Guide to Communicate With Customers Online

There is certainly an art involved in communicating with customers online. With more and more people using the Internet to contact companies, it makes sense that this is an art form that you need to master. Online communication involves a different skill-set to speaking to customers in a face-to-face setting. Check out these few tips that can help you in your effort to better communicate with your clients.

Watch Your Manners

Your first area of responsibility is to speak to customers in a cordial and polite way. This means addressing them by name, and using all the appropriate greeting language such as ‘good morning’, ‘what can I do for you?’, ‘it was nice speaking to you’ etc. While it may seem like this is something that customers don’t really notice, they may well pick up on it if you fail to use all the appropriate greetings. Keep yourself in check and always remember that the other person is a human being.

Avoid Using Jargon

Don’t automatically slip into using jargon with your customers when simple language will do the job. Of course, you can be more flexible with this rule if you clearly find that your client is knowledgeable in the subject area. Remember, you are there to solve your customers’ issues quickly and efficiently. Not only can too much jargon come across in a condescending way, but it can also hold up the customer query and make it take longer than was strictly necessary.

Having a system that allows you to keep in touch can be important too. Having a customer relationship management software (CRM) can make a huge difference when it comes to communication. What is a CRM? It’s a program that provides better communication and allows clients to ask questions too.

Maintain a Positive Attitude

Coming across in a positive way online can end up being more challenging than doing this in real life, so you need to be particularly careful with your use of language. Negative connotations are easy to read into when you see something written down in black and white as opposed to hearing it spoken by another person. Be careful about saying that something isn’t possible or that you can’t take a certain action. Your main aim is to provide solutions – as far as this is possible.

Know When to Apologize

While you don’t need to rush to apologize at the drop of a hat, there are still going to be occasions in which saying sorry is an appropriate action to take. Your first action should be to remain empathetic with the customer, but if you have identified that they have a genuine point of contention and your business could clearly have handled things in a different way, you should apologize as appropriate. One of the most frustrating things for customers is dealing with a company that should have said sorry at an early opportunity. It may well cause them to go elsewhere on future occasions. Communicating with customers online is a skill that can be improved, and these are just some of the ways in which you can do this.