Know-How Exchange : Just for Fun

Hi,

What could be the meaning of customer? we are all customer of our customer !

Kourosh Tabandeh

I personally and not a fan of online chat as it is painfully slow. I prefer to talk with some one on the phone or interact via email. This of course only works if a telephone number is given or they are quick at replying to emails.

When I do use chat, I prefer to be short and too the point. I typically will just answer the questions I am presented with. There are times that I have given up on it and gone to the phone as it is too slow to get things resolved.

Mike

Some articles on live chat etiquette:
https://www.liveadmins.com/Live%20Chat%20Etiquette.htm
https://www.answerchat.com/tips_ChatEtiquette.htm
https://www.providesupport.com/about-us/articles/live-chat-etiquette.html
https://www.live2support.com/newsletter/2008-05/training_supportoperators.p...

What is considered proper etiquette for a customer with regard to a customer service representative? hmmm. I am not a patient customer when it comes to dealing with a chat support that clearly doesn't understand my question, or sends me tin can answers, or waits for two minutes in between replies. Once I feel like I am not being attended to, I know am a very difficult sell-discussion-customer.

As a customer, usually by the time I'm entering a live chat, I need a pretty immediate answer to my question and etiquette is not on my mind. I want relevant answers without BS and without accents I can't understand and without someone trying to upsell me at every turn.

This might sound selfish and rude, but I almost think this is irrelevant question because it's not up to the customer to have etiquette, although as a PR professional, I wish more customers had better etiquette. To be totally honest, it's hard for me to even process.... good growth exercise here.

Jennifer P.
XPRT Creative

I think the most important thing, after clarity and brevity, is being polite and courteous. The person on the other end of the chat is a human being, and may not be the one who ultimately is able to fix your problem. However, treating them with respect will go a long ways if they need to transfer you to a superior, or someone in another department.

What do you want this for? Is it to publish as a kind of guide to customers on how they should behave when in a live chat with your representatives?

If so, I think the key rule is "Please be patient with us as we try to resolve your issue or enquiry".

In hospital Emergency Rooms I have seen posters saying that violence towards staff will not be tolerated. You wonder why they need to say that - then when you have to attend an ER late on a Friday night, you see what the poor staff are exposed to in terms of rude, loutish and drunken behaviour that probably contributed to the whole reason for being in the ER (for that patient).

Same goes for online resolution of service issues. If the customer is so frustrated they start to vent at the staff, it's time to defuse the situation. Calm them by leading them through a carefully crafted series of questions to get to the root of their problem, then do everything reasonable to fix it for them.

Hope that helps.

ChrisB