8 Tips for Writing Great Customer Service Emails – Aimee Laurence

Even though as a business you might send hundreds of customer service emails every day, for every customer that’s the one email they’ll receive from your company. Because it’s one of their few interactions, it will have a big impact on how they view your company, and it’s important to keep every single customer happy.

That’s why you want to write great customer service emails, and here’s how you do it.

1. Be personal

Customer service is about personal service. Customers want to feel like they’re interacting with another person, not a big organization. If a customer feels respected and given great personal service, you greatly increase your chances of getting a loyal customer.

An easy way to personalize your service is to use names in each email. Address it to them, and sign it with your own name.

2. Thank them

Whether the client is giving you feedback, asking a question, or complaining about something, it’s actually a really good thing. Robbie Keane, a customer experience expert at Essay Writers, explains that

“A customer who complains is giving the company the opportunity to address a problem and possibly keep the customer. By saying thank you, you’re contributing to a lasting relationship and letting the customer know you appreciate them, no matter what.”

3. Have a consistent style

Customer service is all about having a unique, defined, and most of all consistent style. This includes the voice and tone of the message, how personalized it is, the language, and the visuals. You want to be sure you can clearly communicate the message to the client and have the whole customer service team on board.

This includes making sure you have no bad writing, formatting, or spelling mistakes. All emails should be proofread and edited by using excellent online services.

4. Deliver news the right way

If you have bad news to share, it actually matters the way you deliver it. Studies show that people who get the bad news first tend to feel overall better after the interaction whereas people who receive bad news last will be more motivated to do something about the news.

This means, depending on the context, you should think about how you’re delivering bad news. Customer service is usually about keeping clients happy, which means more often than not you should be starting with the bad news.

5. Use automated responses

This point might feel like a direct contradiction of the point about human interaction and personalizing, but it’s not. A tech writer at Essay Services, Gary Frobisher, shares that “speed is an important part of customer service, and because a lot of your interactions will be similar, you can automate responses to common issues.

What matters for this strategy is drafting a common reply to make it personalized and automating software can plug in individual client names for you.”

6. Use accessible language

Your product might be clear to you because you know all the ins and outs of it, but customers aren’t in the same boat. Anytime you need to explain something to a customer that’s complex or detailed, write as though the reader is five years old.

That doesn’t mean you should be condescending and childish, but you need to assume they have no background in the technical aspects or aren’t familiar with that product.

7. Be positive

Your customer service emails should be written in a positive tone to have a clear impact on how they’re received by customers. Look for words with negative connotations like “actually” and “but” and replace them with more positive vocabulary. You’ll be surprised at the difference in tone and your emails will be perceived in a much better light.

8. Consider your tone

The verdict is still out whether you should adopt a formal or casual tone for your customer service interactions. The truth is that it depends on a few factors.

People of all ages typically prefer a casual tone for customer service, unless they’re being given bad news in which case a more formal tone is preferred. Therefore, a casual tone (including emoticons and slang) can be a good strategy for your emails, be cautious about the tone when you’re denying a customer’s request or sending bad news.

---