Have you ever read the room wrong when joining a conversation? Most people have, at some point, felt that sinking feeling of a faux pas hanging stagnant in the air.
Thankfully, in most cases, a little bit of humility and emotional intelligence will fix the error.
But these awkward moments aren’t reserved for face-to-face communication. Off-kilter replies can quickly derail any interaction.
Including, that is, those that take place through your live chat channel.
So, what happens when you read the room wrong in a chat session?
Reading the chat room wrong
It’s not always easy to pick up on the tone of a conversation right away. But it is easy to accidentally say the wrong thing in the wrong way.
Add a bad or busy day, or a particularly difficult customer to the mix, and a mistake can soon happen.
In online chat, this complexity over identifying tone has another layer — you don’t have vocal cues or body language to help you identify the mood of the customer.
And, while you don’t necessarily need that non-verbal communication to converse effectively, it can help you avoid reading the room wrong.
Most of the time, these hurdles don’t trip up agents. But mistakes happen.
So, agents need to be ready to fix their live chat faux pas.
Live chat faux pas
A faux pas is a tactless remark or message. In a live chat scenario, it’s an off-kilter message that lacks empathy or understanding.
Perhaps the most common live chat faux pas is the robotic response. These are the times that you stuck to the script a little tighter than you should have.
Or, you relied too heavily on your bank of canned responses. As a result, you’ve not actually catered to the mood behind the customer message.
More grievous are the times that you completely shift the tone. For instance, an inappropriate emoji after a serious complaint, or an emotional reaction to an unpleasant message.
At best, reading the chat room wrong makes it seem like you’re not listening. The customer might blow past it and you can get back on track. At worst, though, they cause offence and upset, and take effort to amend.
Reading the room: preventing faux pas
Avoiding a live chat faux pas boils down to empathy and emotional intelligence. That is, the ability of your team to manage both the customer’s, and their own, emotions. And, the ability to communicate with these feelings in mind.
This means first being able to recognise when a customer has upset you, or when you are having a bad day. From there, you can take extra care that your messages don’t convey a negative mood.
Second, agents should check that their messages align with the mood of the customer. Empathy statements can be a big help here.
Agents don’t need to rely on their instincts alone. Some live chat channels come with tools that help them keep on top of the mood of the chat. For instance, WhosOn’s chat mood detection feature. This feature uses real-time sentiment analysis to provide a handy indicator of a customer’s mood.
From there, your agent can tailor their replies based on the sentiment indicator, as well as their analysis of the customer mood. So, they have a safety net to help them prevent a live chat faux pas.
Fixing a live chat faux pas
But what if you do commit a live chat faux pas? The first step to dealing with a derailed chat is being able to recognise when you’ve read the chat room wrong.
With chat mood, if the customer’s sentiment indicator turns negative suddenly, it’s a sign that you’ve tripped up somewhere.
Look for short, terse replies. Take notice when a customer starts to repeat themselves — it suggests that they don’t think you’ve understood them.
Don’t be afraid to apologise if you caused upset with a live chat faux pas. Apologies are an effective way of appeasing an upset customer. With them, you take responsibility and show your human side.
From there, it’s as simple as taking a moment and using empathy to restore a positive chat tone. By acknowledging your mistake, you can validate their feelings and get a derailed chat back on track.
Stay on track
We all make mistakes from time to time. But in a chat session, a live chat faux pas doesn’t have to ruin the customer experience.
So, now you can avoid those awkward moments that happen when you read the chat room wrong.
Useful links
- - A guide to tone-matching in live chat interactions
- - Types of customers on your chat channel, and how to handle them
- - The Mehrabian myth, non-verbal communication, and live chat software
- - Agents, customer service bad days, and the power of live chat software
- - 10 things you should never say in a live chat conversation
- - Apology statements: how to apologise to a customer