Customer service is a challenging task. It involves getting into the customer’s skin; knowing what they want and when without having them to say it. Is it really possible? Believe it or not, you can’t please everybody! You may—at any time in your career as a customer support agent— found out that the old axiom that the customer is always right is an antithesis of the reality, and while dealing with many customers, it can be difficult to deliver the experience your customers have been expecting.
When you are in customer services, it is quite evident to come across angry customers. They may be upset because of different reasons: maybe your company has committed a horrible mistake, perhaps they are just confused, or possibly they are just having a bad day.
Among other means of customer support, live chat—when done right—can be a real blessing in identifying and dealing with irate customers. Luckily, with live chat interactions, you do not hear the yelled words of your customer, and this allows you to efficiently cool them down. But conversely, it’s a bit harder to exhibit a true sense of empathy to your customers that would have been quite easy with the phone conversations.
Mentioned below are some signs to spot your angry customers on chat.
- The “…” ending sentences
“…” at the end of a sentence usually signifies frustration. This shows that your client is courteous enough to not textually yell at you, but this doesn’t mean that s/he is not mad at you.
Maybe the customer doesn’t expect much from your brand, but it is better to take this chance to amaze him by providing exceptional service.
- ALL CAPS CONVERSATION
It is a clear sign of anger. People usually use all caps as a textual form of yelling. This sort of message demonstrates a high level of annoyance. Your customer may have contacted you before and didn’t get the expected returns or just had many problems with your product/services. In either case, s/he is angry and wants you to realize it too.
All caps text also represent over excitement, so it is better to go through the whole chat twice before making any assumptions.
- Swearing words
Customers do not usually take the time or think twice before using swear words in conversation, so it is possible to receive a rude message on chat. Please don’t get offended, as they are not actually insulting you, they are just showing how furious they are with the encountered issue.
Just be polite at your end of the conversation. Earlier in this post, it is advised to adopt a conversational tone, but when the customers start swearing, you should stay formal and polite to keep reminding them that you are not their old college pal.
In such cases, you should submit a concrete proof to them for demonstrating that you have resolved the problem conclusively.
- Unusual use of punctuations
Punctuation is effective in communicating emotions when texting. Just like ALL CAPS queries, you should be certain that your customer is annoyed or excited. Multiple “!” or “?” should concern you in the same way as the All caps text.
“Are you even paying attention to what I am saying???” looks more aggressive than “Are you even paying attention to what I am saying?”
- The “but” in the conversation
The best ones among your unsatisfied customers usually use “but” in their conversations, which shows them that they wouldn’t yell at you or swear out loud if you were in front of them at the moment, but this doesn’t mean they are not angry. It is better to treat their problem as a serious issue, as such “but” users won’t balk to evade you if their problem is not solved.
So, these were some of the signs that tell you if your customer is annoyed or not when interacting on live chat. You can also train your in-house support team about these minute details to consider, whereas if you want to cut corners on the chat support, consider reliable companies providing chat outsource solutions to different industries. The chat staff of such organizations is expert in recognizing customer concerns and handling the complaints, in no time.
