Customer Etiquette
Customers are the roots of any business, be it in the physical world or the cyberspace. Dealing with customers in the cyberspace through remote desktop tools such as CrossLoop poses certain unique challenges. It requires you to adopt certain basic customer etiquette to provide a satisfying help session to your customers, thus proving mutually beneficial. These rules would assist you in maintaining their old customers in addition to gaining new ones. The customer etiquette is divided into three major categories and is dealt below:
Personality Based Etiquette
Train your Tone: Tone plays a vital part in real time chats where the conversation mirrors a verbal communication. The tone should reveal your personality as warm, courteous, and knowledgeable. A simple example would be the case where a helper with a “Hi; How can I help you today?” greeting message sounds great to a customer than a helper with just a “Hi.”
Be Considerate with Customers: Customers are diverse and often do not know some basic skills. As a helper, empathize with their problems and acknowledge the fact that everyone’s level is different. All customers are not techies; else they need not contact you. Patience is a must with customers. Even if they do not know something, never shoot off messages as “You must know this basic stuff.” Remember you have taken control of only of the customer’s desktop and not of the person!
Always Keep Discussions Professional: Sometimes customers may talk to you coarsely, treat you poorly, or even slander you even though you committed nothing wrong. In such cases, it is always important to react professionally and do not get sucked into a negative exchange. Maintain your cool and reply back in a respectful manner. You always have a right to respectively decline to speak any further with the customer. One poor exchange can ruin your reputation and future customer sales.
Walk the Talk: If you fail to stand by your commitment to customers, you will lose them and in addition, your credibility. In case, you are not able to make good on your promise, apologize and offer some type of discount. While providing estimates, make sure that they are very close to the actual figure. A bad estimate will hamper the chances of the customer to return.
Value Addition Etiquette
Respect People’s Privacy: It is of utmost importance to respect people’s private online property as one would of their physical property. Remember that the customer is seeing you work with his computer. Customers’ may like things done a certain way, so show prudence and ask for permission before taking important actions.
Speak your Strength: It is always best to admit ignorance rather than babble on about something which you are not sure of and provide misinformation. In addition to your technical expertise, know CrossLoop’s working, its policies, etc to assist customers better. A misinformation provided may boomerang as a negative feedback in your profile. For this reason, we recommend that you go through the topics for Helper Training listed in the Helper certification page at http://www.crossloop.com/help/certification
Pass On the Customer: It is highly suggested that you help customers in those areas in which you have sound knowledge. A haphazard work may appear as a negative feedback or may result in cash back! In such scenarios, please offer to pass the customer on to another helper. Simply search for another helper that has the skill chat with them and then help the customer to connect. This will help you gain a strong reputation among the helpers and they will often return the favor.
Reply Quick: By far the most consistent and highest priority request among all customers contacting technical support across the industry is the speed in which the Helpers answer their requests. A quick reply ensures a happy customer willing to return back in case of further need.
Computer Related Etiquette
Clean it up: If you happen to download and install software on the customer’s computer, make sure you remove those which you consider unnecessary for the user. A better option would be to ask the customer whether he/she would like to keep them or not.
Get safe with Restore: It is normally a good idea to create a restore point before you start working. This will alleviate the customer’s fear of you messing something up and allow him to revert to his original state if anything goes wrong.
Never wrestle for control: If the customer tries to gain control of the computer it probably means that he wants to tell you something. If you see motion on the mouse stand back and stop working.
The Sale is Important
Remember to “Always be Closing” (ABC) : Your goal is to make some additional income and hence keep your goal in mind. Selling does not mean you are rude or pushy, but think about things that will help convince the customer on your service throughout your discussion:
• Beginning of the conversation: Start by saying “I can help you solve that problem quickly” or “Please describe your question and I can get you back and running fast.”
• Move in to problem solving only after you have provided an analysis of the problem and an estimate to fix. Use the CrossLoop estimate tool and get the customer’s response.
• Get partial payment for large issues or multiple issues.
• Get upfront payment from customers who do not sound like they are willing to pay.
• Come up with standard packages you offer so you can easily explain levels of service and pricing.
• Offer packages and pricing immediately when customers ask or need the service.
Providing top notch customer service and exceeding their expectations will almost guarantee their return. Do whatever you can to ensure positive feedbacks from your customers. There's no denying in the fact that, the way you treat customers, directly affects your bottom line. Remember: If you don’t take care of your customers, someone else will!