Chat support is designed to reassure customers that you’re there for them – but how does the customer experience change when you’re not there?
If you can’t keep your chat support running 24/7, how do you show customers that you still want to help? How do you make sure they’re still heard, even if you can’t get back to them right away?
If you’re offering a chat support service to your customers, the messages you send when you’re offline are almost as important as the ones you send when you’re in the office.
What are offline messages?
Offline messages are messages automatically sent to customers using your chat support service outside of your business hours.
As soon as a customer clicks on your chat support box, a message pops up to let them know they won’t get a response from an agent right away. This message could include:
- an introduction letting customers know your support team isn’t available right now
- information on other support channels they might want to use
- advice about your regular working hours, so they know when you’ll be back in the office to help them.
With most chat support services, you can tailor this offline message to suit your brand tone of voice and internal processes. That means you can make sure that you’re still delivering customer service that meets your standards even outside of business hours.
You can turn offline messages on and off manually. Still, it’s usually easier to find an online messaging app that automatically displays offline messages when customers contact you outside of your business hours.
A good chat support app can also help feed the messages you receive from customers outside of business hours into your broader customer service workflow. When a customer sends a message while you’re offline, your app can automatically convert the message into a support ticket for your team to pick up when they return.
Why are offline messages so important?
Real-time messaging can be a powerful tool for building strong customer relationships. By exchanging text or media messages with customers, you have the chance to respond to their queries faster, build rapport with them, and generally show them that you’re there to help.
When customers reach out to you through your chat app, they’re usually expecting to have a real-time conversation with one of your people. Sometimes they can be disappointed when you’re not available.
If you leave them hanging when you’re out of the office, you risk losing the relationship you’ve built with them or even sending them to one of your competitors to get help with their query. According to Forbes, nearly two-thirds of customers won’t wait more than two minutes for assistance.
But many customers don’t mind waiting if they’re provided with regular updates on how their query is being handled or understand why they have to wait.
This makes offline messages an effortless way to reassure customers that they’re not being ignored or overlooked. With one message, you can let them know that you’re out of the office, offer them some options for the next steps, and set expectations as to when they’ll be able to speak to one of your team members.
Best practices for setting up your offline messages
So, you’re ready to write and activate your offline message. What do you need to consider when you’re setting one up?
Make it clear when you’ll be back in the office.
If possible, give customers the exact hours to expect a response from you. This way, they’ll know exactly how long they’ll need to wait and whether they’d prefer to get support via a different channel.
Provide alternative options for finding the support they need
Don’t just turn customers away; instead, provide other options to help them solve their problems. Depending on what you have available, you might want to direct customers to use your AI chatbot, send an email, request a callback, or check your FAQs page.
By letting customers know about the alternative support options available, they can decide for themselves whether they want to try and solve their problem another way or just wait until they can chat with a member of your team. Even if they would rather wait until you’re online, they’ll appreciate you making an effort to explain their options.
If they decide to wait, they can just reply to your offline message with a message for your support team to read when they’re back online.
In the old days, with traditional real-time messaging, this wouldn’t have been possible; both the customer and the support team member had to be using the app simultaneously, or the messages wouldn’t be delivered.
However, today’s chat support apps use asynchronous messaging, which means customers and businesses can send messages back and forth in their own time, much like they would in a normal text message conversation. This means your customer can fire off their question and go about their business, knowing they’ll get a notification (usually an email notification) when you reply.
Use chatbots to boost customer engagement.
If your customer can’t find the answer, they’re looking for it in an FAQ. You’d be surprised how often chatbots can step in to solve the problem and save the customer relationship. Chatbots can:
- answer common customer questions about things like prices, services, and policies
- create tickets, identify customers, set up meetings with your team, request clarifying information, and complete other activities that help you solve the customer’s problem faster once you’re back online
- pick up on keywords that might indicate a customer is at risk of churning so that you can prioritize their query.
Follow up as soon as you can once you’re back online
When you set up an offline message on your chat app, a support ticket will be generated every time someone sends a message outside your working hours.
Once you’re back in the office, try to get to these queries as fast as possible. This is important for two reasons:
- If a customer has told you they don’t want to use one of your other support channels, they’ll already have been waiting a while to have their issue addressed. The faster you get to their query, the greater your chances of delighting the customer with attentive customer service.
- If your customer has decided to solve their problem through one of your other channels, it’s still a good idea to check that it has indeed been solved. This shows the customer that you care and helps you make sure they’re completely satisfied as you can address any remaining questions or concerns.
Make your offline messages count.
Offline messages are easy to overlook when you’re setting up chat support, but they can have a significant impact on the way your customers feel about your brand. When you get them right, they can stop minor issues from turning into massive complaints and even help you forge deeper long-term relationships with your customers.
Offline messages are easy to set up and integrate into your customer support process with the right chat software like Freshchat. They should be taking the burden off your sales team and making it easier to provide better customer service. Make sure you look for chat software that meets your high standards for customer service on every point — from your offline messages to chatbots and self-service options.
It’s a little way to show customers that you still care about making sure they have a great experience — even when you’re off the clock.
