Maintaining a clear, polite and professional tone with customers can help boost CoreBridge's customer relations. This can also help customers stay calm, even when dealing with frustrating issues.
Communication Format
All communication should typically follow the same format.
To respond to a customer:
1. Begin with a greeting. Including the customer's name can help it feel more personal. When you select the Reply button it will autofill the customer's name. This may not always be accurate, so be sure to double check.
Example: Good morning, hello, etc.
2. Express gratitude to the customer.
Example: Thank you for reaching out, thanks for your patience, etc.
3. Provide an answer if you have one. If not, give reassurance that we will help them solve the problem.
Example: We will look into this, we will forward this onto our team, etc.
4. Finish with a sign-off. This will be auto filled to "Thanks" but can be changed.
Example: Have a nice day, thanks again, etc.
General Tips
- When referring to yourself or the CoreBridge team, always use "We" instead of "Me" or "I." This can make the team feel larger and more professional.
Example: Instead of saying "I will look into this" say "We will look into this."
- Do not give specific timelines for completion.
Example: Instead of saying "We will provide an update on Friday" say "We will provide an update as soon as we have more information."
- Do not mention any employees specifically by name or by job title.
Example: Instead of saying "We will pass this on to Susan" say "We will pass this on to our team."
- Always obtain permission before making changes to their system.
Example: "As a troubleshooting step, we'd like to request your permission to uninstall and reinstall your Microsoft Calendar."
- Asking for needed clarification or screenshots/videos can be helpful when trying to fix a problem.
Example: “To help us better understand your specific issue, could you please provide more detail into when you are seeing the error and a screenshot if possible?”
- Focus on things the system can do instead of things it cannot do.
Example: Instead of saying "You can't remove permissions granted from roles within your Employee Permissions" say "We recommend updating your roles to include the least amount of permissions possible, as permissions can only be added from your Employee Permissions."
- Use good grammar and punctuation. If necessary, download an external application such as Grammarly to check grammar.
- Continue to maintain a respectful tone, even if the customer does not reciprocate. Oftentimes, they are communicating with support because of issues they could not resolve on their own. Keep this in mind and be patient and kind.