Help CenterQuick responses on live chat are crucial for high customer satisfaction. That’s where canned responses come in handy. They help agents avoid delays and save them from typing the same answer over and over again. When not handled with caution though, canned messages can create a bad customer experience, so make sure you read the tips and tricks section.
What is a canned response?
It is a predefined message, that can be quickly recalled through a shortcut. In LiveChat you simply use a hash sign followed by the name assigned to the canned response, e.g. #else ("Can I help you with anything else?"). When you start typing, a visual menu pops up, and you can see all saved messages that contain the phrase.
If you want to learn how to manage canned responses in LiveChat read our Canned responses tutorial.
Canned response examples list
Are you just starting with LiveChat and need help creating first canned responses? Or maybe you want to make your Customer Service team more efficient? Either way, we believe that our list of canned response examples will prove useful.
Greetings
“Hi, how can I help you?”
You can’t really start a conversation without saying hello, can you? Save a few different versions to provide a variety for returning customers.
Offers
“Get free shipping if you spend over 75 dollars on our winter collection.“
If you have an online store, you probably constantly run various promo campaigns. Save special offers and discount codes as canned responses to recall them whenever you need.
Pricing
“Our business plan is 55$/month. It includes….”
If you offer services, you might want to create a canned response for every single one of them. Customers often ask about prices, and it's good to have a prefabricated answer ready.
Competition
“Our product has features: X, Y, and Z, while our competitor's product..."
Your customers are looking for the best price to quality ratio, so you need to be ready to answer queries regarding your offer in comparison to your competitors'.
Links
“You can find our return policy here…”
Save links that your customers often ask for, so you can quickly direct them to the page they are looking for.
Instructions
“Follow these steps to change your account type:…”
Tutorials often have many steps and can be difficult to follow in a chat. Have instructions ready so customers can get them instantly, and if they still need help, you can provide a more detailed explanation.
Clarification
“Can you tell me more about…”
Not being exactly sure what the customer means is very common, so have a few of these in your collection.
Transferring
“I am going to transfer you to Mark from the technical team, he can walk you through the installation process and answer all of your questions."
Customers do not like being transferred. So make sure you do it only as a last resort. Remember to inform the customer why and to whom they are being transferred. Changing the name of your colleague is much faster than typing out the whole message from scratch.
Confused customer
“I’m sorry, I think you are looking for company X. We are called Z and specialize in...”
Depending on your business profile you can get quite a lot of customers who either wanted to contact a different company or are simply pulling your leg. With canned responses, you can minimize the effort you put into such interactions, while still being polite and friendly.
Putting on hold
“Would you mind holding on for a few minutes while I check this with our technical support?”
Sometimes you just need more time to find the answer. It’s good to check in every few minutes so the customer knows you are still there.
Foreign customer
“Unfortunately, I don't speak French. I will try and use Google Translate to help you.”
If you don’t offer support in the language your customer speaks, you can try using Google Translate. It can be wonky, but you might still be able to help - and it's all that matters.
Ending chats
“You are more than welcome, have a nice day!”
If your customer says goodbye, the right thing to do is to say it back. But if you've said it a hundred times during your shift, it may be difficult to keep up the friendliness and enthusiasm. Use a canned response to makes it easier.
Canned responses tips & tricks
Canned messages can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, they help agents be more efficient and simply reply faster. On the other hand, using prefabricated messages can easily sound unnatural and impersonal. And at the end of the day, your customers will rather wait a bit longer than feel like you don’t treat them seriously.
A few pointers worth keeping in mind when you use canned responses:
- Don't turn into a robot. As shown above, canned responses should be used to improve the customer experience not worsen it.
- Use them as templates. Tweak your responses so they feel more personal and show that you actually listen to your customer.
- Make sure they are not too obvious. If it is clear to the person you are chatting with that you used a canned response, you are doing it wrong.
- Always double check if you know what the customer is expecting from you. Sending a canned response that is only remotely relevant to the question asked is a no-no.
- Change the message in canned responses from time to time. Think about your returning customers, you may annoy them before you even know it.
- Don’t be overly formal. Sending a very formal message in the mids of a friendly conversation will look funny at best.
- Consider using a sense of humor. This really depends on your branding and specific customer preferences, but being funny in the right way can win your customers' hearts.
- Be careful with technical jargon. Make sure that the customers understand it.
- Keep canned responses up to date. There's nothing worse than sending an expired promo offer or a link to a blog post that doesn’t exist.
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