Effective communication with your clients will help facilitate business and profits more than you understand. The tone with which you speak to your clients can impact greatly to the success or downfall of your business in more ways than you can imagine. Investing in a good communication strategy is a way to obtain client feedback and strengthen client relationships and trust.
It is very important to note that the more conversational the customer service is the better. However, the method of maintaining healthy and effective customer service can be a little tricky. If you ever struggle with what to say and how to maintain a professional tone whilst attending to your client’s challenges, you just have to read on.
Without further ado, here are some tips on how to engage in formal yet friendly conversations with your clients.
1. Properly Introduce Yourself
The first thing to do while attending to a client is to properly introduce yourself. Make sure to introduce yourself in a way that reassures the clients that you are there for their needs. This way the clients will be comfortable enough to share their concerns with you.
For example, instead of saying “Hello, this is (insert brand name) customer service, how may we help you?”, say “Hello, this is (insert brand name) customer service, my name is Kayler, how may I be of help to you today?”. The two sentences share the same context but have different results.
2. Maintain a Polite Tone
Maintaining a polite tone while conversing with your client can be quite challenging. Unsatisfied clients tend to express their dissatisfaction in the meanest way possible. You must be careful with responding to their expressions. You should always maintain a polite tone during conversations no matter how harsh the tone of the client might be.
They might go to the extent of raining insults on you. Still, no matter how angry you might be, it must not be evident in your voice, you should still maintain a friendly nature till you have ended the conversation with them.
3. Make Sure to Use Positive Language
Make sure to use positive language and reassuring language. Instead of straight up saying “We cannot” or “We won’t do it”, use reassuring words like “We will look into it”, “ we will see what we can do about it” or better still, “We will try our best to improve it”. These responses reassure the client that their problem will be fixed as soon as possible.
4. Avoid Vernaculars and Jargon
Maintaining a formal language while conversing with clients is essential. Your choice of words must be clear and precise, free of slang and other casual words. Being friendly is not an excuse to use curse words, switch from language to language, or scream on top of your voice. Never use curse words. Even if the clients are using them, do not use them.
5. Be More of a Listener
Do more listening than talking. Understand the client’s point of view, and ensure to answer only questions that were directed to you. Correct misunderstandings and give instructions on how to carry out a particular task the client finds difficult. Do not try to act too smart so as not to offend the clients or hurt their pride.
6. Do Not Interrupt
Do not cut the clients short. Let them voice out everything they have in mind. Do not interrupt them when they are speaking or try to put words into their mouth. When attending to clients, you must exercise patience and let them air their views before speaking.
7. Empathize With the Client’s Challenges
Show the client how much you understand their challenges and how much you are willing to help them improve the situation. The clients expect you to feel their plight like it is your own. So you have to show them that their challenge is well understood and you value their happiness as your number one priority.
8. Do Not Divert From the Original Context
Don’t try asking questions or bringing topics outside the original context. That is the highest display of lack of professionalism. Focus squarely on the topic at hand and resolve it. Intimate discussions are a no-go area. Also, avoid trying to crack jokes or make unprofessional statements.
Just make sure to stay on track the entire time and though some clients can be a little silly and try to move away from the original topic, do not give in and politely stay on track.
9. Show Your Willingness to Help
Make the clients understand that you are always ready and willing to help with whatever problems or misunderstandings they may have. Answer client questions with enthusiasm and even if you are having a bad day, be sure to wish the client a great day. Listen patiently to the client’s concerns and ensure the client that you would be happy to solve the problem.
Be sure not to hang up or accidentally disconnect from the meeting when you have not checked if the client is satisfied with your response yet.
10. Focus on the Client’s needs
This entails that the client’s major need comes first. For example, If the client is not there to make inquiries on your goods and/or services, don’t begin advertising it to them. Focus on the main problem at hand and be sure to resolve it. Also endeavor to make the client feel like their problem is your number one priority because the fact remains, that is what it is.
11. Always Use the Client’s Name
Like said before, mentioning names forms a connection, sort of, between you and your client. Most clients do not fancy disclosing their names and sometimes it is not necessary to ask. But when it is, make sure of the name when addressing the client. By doing that, you make the conversion more engaging and make the client comfortable enough to express their concerns and/or needs.
12. Follow the Etiquettes
For the client not to misunderstand you due to your choice of words, you must ensure to display a high level of professionalism especially if the means of communication is chat-based. When responding to clients over the phone, things you must be careful of are your voice and language.
On the other hand, when the means of communication are text-based, your choice of words is a major factor to consider. Do not talk to make an impression but to pass information, maintain the client as the focus of the conversation, and apologize when there is a need to.
13. It’s Okay To Say no Politely
Sometimes if the client’s needs can not be met, it is okay to tell them, politely. Most people do not like being told the word ‘no’, but sometimes it is unavoidable. If you are in a situation whereby you can’t meet the needs of your client, you can tell them, “I am sorry but that request cannot be granted” or “I am sorry but we are unable to carry out that task”.
Most times angry clients may throw a tantrum and say hurtful words, but you must always remember to be professional in your responses to those words.
14. Seek Feedback
After attending to the client’s needs, make sure to seek feedback on the client’s experience so far. Be sure to always show the customer how grateful you are for the feedback, be it positive or negative. You don’t have to wait for the client to make a move before seeking feedback though, you can get your feedback from your business’s social media handle.
You can also ask the clients to share their testimonials online and tag your business. This way you are not only seeking customer response to your goods and/or services, but you are also creating a positive review for future clients.
15. Make Notes of the Feedback
This is an important aspect that you must strictly adhere to. Complaints and praises alike made by the client must be recorded. This way you would be able to assess the weaknesses and strengths of your business. As well as the parts that give the clients satisfaction. Make sure that whatever concerns you assured the clients will be resolved, are resolved immediately.
Do not wait until the client reaches out and reminds you of the same thing. If you can’t get it fixed immediately, get someone who can.
16. Prepare Canned Responses
This can be carried out effectively when notes of client complaints are taken. You should endeavor to write out answers to frequently asked questions by clients. This way you can be able to reply to them without fumbling with words. When giving responses, make them short and understandable no matter the means of communication.
17. Respect Time and Speed
Attending to client needs should be done with adequate time and speed. If there are any concerns to be met which you are to do physically, you are expected to carry them out in due time and at a reasonable speed. You must know how to request the client’s patience when you feel that the problem-solving will take longer than usual.
If the client’s feedback is chat-based, you must check them regularly to ensure you respond in time. If the client notices that their feedback and demands are not attended to in due time, they might lose patience with your business and ditch it forever.
18. Keep Them Informed
When conversing with your clients and trying to solve a problem, make sure to carry the client along every step of the way. Do not leave them hanging there waiting for you so they don’t get bored and choose to leave. Inform them of your current status and progress in resolving their problems.
19. Request for Backup if Needed
When you are unable to carry out a particular task or meet a particular need because you lack the skills to do so, get someone who can. Direct the client to someone who can without any waste of time. Do not keep the client waiting when you are sure you do not have the answer to their questions.
20. Chat the Way You Talk
Make your conversations less robotic by not using ambiguous words and statements that are hard to comprehend. You are free to use emojis while typing, but be sure not to overuse it. The sole purpose of using emojis is to make sure your responses do not look too serious or rude as the case may be. Emojis convey to the client your mood while typing.
21. Try Avoiding Errors in Your Grammar as Much as Possible
If your communication is text-based, look out for punctuation and grammatical errors. You do not want to appear unprofessional in the eyes of your client. When conversing on the phone or in a live chat, try as much as possible to speak fluently and without grammatical mistakes. Your client will think less of you if you keep making errors in your grammar.
22. Always Show Gratitude
And finally, this tip is the most essential of them all. Be sure to end the conversation with an expression of gratitude. You can say things like “Thanks for working with us”, “We appreciate your collaboration”, “Thank you, high-value customer, for patronizing us” or something of that nature.
Showing the client how grateful you are for their patronization will make them want to come back again since they are greatly valued.
Conclusion
A client-friendly yet formal tone is a definite factor that would make clients always want to patronize your business. When you make your customer service inviting enough for a client to register their complaints, you create an engaging environment that is customer-friendly, which would thereby ensure that you get more sales.
Communication is an essential skill to master and good communication and accurate feedback is a strategy that would not only enable your business to grow better and help you gain customer satisfaction, it would earn your business more excellent reviews and grab the attention of potential customers.
So while improving the visual aspect of your business, also work to ensure that your communication and feedback skills are top-notch. The customers are your major priority, don’t let them down!