Conversation

What is a conversation?

A customer conversation is a thread of messages exchanged with a customer representative. A conversation can occur in the form of chat conversation, email conversation, or a simple phone conversation. Additionally, you can also create conversations (a.k.a. Tickets) through Facebook private messages or Tweets.

How to talk to your customers:

• Greet them
• Introduce yourself
• Be polite
• Be confident
• Lead the conversation in the right direction
• Let them know you will help them
• Say sorry, when needed
• Be patient
• Proactively listen
• Give them factual information
• Do not interrupt the customer unless necessary 
• Be positive

Example of a good and bad customer conversation:

BAD: We do not provide this feature.

GOOD: Although we currently do not have this feature, we are glad to hear from you. Whenever we make any improvements, we always strive for customers’ opinions/insights like yours.

Tips for handling a mad customer:

• Be calm 
• Show empathy
• Do not take it personally
• Apologize for the inconvenience
• Repeat/summarize your customer concerns. It shows that you are proactively listening. It can also clarify the issue the customer is experiencing.
• Explain the steps you are going to take
• Give different options as a solution – let the customer choose
• If you promise the customer something, make sure to follow up

What are the types of customer dialogue?

The dialogue usually occurs between a customer representative and a customer. 

The classic type is the in-person dialogue. Yet, there are other important forms of dialogues.

Here are some types of dialogue:

• Over the Phone
• Over the Email
• Via Social Media
• Via Live Chat

The company should consider the proper approach for each type. More importantly, the company should be accessible on each platform.

How to start a conversation with a potential customer?

Here are few conversation starters:

• ask an unrelated question (no sales pitch)
• ask about their work/interests
• compliment them
• comment about weather
• ask about their plans for the weekend

How to improve your customer conversations with customer service software?

Customer conversation should be smooth, prompt, and personal. Customer service software improves your agents’ daily activities, a.k.a customer inquiries. The software, such as LiveAgent, can help your customers and agents in many ways.

Features you can use to have better customer conversations:

• Use canned messages
• Use predefined answers
• Add GIFs
• Add links 
• Refer the customer to a knowledge base article
• Use stored customer data for smooth, fast and easy conversation

Customer service software increases your sales, customer retention, and customer satisfaction.