by Leslie O'Flahavan | Jun 5, 2021 | Writing Matters Blog
Customer service chat is popular with companies and customers alike. It’s easy, it’s quick, and it works well on mobile devices. But easy and popular doesn’t always equal good. Read this chat with customer service agent “Jack” at Vizio....
by Leslie O'Flahavan | Feb 7, 2021 | Writing Matters Blog
Someone needs to tell Verizon: “Customer service chat is supposed to help the customer.” Read through the transcript of this truly painful chat, and you’ll hardly believe your eyes. The customer, Marianne, endures: One hour and 17 minutes of chat...
by Leslie O'Flahavan | Apr 6, 2020 | Customer Service Writing, Featured, Plain Language Writing Courses, Social Media Writing Courses, Writing Matters Blog
On a typical day, most customers will understand what you mean even if you use less-than-graceful words when you speak or write. For example, lots of customers dislike the phrase “No problem!” but they’ll look past it if you’re providing great service. They’ll give...
by Leslie O'Flahavan | Mar 7, 2019 | Featured, Writing Matters Blog
You know that scene in the heist movie? The one that comes right after the criminals rob the bank but right before the cops bust in? When the ringleader says, “We’ve got to get our stories straight or we’re all going to jail for a long, long time…” Aside from...
by Leslie O'Flahavan | Nov 11, 2018 | Featured, Writing Matters Blog
With the rise of SMS, chat, and social media, is using email for customer service as quaint as sending postal mail? “Tell us about the old days, Grandpa. Did you really have to lick an envelope to seal it?” No, the customer service email channel is not the...
by Leslie O'Flahavan | Jan 18, 2018 | Featured, Writing Matters Blog
If your company is gearing up to offer customer service via text, that’s great! Your customers are going to love the convenience. Texting is their go-to channel for personal communication, and they’re eager use it to contact companies when they have questions or need...
by Leslie O'Flahavan | May 31, 2017 | Featured, Writing Matters Blog
There are about 1,000 varieties of insincere apology. There’s the smirking “Sorry if you were offended” apology which blames the person you insulted. There’s the oblique, passive voice “Mistakes were made” apology that admits nothing. Nothing! And there’s the...
by Leslie O'Flahavan | Apr 10, 2017 | Featured, Writing Matters Blog
My Lynda.com course is live! Yep, you read that right! My first Lynda.com course, “How to Write Customer Service Email” is ready to view, and I am thrilled to share it with you. The course is made up of 29 short videos (about 3 minutes each) and loads of...
by Leslie O'Flahavan | Jan 29, 2017 | Featured, Writing Matters Blog
Preparing to use bots in your customer care organization? Confused about what a bot is and how one works? Is the robot army marching toward us? Maybe? Probably! As customer service professionals, we’ll need to know how bots can help us serve our customers better...
by Leslie O'Flahavan | Jan 13, 2017 | Writing Matters Blog
Customers really like live chat. Recent studies show customers are more satisfied with chat than email or phone (73 percent satisfaction for chat compared to 61 percent and 44 percent for email and phone). And more customers are choosing chat. For example, one chat...
