SESSION 609

Thursday, May 11, 4:00pm - 5:00pm Track: Service Desk Foundations

Not Dead Yet: How to Write Great Email to Customers in the Age of Social Service

Leslie O'Flahavan Owner, E-WRITE leslie@ewriteonline.com

Session Description While support centers are spending lots of energy launching, training for, and monitoring service in chat and social media, many customers still prefer email. According to Dimension Data, email is the second most popular support channel for Baby Boomers and Gen X-ers and the most popular channel for Gen Y-ers. Whether email as a support channel is “dying” may be up for debate, but what’s certain is that email’s not dead yet. In this session, you’ll learn best practices for writing emails to customers and learn how social media and chat have changed the landscape for customer service email.

Speaker Background Leslie O’Flahavan has delivered writing courses for support center staff, customer service agents, and social media managers, helping thousands of professionals hone their customer-focused writing skills. Leslie helps support organizations train agents to write well in all service channels, measure the quality of their writing, and revise and maintain their entire library of canned answers. She is also the coauthor of Clear, Correct, Concise E-Mail: A Writing Workbook for Customer Service Agents.

Session 609

Not Dead Yet: How to Write Great Email to Customers in the Age of Social Service

Leslie O’Flahavan, E-WRITE

@LeslieO

Today’s topics

1. The current state of customer service email

2. How chat, text and social service have changed customer expectations

3. What’s uniquely good about email as a support channel

4. How to write emails to customers in the age of social service

E-mail: “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated”

Describe email’s place in your support organization

1. What percentage of contacts does email represent?

2. What’s the profile of the customer who chooses email?

3. How has email volume changed over the last two years? What do you predict for the next two years?

4. Is customer satisfaction higher for email?

Research shows: Email is not dead yet

PART 2: HOW CHAT, TEXT AND SOCIAL SERVICE HAVE CHANGED CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS

In the age of chat & social, email customers are more demanding

How do your email customers “want it all”?

• How has live chat affected their expectations?

• Social customer service?

• Text?

Social channels have changed customer expectations

Customer expectation Can email do this?

1. An instant response No

2. Interaction with the agent Yes, but most CCTRs don’t think it’s a good thing

3. Share-ability Yes, but when it happens, it’s not usually good for the CCTR

4. Acknowledgment of their influence or Klout score

Um, no

5. Help in the channel they chose

Yes

6. A direct, personalized response

Yes

PART 3: WHAT’S UNIQUELY GOOD ABOUT EMAIL AS A SUPPORT CHANNEL

Let’s appreciate a darn good email

Customer’s email

Hello. I need to return 17 boxes of white binders (12 ct per box, item #123456). I called you guys to schedule this return and was given the return number 11223344. But yesterday the UPS driver went to the wrong address for pickup. The boxes are at the place where they were delivered—ABC Enterprises, 123 Main Street, Suite 401, Anytown, ST 12345. They are not at our office, which is the payment address on our account. Please contact me to let me know when you will schedule the return pickup for this order; I will need a specific date and time for pickup at ABC Enterprises.

Thank you – Jessica Gibbons

Let’s appreciate a darn good emailSubject: Oct 16 pickup for return no. #11223344

Dear Jessica,

I’m really sorry the UPS driver went to the wrong place to pick up your return #11223344. This was our error; we should have confirmed the pickup address when you called. I apologize for the hassle this has caused.

I’ve rescheduled the pickup for this Friday, October 16, at ABC Enterprises, 123 Main Street, Suite 401, Anytown, ST 12345. The UPS driver will be there between 9am and 12pm to pick up the 17 boxes of binders.

Once we’ve received the items in our warehouse, we’ll credit your account for $373.77. The credit should appear in your account within five business days. You can log in to My Account to track the returned binders and see that the credit has been applied.

I’m sorry things didn’t go smoothly with this return. Please let me know if you need any help with this return or any other orders. You can reach me directly at 800-111-2222 x1234 or LisaC@SuppliesVillage.com.

Sincerely,

Lisa C, Customer Care Representative

Email is uniquely good for…

1. Giving a detailed, full answer

2. Serving as a leave-behind resource the customer can use

3. Integrating help from a variety of sources: FAQs, KB, video, documentation, procedure

4. Conveying seriousness, sincerity, and respect

5. Forwarding to an influential person

PART 4: HOW TO WRITE EMAILS TO CUSTOMERS IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL SERVICE

Write better emails in the age of social service

1. Answer faster

2. Sound friendly, not stodgy

3. Integrate self-service options

7 techniques for answering emails faster

1. Hire more people

2. Improve your email software

3. Route emails

4. Improve your template library

5. Beef up your self-service or web content

6. Train agents in critical reading

7. Trust agents to free-text

Answer emails faster: Train agents in critical reading

Critical reading = the ability to separate what the customer wrote from what the customer is asking.

To: Silver Spring Credit Union

I recently bought a car and my dealer was supposed to enroll me for automatic payment to SSCU. This did not happen. I made my first payment and noticed that the date it will clear will be the 17th, the same day you guys will charge me a late fee, even though it is the 15th. Please do not charge my account a late fee! I will go online next month and set up the account to post as it was supposed to post on the 6th of each month. You should also know that your phone service is insane. I spent 20 min last week trying to speak to a human and it did not seem possible!

– Charlie Barnstable

Practice: Use your critical reading skills

What is customer Charlie Barnstable asking?

List his questions:

1. ____________________________

2. ____________________________

3. ____________________________

4. ____________________________

How to write emails in the age of social service

Sound friendly, not stodgy

Sound friendly, not stodgyDear Mrs. --------

Thank you for letting us know about your recent experience with United Airlines. I apologize if our service did not meet your expectation, and appreciate you taking time to share your concerns.

Our goal is to provide a consistently reliable product and an exemplary level of customer service. Based on the events you describe, we did not meet this goal. Your comments regarding (SPECIFIC EVENT) will be used for coaching and training our employees.

To encourage you to fly with us again and as a tangible means of acknowledging your disappointment, enclosed if (SPECIFIC ITEM).

(CUSTOMER NAME), I ask that you allow us another opportunity to serve you, as we consider it our privilege to have you aboard.

Sincerely,

Customer Care Manager

Social customer service sounds friendly, not stodgy

Does this email sound friendly or stodgy?

Dear Jason Crabill,

As per our records, your dormant account has been closed due to inactivity. Dormant accounts are deactivated when the account owner has not signed into them four months, even if email has arrived during that time.

Unfortunately, once an account has been deactivated, it is impossible for the EmailNow team to retrieve any stored information. It is possible to reactivate your account; however, it will not have any of the information stored in it. Owners who wish to reactivate their accounts should follow the fours steps listed below…

Does this email sound friendly or stodgy?

Dear Jason Crabill,

Because your email account was inactive, we’ve closed it. We close (deactivate) accounts that haven't been signed into for four months. Unfortunately, once an account’s been deactivated, the EmailNow team can’t retrieve any information from it.

It’s possible for you to reactivate your account by following the four steps listed below. But, even if you do reactivate, your account won’t have any stored information, like email addresses or saved messages…

Integrate help from a variety of sources

Dear Fred,Thanks for contacting us. Can you elaborate a little about the problems you’re having with your email account? If you’re getting an error message, can you send its number? What were you doing when the problem occurred? If we can duplicate the problem, we can offer a proper solution. If you can send us a screenshot, that would be great. For your email account Fred@aabbcc.com, please make sure you are using these settings:• Incoming Mail Server: mail.domain.com

• Outgoing Mail Server: mail.domain.com• Incoming Port: 143 (IMAP) or 110 (POP)• Outgoing Port: 26• Username: <Full Email Address>• Authentication: Yes, Incoming, Password• SSL: Off

Please also check our forum, knowledgebase, and video tutorials for help with configuring your email account:

• Forum: http://www.webhostforum.com• Knowledgebase: https://www.webhost.com/cgi/help• Tutorials: http://www.webhost.com/tutorials/• Server Status: http://serverstatus.webhost.com/

Thank you,Matt Winston, Web Advisor, WebHost.com

So, to wrap it all up…

• Email’s definitely not dead

• Other support channels are changing customers’ expectations for email support

• We have write better email: Faster, Friendlier, Better Connected

QUESTIONS?

Let’s stay in touch…

Leslie O’Flahavan, E-WRITE

Leslie@ewriteonline.com

301-989-9583

www.ewriteonline.com

@LeslieO

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