Skill Set Training - Customer Communication.pptx

Index
1. Role of Customer Communication
2. Why are Communication Skills important in Customer Service?
3. What's Customer Communication?
4. Channels of Customer Communication
5. Benefits of good Customer Communication
6. What are the factors that impact customer service communication?
7. 10 ways to improve customer communication

role of customer communication
Customer service communication can play a huge role in how customers perceive your brand.
For example, here are two ways to let a customer know that an item is out of stock:
1. “I’m sorry, this particular dress isn’t in stock and won’t be in for another two weeks.”
Or
2. “You can have the dress in two weeks, and if you like, I can place an order for you now, so you get it
as soon as it’s back in store.”
The meaning is exactly the same, but in the second example, there’s a sense that you’re going the extra
mile for the customer–while also closing a deal. It’s all a matter of how the message is communicated.
Not surprisingly, communication is the bread and butter of customer service –as every interaction
between your company and your customer is a communication exchange.

Why are communication skills
important in customer service?
A single bad experience can affect how your customers perceive your brand. In fact, one-third of
consumers say they would consider switching companies after just one instance of bad customer
service.
Being able to convey a message effectively is critical to offering excellent customer support.
Without communication, there’s no customer service possible.
Listening to the customer, being patient, displaying empathy, and understanding the issue or
problem are skills that help you communicate effectively with the customer and are a must-have
while working in customer support.

WHAT IS CUSTOMER COMMUNICATION?
Customer communication refers to the exchange of information, messages, and interactions between a
company or service provider and its customers. It encompasses all forms of communication channels used to
engage with customers, including but not limited to:
1. Verbal Communication
2. Written Communication
3. Digital Communication
4. Self Service Options
5. Feedback Channels
Effective customer communication involves not only conveying information but also understanding customer
needs, addressing their concerns, providing support, and building positive relationships. It plays a crucial role
in enhancing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention, ultimately contributing to the success of the
business.

Channels of customer communication
1.Verbal Communication: This includes phone calls, face-to-face meetings, and video calls where
customers interact directly with representatives of the company.
2.Written Communication: This involves emails, letters, memos, and other written correspondence
sent from the company to the customer or vice versa.
3.Digital Communication: With the rise of digital technologies, companies communicate with
customers through various digital channels such as social media platforms, messaging apps,
chatbots, and online forums.
4.Self-Service Options: Many companies offer self-service options such as FAQ pages, knowledge
bases, tutorials, and online help centers where customers can find information and troubleshoot
issues independently.
5.Feedback Channels: Companies often provide channels for customers to provide feedback, such as
surveys, feedback forms, and review platforms. This helps companies gather insights into customer
satisfaction and areas for improvement.

What are the factors that impact
customer service communication?
Good communication and effective customer service are intertwined. Several factors can impact how
you communicate with customers and deliver customer service.
1) Convenience
Giving your customers the freedom to choose the communication channel they prefer is part of an
excellent customer experience. In fact, according to Microsoft, 54% of consumers worldwide favor
brands that respond to customer service questions or complaints on social media. Offer support
through the channels of communication your customers use the most and make it easy for them to
contact you. For example, if your customers belong to a younger demographic, you might want to
consider offering customer support through your social media and mobile-first messaging channels
such as WhatsApp and LINE.

(2) Personalization
The experience of talking to a person using a script versus communicating empathetically with
someone is entirely different. Customers will feel heard from the beginning if you can relate to their
needs. When we contact customer support, we are looking for someone who can understand what
we are looking for and help us with a quick resolution.
Personalizing the experience by introducing yourself, addressing the customer by name, and trying
to gather context about the customer’s issue beforehand is part of excellent customer service
communication. Ultimately, you want your agents to be supportive when it comes to wanting to
help your customers. This is the best personalization experience you can offer.

(3) Consistency
Consistency means that the service experience doesn’t change depending on who’s offering
support or the channel of communication. For example, when customer support reps communicate
with your customers, you want them to use consistent guidelines and refer to unified customer
records to ensure that customers don’t face any breaks in their experience.
If your company sells luxury products, you’d want your reps to provide a little bit of the VIP
treatment. You can do this by viewing a customer’s previous interactions across channels and
accessing their order history to get up to speed on their issue. By gathering context beforehand,
you can give the customer the impression that you know exactly what they are going to talk about.
This can help you offer fast, context-rich, consistent assistance that is nothing short of VIP
treatment.
It’s best to ensure that your brand voice shines through in all interactions. Brands also need to be
consistent in the vocabulary they use across all channels, and reps should have the skills to use it
precisely during interactions for a better service.

(4) Feedback responses
Each interaction with your customer is an opportunity to collect valuable data about how your
customers feel about your brand. According to Microsoft, 89% of customers view brands favorably
if they proactively invite and welcome customer feedback.2
You can use the given information to
learn more about their likes, dislikes, and think about improving your product. Additionally, when
you collect customer feedback, it gives your customer an impression that you care, helping you to
strengthen relationships.

10 ways to improve customer communication
Enhancing and developing better customer service communication skills should be part of your overall
customer service strategy. Here are 10 areas to focus on to improve your customer communication
1. Practice patience and empathy
2. Communicate clearly and concisely
3. Listen to your customers intently
4. Display emotional intelligence
5. Be proactive in your approach
6. Use data to know your customers better
7. Add creativity into the mix
8. Enable employee engagement
9. Ask for customer feedback and fine-tune your support
10. Manage time efficiently

1. Practice patience and empathy
Show that you care for your customers even if they share their frustration. Some customers need that
extra word of assurance or a higher level of engagement to feel satisfied with the outcome. Also, being
patient allows you the time to figure out the root cause of the problem and how to provide an effective
solution instead of closing the loop in a hurry.
2. Listen to your customers intently
Waiting on hold forever to get the help you need can be very frustrating, but having a customer support
rep get you an incorrect answer is even worse when it comes to customer frustration! So listening
carefully to what customers are saying is probably the single most effective strategy to provide the
solution they need. You might not be able to help them, and perhaps you need to contact someone
else, but ultimately, if you understand their actual problem, you’ll give them a solution. Listen to your
customers with attention to specific details, understand their problems’ magnitude, and identify
internal areas of improvement.

3. COMMUNICATE CLEARLY AND CONCISELY
Develop command over your language and product knowledge to inspire trust in your customers.
Clarity requires you to break down complexities into concepts that are easily digestible for your
customers. For example, while they don’t need to know the nitty-gritty of what caused a bug, you may
need to explain what really happened in simpler terms.
Clear communication prevents customer frustration by ensuring that there are no miscommunications.
Successful customer support reps can explain what’s going on in simple terms that don’t leave
customers wondering or confused. For great examples of how this works in practice, check out the
Reddit forum Explain Like I’m Five.
Make sure that you’re using positive language when communicating with a customer. Positive language
means telling your customer what you can do for them rather than what you can’t.
For example, instead of saying, “That’s not something I deal with. Jessica is in charge of billing, and she’s
not here right now,” say something like, “I understand. Please let me find that out for you and get back
to you as soon as I have this information.”

4. Display emotional intelligence
Speak the customers’ language and acknowledge what issues they are facing by putting yourself in their shoes.
Empathizing with a problem or frustration your customer can go a long way – customers feel better when you’re
honest and genuinely care about fixing their issue.
Here’s an example of how to display emotional intelligence while dealing with an angry customer:
Customer: “I ordered it a month ago, and when I finally received it, it’s the wrong size! I’ve been on hold forever
— you seriously treat customers this way?!”
Representative Response: “I’m so sorry you had to wait. From my understanding, you either need to exchange
the product you received with the right size or return it for a refund. Do I understand this correctly?”
Other examples of emotional intelligence you can use during a conversation are:
• “I understand what you are going through.”
• “I would be equally frustrated in your place.”
• “I want to help you.”
• “I can see why you’re frustrated.”
• “Thanks for bringing this to our attention!”
• “I completely understand why you’re asking for this.”

5. BE PROACTIVE IN YOUR APPROACH
Going the extra mile with a customer is a fantastic way to delight your customers. Anticipating potential
issues that your customers may face and providing a solution can save them a headache. For instance, you
can communicate foreseeable issues in advance via email or chat and offer help instantly when customers
are showing visible signs of frustration using website widgets. Proactive communication can play a major
role in ensuring why your customers stick to your brand.
6. Use data to know your customers better
Consider the following stat: It’s five times more expensive to acquire new customers than retain your current
ones. Knowing this, it’s a no-brainer to find out why customers are leaving and focus on keeping them.
Knowing who your customers are and what drives them to buy your product or request for your service are
crucial to business growth and success. Use analytics to identify customer groups and their needs to offer
them personalized experiences and stand out from the competition.

7. Add creativity into the mix
Customer service can get very monotonous. So when the right opportunity presents itself, add some
creativity to delight your customers. Creative responses, especially on social media, can get a positive
response, even if it’s for solving a grievance. As long as you’re consistent with your brand, your customers will
enjoy humor and creativity!
However, use discretion when it comes to humor and creativity. There might be some situations, issues, or
customers that would not appreciate a light-handed reply. To avoid mishaps, drawing out the lines of
acceptable or unacceptable scenarios in which to allow a free hand, is critical.
8. Ask for customer feedback and fine-tune your support
Customer Feedback is one of the most important aspects of improving your customer experience. When a
customer picks up the phone, sends you an email, or messages you on social media, they give you the chance
to improve your product – don’t miss out. By listening to what customers are saying, you can refine and
improve your customer support. Therefore, an integral part of customer service communication is reaching
out to customers and asking for their feedback.

9. ENABLE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Support your customer service agents, enabling them to discuss their problems with experts who can
connect with what they go through. Not only will this encourage knowledge sharing and collaboration across
the organization but also present newer opportunities to delight customers. You may want to set up some
time every week and encourage agents to convene and share pain points or key learnings.
It is important that your support team can easily communicate and help each other on a day-to-day basis.
This can be done by choosing a help desk software that comes with an in-built collaboration tool. For
instance, Freshdesk enables agents to collaborate on the internal chat tool that can be accessed right within
the tool. Alternatively, you can also integrate communication software with your helpdesk software to
facilitate smooth collaboration.

10. MANAGE TIME EFFICIENTLY
As the saying goes, “time is money.” Tracking your time for different types of issues, committing to SLA,
analyzing scenarios that cause delays, and working on them are all part of improving your customer service
communication. For example, assigning a resolution SLA with a deadline for when the ticket needs to be
closed or resolved can ensure that the customer gets their issue resolved with quality responses and action,
not just quick answers.
You can leverage workflow automation to save time spent on repetitive processes. For instance, instead of
manually going through tickets to keep parameters up-to-date, you can set up an automation rule that scans
all your tickets every hour and updates relevant properties automatically.
Agent facing AI and bots can also offer to free up your time. With the agent-facing bots powered by
Freshworks’ AI, you can run complex backend processes in a single click, get smart recommendations for
responses and resources that can be plugged into your conversation with the customer. The AI flags
important social media mentions, automatically triages incoming conversations, and prevents thank you
messages from reopening closed tickets, all of which are time-consuming activities when performed
manually.

MORE ABOUT CUSTOMER COMMUNICATION
1. Commonly Used Communication Channels for IT Customer Support
•Social media, fax, email, and in-person visits are various communication channels used for IT customer
support. Among these, email is commonly used due to its efficiency and versatility in handling technical
inquiries.
2. Best Approach for Communicating Technical Issues to Non-technical Customers
•The best approach involves simplifying language and avoiding technical terms when communicating
technical issues to non-technical customers. This facilitates better understanding and reduces confusion.
3. Example of Proactive Communication in IT Customer Support
•Sending out newsletters with updates on system maintenance is an example of proactive
communication in IT customer support. This approach keeps customers informed without waiting for
them to contact support.
4. Purpose of a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in IT Customer Communication
•The primary purpose of an SLA in IT customer communication is to set expectations regarding service
quality, response times, and responsibilities. It ensures mutual understanding and accountability
between the IT support provider and the customer.

5. Best Practice for Communicating Service Disruptions to Customers
• Notifying customers promptly and transparently about the issue and expected resolution time is a best practice
for communicating service disruptions. This approach fosters trust and helps manage customer expectations.
6. Suitable Communication Channel for Handling Urgent IT Issues
• Telephone is the most suitable communication channel for handling urgent IT issues due to its immediacy and
ability to facilitate real-time interaction.
7. Significance of Active Listening in IT Customer Communication
• Active listening is crucial in IT customer communication as it helps IT support understand customer issues better
and provide appropriate solutions. It enhances customer satisfaction and problem-solving outcomes.
8. Importance of Empathy in IT Customer Communication
• Empathy is essential in IT customer communication as it helps build rapport and trust, leading to better problem-
solving outcomes. It complements technical expertise and enhances the overall customer experience.
9. Best Practice for Communicating Technical Issues to Customers
• Providing step-by-step instructions in plain language is a best practice for communicating technical issues to
customers. This approach ensures clarity and empowers customers to address the problem effectively.
10. Purpose of a Status Update in IT Customer Communication
• The purpose of a status update in IT customer communication is to keep the customer informed about the
progress of their request or issue. It demonstrates transparency and helps manage expectations.

11. Preferred Communication Channel for Quick Troubleshooting in IT Support
• Live chat is often preferred for quick troubleshooting in IT support due to its real-time nature and
convenience for both customers and support agents.
12. Information to Include When Communicating a Service Outage to Customers
• When communicating a service outage to customers, it's essential to include an acknowledgment of
responsibility and an estimated time for resolution. This demonstrates accountability and provides
clarity to customers.
13. Meaning of SLA in IT Customer Communication
• In IT customer communication, SLA stands for Service Level Agreement. It outlines the agreed-upon
terms and conditions for the delivery of IT services, including response times and service quality
standards.
14. Handling Customer Inquiries Regarding Sensitive Data
• IT support professionals should handle customer inquiries regarding sensitive data confidentially and
securely. This ensures compliance with data privacy regulations and maintains customer trust.
15. Purpose of Providing Documentation or Knowledge Base Articles to Customers
• The primary purpose of providing documentation or knowledge base articles to customers is to
empower them to troubleshoot common issues independently. It enhances customer self-service
capabilities and reduces dependency on support resources.

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