8 Tips On How To Engage With The Clients

Strong connections are important in everyday life: friends, family, business. So when it comes to building clientele connections within your product, you need to understand the importance of engagement with a client.

The technologies are moving fast and so as the communication channels. You installed the live chat on your website which gives an opportunity for the customers to send you a message from anywhere in the world and from any device. With this power comes big responsibility - you need to make sure that you offer your time, quality, attention, and effort. We know you are ready!

So let's see how you can start engaging with the people via live chat:

1. Reduce the Response Time

With all the progress every aspect of our life is evolving, blooming, moving, and people are using messenger apps. So when someone wants to get an answer from the business, and they find a live chat on the website/app, they expect it to work perfectly, and they expect their request to be handled in a timely manner. When it comes to it, we strongly advise you to respect it. 
Here are some tips:

• Set up the Office Hours. It means the clients will get the idea of your business hours and will know when to expect the response.
• Another option is to hide the widget when you are out of the office
• Download the iOS or Android app if you are far from the desktop
  Having a Customerly app on your phone is a very good decision if you want to make sure that the messages from customers are being handled, and they will not be waiting for hours
• Use canned responses. They are time savers and help to leave a good impression
  
  2. Be a Human
  
  As they say, people will not remember what you did but how you made them feel. We cannot stress enough how important it is to make your customers feel welcomed, understood, accepted, and reassured that they can trust you. To really create a community, you need to connect with people. How do you do that?
  
  
• Use canned responses responsibly
   It is great to have prepared canned responses to the most common questions and when the time comes to use them, we add some personalized touch to it, so we don't sound robotic.
• Ask questions
  Of course, customers are the ones who ask questions, but it is almost essential to take initiative and ask people about their day, if they have any additional questions, suggestions and feedback. A question may lead you to a longer conversation but it may give you a bigger picture on how a customer feels about your service.
• Avoid repeated phrases and words.
  Sometimes a client doesn't see a message you sent above or doesn't pay attention to some key phrases and words that would give an answer to the question. And it is okay. Don't repeat yourself with the same words - rephrase them, give more details if needed. You don't want to turn out to be rude or impolite even if you did not intend to. 
  
  3. Check a Chat History
  
  When you receive returning visitors, they might escalate the same issue they mentioned in a previous chat. To save time and not to make your customers repeat themselves, refer to the previous conversations. 
  
  Also, the chat history will be useful when you need to send some evidence to the customer you've had a conversation with in the past. 
  It may reduce misunderstanding and will help you and a returning customer to find a common solution. 
  
  4. Be Calm, Positive and Don't Take it Personally
  
  
• Try use fewer words such as "problem", "issue", "can't", "we don't do it", "will not", only use them when it is really necessary and you can't avoid them. These words put your customer's attention on what you don't, can't, and won't rather on something positive. 
  
• If you get on to some road bumps during a conversation with your customer, stay calm and keep having a smooth flow of words and reassurance that you are here to help this person and that your main focus is on this customer even if you have many other people waiting with their requests. This is when proper time, thought management, and multitasking come in hand.
  
• Don't complain. This is a customer service horrible mistake to complain to your customers when all they want is your assistance and quick resolving of any situation they might have.
  
  
•  If you have been having a big flow of customers, and you know that you cannot handle all of them at the same time, don't ignore a live chat message they sent, reach out to the customers and tell them you are facing higher than usual demand for support and your team is working hard to handle all requests. For example, you can say this:
  
  "Hi there! I want to start by appreciating the time you spent waiting. I am here to assist you today, so please give me a moment to check everything and I will do my best to come back shortly with the reply!"
  
  "Hi there! I want to start by appreciating the time you spent waiting. Please accept our sincere apologies for the waiting time as we're facing higher than usual demand for support. We are doing our best to process every request as quickly as possible. Thank you for the patience!"
  
  "Hi there! Thank you so much for your patience while you wait for our response. Give me a moment to check into your query."
  
  
• If a customer gets angry or upset, remember that you've been on the customer side as well and you know how it may feel. Try to actively listen to your customers, reflect on what they are saying, understand why they have such a reaction at the moment of a conversation. Remain calm while listening, do not interrupt the customer if you see the typing message preview. Thank a person on the other side for addressing the issue, let them know that you will contact them back with a solution and tell the customer you appreciate their time waiting. It might not help when the customer is furious, let them to cool of and stay professional and never take it personally - it is all business. Remember: you take a responsibility for your personal emotional reactions.  
  
  5. What to Do When You Don't Know the Answer
  
  When a customer asks you a question, and you don't know what the answer is, don't hesitate to admit that you don't have the information you need to be able to answer the question yet. Tell a customer you need to consult with your colleagues or need more time to look into the request, and you will be back with the correct information as soon as possible. We all learn and the only limit is the sky.
  
  6. Analyze Your Customer "Speech"
  
  Analyzing a speech of the opposite side is crucially important. By understanding if a client is in the mood or upset, extremely professional or casual sets a dynamic for the conversation.
   
  Mimic it. Watch how a person communicates with you. Do they keep a conversation casual? Do they use emojis? If they do, mimic their style of communication: use emojis and GIFs if needed.
  If someone is being more reserved, slightly imitate their speech as well, don't overuse emojis or GIFs, don't be too casual - it may only drive your customer away.
  
  7. Don't Talk Bad About Your Competitors
  
  It might happen when a customer starts to compare your service with a competitor or even states that their service is better than yours. It might seem like an awful situation but listen out to your customer, understand them and learn. Instead of taking advantage and pointing out bad things about your competition, highlight your positives, what your product offers, and compare it to the competitor's product by providing independent legit sources. 
  
  Do your research, learn your competitors, and what challenges you might face, so the next time when a client reaches out to you, you will be competent in the area. Knowing who else is operating in your niche will make you stronger.
  
  8. Use Video Live Chat
  
  Video calls have been gaining more and more support and trust within the last years. It helps an agent to communicate with a customer face to face and resolve an issue even faster. With Customerly Video Live Chat you can gain more trust and attract long-term loyal customers. It will help to be closer to your customers and make the online support via live chat more personal.
  
  Live chat is being implemented by many big and small businesses, which is a great tool to provide top-notch customer support. It is a game-changer, it goes hand in hand with the times we are living in. Online support doesn't mean "emotionless", "robotic" and "careless". It means that you care about the communication channels you provide to your people, you care about their personal time, and are ready to be there to assist right away. The tips we provided in this article will help you to start your customer support hero journey. Good luck!