How to Work Out a Strategy for Using Predefined Responses in Chats

How to use Canned Responses Properly

We all know that our support will be faster if we use canned response, but how will it look from another side, when within a second or two a person gets a response containing three sentences? How would you feel if you were that person? “Wow that was fast”, “how stupid I am, they even have a response ready, which they send thousand times a day” or “hmm, will use email next time as it looks like there is a robot”. The main challenge we may face when using canned responses is to make them appear in the right place at the right time and look appropriate without making the support robotic or impersonal. In this article we will help you to work out a strategy for using predefined responses in your customer support workflow and find that golden mean which will work the best for your business.

“What kind of data can I add to canned responses?”

This is the question we are often asked in our support chats. Canned responses are individual for each type of business and they should contain only those details which you very often send to your customers. For example, your payment details and shipment terms, your contact info or some company data your users ofter request. It’d be very helpful to have a list of links you send your customers, as inserting such a link through canned responses tool will save your time for searching. For tech support departments having a list of answers to most frequently asked questions and general instructions at fingertips will help a lot during busy support hours.

“What kind of predefined responses may do harm to my business?”

Yes, sometimes inappropriate predefined responses may do harm and scare customers away. Why does this happen? This happens when an impersonal greeting is being sent each time or when a customer gets the requested information together with other details which the support rep did not take effort to remove from the response. In addition to this receiving the same replies when contacting several times in chat will make your customer feel the support is robotic and the company does not care whether the customers are happy or not.

“What would you suggest using as canned responses?”

  • Your website has a FAQ section but users often call to chat and ask most common questions. There will be no harm if you optimize your workflow by introducing canned responses for such cases. Just use them wisely and send responses in a friendly and professional manner. Do not be afraid of using such phrases as “I’d suggest doing…”, “Please try the following instruction…”, “Let me send you detailed steps…”, they will add some human touch to your support. If you have different FAQ for different departments it’d be necessary to create such canned responses individually for each department.
  • You offer tech support and need to have a lot of instructions at your fingertips. Here canned responses come on the scene allowing you to facilitate and speed up your live chat support. Just do not forget that sometimes besides detailed instructions our users need clear explanation of the problem, why it happened and how to avoid it in future. From our side we would suggest making such instructions individual for each representative.
  • There is always some general information like company information, billing and shipment details, terms of service etc., which you need to provide to your customers. It’d be better to create such responses on company level and make them accessible for all departments.
  • Links provided in the right place at the right time will help to navigate visitors faster and show the information they are asking for within seconds. Add all links you frequently send your customers to canned responses and choose them from the list when necessary. Such links will appear as clickable links in chat and will save your time for searching or opening bookmarks in your browser.

We hope that our recommendations will help you make a better use of predefined responses. Just take a quick glance at our article describing how to use and group such responses properly. Provide Support’s 24/7 support is always available to all our customers. Come and chat with us if you have any questions or need assistance.

Olga
Latest posts by Olga (see all)