When responding to potential customers’ questions and inquiries, customer service staff should provide customers with information about products from a professional perspective, solve customer questions as much as possible, recommend products that can meet customer needs, aim to promote sales, and abide by the following principles.
1. Timely reply, polite and sincere
Customers face the choice of tens of thousands of similar products, and the quick and timely reply of customer service staff is the key to winning customer orders. Due to the time difference, it is generally recommended not to reply to customer emails for more than 24 hours. If the reply is not timely and is delayed for several days, the customer may turn to other suppliers of similar products for purchase.
The language of the reply should be polite and sincere, the address should be appropriate, and the signature information should be accurate. Use more simple and clear sentences and use “I/we” as the subject, so that the letter can read with enthusiasm. Many people have a misunderstanding that they should use a special “business tone” when replying to emails, so they write letters that should be warm and friendly in a dull and boring way. For example, “Your letter has been received” and “Your complaint is being looked into” are automatic replies that make customers feel cold, but if they are changed to “I have received your letter” or “We are looking into your complaint”, they will appear very friendly, which is as simple, natural and humane as a conversation between two friends, narrowing the distance between merchants and customers.
2. Be proactive and lead communication
To make customers feel that the service is of high quality, customer service staff should actively respond to the questions raised by customers, and take the lead in solving the problems, rather than mechanically responding to customer inquiries, and understand the motivation behind the customer’s questions. For example, when a customer asks “Is there any other colors, like black, not white?”, the customer service staff can try to understand why the customer wants black. The reasons behind the customer’s question may be: the customer does not like white; the customer wants black because black makes people look thinner; the local customs of the customer reject white; the customer wants to wear black clothes because he wants to participate in certain activities. Therefore, if the customer service staff just mechanically and simply replies “Yes” or “No”, they may lose this customer. However, if the customer service staff understands the reasons behind the customer’s problem, they can recommend other products for the customer to choose from based on the customer’s needs.
Customer service staff should lead the conversation with the customer, hold the initiative in their own hands, and actively provide customers with two or more solutions so that customers can choose for themselves. At the same time, customer service staff should think more about the customers and do more to reassure the customers. For example, when customers inquire about product information, they can remind customers of some store promotions.
3. Seek truth from facts and control expectations
Customer service cannot engage in excessive marketing in order to achieve sales goals, and cannot make excessive promises in order to temporarily perfunctorily answer customers’ questions. Customer service personnel should seek truth from facts, and the content of their responses should be based on the interests of the company. Customer expectations should be controlled within a range that can be fulfilled to avoid disputes caused by excessive promises.