Customers do not think about it at all but there is a certain art to customer service language and communication. To make them pitch-perfect support representatives need to do three things:
- perfectly know the product or the service;
- understand customers’ issues;
- know how to close the easiest tickets and answer the simplest questions.
They also have to do it while being completely cool and communicating with customers in a perfect manner. Today we will pay special attention to language in customer service and the way it can make or break a great customer service team.
In this article, we'll cover:
Pillars of Positive Customer Service Language
Consumers rarely turn to a support team when a product or a service is great. They usually do it when something goes wrong, and they need help or an answer. In other words — a support team is there to…🥁… support customers. Not a huge shocker, is it?
With that in mind — positive language. Support and service team absolutely must know everything about a positive language of customer service for their communication to be as good as it gets anytime.
There are several pillars on which customer service language is standing.
1. Do not use negation or negative words
Train your customer service and support team to use the most positive phrasing. Here is just a little taste of mistakes your customer service team might be making right now and how to fix them:
| ❌ | ✅ |
|---|---|
| Here comes the complicated part. | Here is where things turn a bit more interesting. |
| Why don’t you listen to me? | Let me repeat it one more time. |
| No, don’t do that. | Could you try doing [this] instead? |
| And don’t forget to… | And remember about… |
Implementing this kind of customer service language into your team’s every-day routine will help your users feel understood and heard as opposed to dismissed and irrational. The team of SupportYourApp has long implemented the training course on positive customer service language into our onboarding. This helps us prepare the future customer service and support consultants for their upcoming job.
2. Adopt your brand’s communication tone and style
A customer service team is a perfect tool for channelling your business’ tone of voice and communication style. Are your customers precious to your business? How long do you make them wait for an answer? How customer-centric is your business? These and other questions could help you establish your brand’s communication style as well as the standards for it.
Showing your team customer service language examples will make sure your users and your team will ultimately speak the same language. This will lead to growth in customer satisfaction KPI.
3. Speak aloud when typing
Because our spoken and written styles differ, communication in chat, emails or messengers using correct and positive language in customer service can be challenging. One of the best ways out of this communication pitfall is pronouncing the text while typing. This way a support consultant makes sure they are using correct language without sounding robotic. This will help customers understand they are talking to a real human consultant and not to a chatbot or automated messaging sequence.
4. Use your customers’ language
70% of customers give better feedback to multilingual businesses. When establishing a customer service language style, it is crucial to think about a team that will cover several languages. For the European market it is better to speak not only English but German, French, Spanish and Italian. Latin America will appreciate Portuguese just as much as Canada — French.
Setting up a cost-efficient in-house team that can cover many languages at the same time maintaining appropriate customer service language and providing superb services is tough. That is why so many companies outsource their customer service and support teams to SupportYourApp. We speak 31 languages and work 24/7. We can cover any market and find ways to connect and approaches to users from anywhere.
Get your quote now!
Banned Customer Service Words (and What to Replace Them With)
Using positive language in customer support is not always possible. From time to time they will ask something that can’t be answered without taboo phrasing. Customer service consultants must be prepared for these situations.
What words are not considered fit for customer service language and what can we replace them with?
- ❌ No
Having a problem is bad enough. Having an issue that forces one to contact a customer service team is worse. Reaching out to a support team only to constantly hear them say ‘No’ is the worst! It would be considered a bad customer experience and remember, businesses lose 1 in 3 loyal customers after just one bad experience. Customer service language is contributing to customer’s decision to leave as well.
Circling back to it-that-shall-not-be-pronounced. ‘No’. It is such a universal word that it might seem impossible to replace it. Especially when the situation calls for it. But it can certainly be replaced with better customer service language and phrasing such as:
- ✅ Right now we have to look into another solution;
- ✅ I would recommend you follow these instructions…;
- ✅ We are working on getting everything up and working;
- ✅ We will provide you with the solution in the nearest future.
Removing ‘No’ from your customer service language vocabulary will ensure your service is caring, see-through and never dismissive.
- ❌ Calm down
Often saying ‘Calm down’ to someone in distress is like throwing a glass of water on a fire — it seemed like a good idea just a second ago, but it only made things worse. Those working in customer service and support can witness this effect regularly.
What do SupportYourApp teams do in this situation? Instead of trying to calm the customer down, we show empathy and understanding which works much better:
- ✅ I understand;
- ✅ I would feel the same way in this situation;
- ✅ That sounds really inconvenient;
- ✅ I will be glad to help you today.
This way customers see that their issues are heard, understood and know the solution will be found soon. This will give them the patience they need to calmly explain the issue they are facing.
- ❌ It’s not our (my) fault
Saying a problem is not a customer service representative’s fault will only add to the problem. We have found there is a ton of positive language customer service teams can use if they find themselves in this situation. The key is just the same as above here:
- ✅ I totally get your frustration;
- ✅ I will do everything I can to help;
- ✅ I will gladly help you with your issue.
Showing empathy once again saves the day.
In the end, customer service language plays a pivotal role in the way customers perceive your brand and services. Choosing the right words and language will ensure no customer leaves unsatisfied and will eventually churn.
The Best Ways to Communicate With Customers
While setting up customer service language guidelines, every business owner must understand there are certain ways by which one can set up perfect or next to perfect communication with the customers. They are easy and understandable:
1. Show empathy
We at SupportYourApp pay a lot of attention to empathy. In fact, we deem it to be the most important and defining feature about our customer service teams. From the very beginning our customer service language and communication style included an empathetic approach.
2. Focus on the issues and not the customer
Often support consultants deal with disappointed and disgruntled customers. What support teams have to understand is customers are not really angry at them. They are just frustrated with the need to turn to a support team in the first place. And this is what customer service language must be based on — focus on the issues and customer ticket at hand, not at customers themselves.
The support team must show customers they are heard, understood and will be helped in any case. This is the only way to make the customers shift their attention to the questions they have and ensure it is going to be resolved quickly and with appropriate attitude.
3. Avoid pessimistic language
The teams have to know how to use reassuring and positive language that points out their professionalism and confidence in knowing how to resolve customers’ questions.
Make sure to include tips on customer service language and phrases that should be used to deal with any customer into your onboarding and training programs. Checking this knowledge every once in a while will also yield results in the long run.
4. Put yourself in customer’s shoes
Try imagining what your customers feel and understand. They just want to get answers. Set up a customer service language in a way that will display care and readiness to resolve any issue arising along the customer’s journey.
How to Set Up Perfect Customer Communication?
Setting up customer service language and communication style and maintaining them at the same high level is difficult. It requires a team of professionals who will put their best efforts into the process and the teams. This means a business will have to spend additional resources for customer service language and communication to be at the highest level.
That is why more and more businesses outsource their customer support to SupportYourApp — a team of professionals that will take care of your customers and their questions and issues. We have set up all communication processes long ago, so you can be sure your customers will get the best service possible.
We at SupportYourApp know how to communicate with your customer and what customer service language to use to turn any annoyed customer into a satisfied and loyal one. That is our strength and what we do best.
If you want to become a part of SupportYourApp family, get your quote now!
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Anna has been working as a writer for 5 years. She previously wrote about financial markets, conducting the research on the state of bonds and stocks on a daily basis. She is a keen reader with interest in historical literature and international cuisine. Her latest obsession — customer communication and ways to perfect it. If you want to connect with Anna, follow her on LinkedIn.
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