared.
• 00:27 You already know the type of business you're in, so
• 00:30 you need to equip yourself and your representatives to
• 00:33 be knowledgeable about the products, services, and policy of your company.
• 00:38 The second thing to do is to ask customers for more information.
• 00:42 If they've already volunteered some information to you,
• 00:45 it means there's some level of trust and confidence and they're far more likely to
• 00:50 give you more information when you ask, then if you initiated the contact.
• 00:54 The third thing you can do is to personalize your response.
• 00:58 Now you can narrow down the scope of your knowledge to exactly what's relevant or
• 01:03 of interest to the person making the inquiry.
• 01:05 So if we translate that into written customer queries,
• 01:08 we may have an advantage for written communication.
• 01:11 We have a little more time to research to ensure the accuracy of our information and
• 01:17 also to strike the right tone.
• 01:19 Of course, we don't have unlimited time since there are accepted response times
• 01:23 for different channels of communication.
• 01:25 But it is a larger window of time than real time, face to face, or
• 01:30 verbal communication.
• 01:32 For instance, a one minute response time on a phone call is interpreted very
• 01:37 differently from a one minute response time on a text message chat.
• 01:41 So let's jump right in.
• 01:43 Here's a scenario, a customer sends an email or
• 01:46 a text message with a query that might be considered neutral.
• 01:50 It's not a complaint and it's not a commendation, just to request.
• 01:54 Maybe they want to know how much it would cost to upgrade their service,
• 01:58 to downgrade their service, to understand the charges on bill, or
• 02:02 just to find out the status of their order.
• 02:05 So we start with number one, we want to be prepared.
• 02:10 Being prepared starts with knowledge or in our case, job training.
• 02:14 But it doesn't mean that all first level customer service representatives
• 02:18 are qualified to respond to a written query.
• 02:20 Since written communication requires additional skills, even your
• 02:25 best telephone representative may not be qualified to respond in writing.
• 02:29 Being prepared also means having the right tools to give an acceptable and
• 02:34 useful response.
• 02:35 So we should have on hand some customizable responses to frequently asked
• 02:39 questions.
• 02:40 These might include links, diagrams or contact numbers.
• 02:45 Having these ready will reduce customers waiting time, which is always a plus.
• 02:49 The second point is to ask questions.
• 02:52 Sometimes the question the customer asked isn't really what they wanted to ask.
• 02:57 They might use the wrong terms or they might give conflicting information.
• 03:01 Don't be afraid to send a clarification email so
• 03:04 that you can give an answer that's accurate and meaningful.
• 03:07 If it makes sense, ask for contact number to call them so
• 03:11 you can minimize confusion.
• 03:13 The third thing you'll want to do is to personalize the response.
• 03:18 Now sometimes using a template might make sense if the queries you get are pretty
• 03:22 similar.
• 03:23 But each response sent from a template must also be run through a third party
• 03:27 writing assistant application and manually proofread.
• 03:31 This to make sure that we've answered all the questions, that the response sounds
• 03:36 natural, and of course that you haven't left any placeholders in your response.
• 03:41 Part of personalizing a response is letting people know who they're
• 03:45 talking to.
• 03:46 So even if there's a pool of agents answering customer service questions,
• 03:51 no one wants to see customer service representative as the person they're
• 03:56 talking to.
• 03:57 If it's an email,
• 03:58 it should be signed off with the name of the person who sent email.
• 04:02 And if it's a chat message, the company representative should introduce themselves
• 04:07 at the start of the conversation the way they would on a phone call.
• 04:11 Remember that a customer's question may just be a shopping around query,
• 04:16 which they'll use to decide where they'll spend more money.
• 04:20 If you don't impress them with your communication skills, someone else might.
• 04:24 And by the way,
• 04:25 don't just use a customer's query as an opportunity to upsell them.
• 04:29 Most customers can sniff out old fashioned sales tactics a mile away,
• 04:34 and it's a huge turnoff for lots of people.
• 04:38 Upselling is fine, but it should make sense.
• 04:41 Meaning, it should meet a need that you've identified for this particular customer.

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