This document discusses best practices for handling customers over email. It emphasizes the importance of understanding customer psychology and providing excellent customer service to increase satisfaction and retention. Some key tips include acknowledging customer feelings, finding resolutions to complaints, providing updates on support requests to avoid unnecessary follow-ups, and leaving communication open-ended to ensure issues are fully resolved.

1. Understanding & Handling Customers Over Email
Rik Bhattacharjee
Customer care involves putting systems in right place at right time to maximize the customer
satisfaction at first touch resolution and minimization of repeat contacts through email, phone,
correspondence and any other communication channel. The communication media may also
involve physical visit to any sales or after sales service office. It is the next big corporate
challenge and is the prime consideration of every business entity because it is directly
proportional to customer retention and expansion in the market with new acquisition. Marketers
usually don’t neglect the importance of customer care and service in any business area. As for
example in an email or call customer service, the quality team may have minimal or zero contact
with customers; however their performance greatly impact customer satisfaction and retention.
There are several factors that contribute towards increasing customer satisfaction steadily and
exponentially. Exponential growth of customer satisfaction comes with experience and
dedication. A marketer generally follows the Maslow Model which takes into consideration
several factors and parameters for motivation of customer service advisors. An advisor is able to
provide outstanding and excellent customer service when the market fulfills the needs of a
human being. Psychological need is the basic need of an advisor to provide excellent service
followed by safety needs. Further ahead in the hierarchy model, the marketer should be able
provide the affection and security to the advisor followed by self-esteem which ultimately leads
to self-actualization. Customer satisfaction is triggered by several parameters like the demand &
need of the customer, the value for money, efficiency & reliability of fulfilling promises,
professionalism & expertise of the service advisor, keeping the customers up to date with new
product & services and last but not the least the after sales services.
Understanding the customers is a real time challenge for the marketers. Customer retention is
even more challenging than customer acquisition. Retention of customers depends on the highest
level of customer services and the obligation of treating all customers fairly. To understand the
customer psychology, the market should involve in collecting & analyzing the customer
feedback with situational analysis of the feedback. The customer feedback helps in increasing the
satisfaction of customers. It is a challenge to identify the exact mood of a customer on an email,
however user interface & ease of access provides us an impression of mood of the customers by
analyzing customer online movement details.
To enhance the customer services, marketers should monitor the order pattern and requests from
the customers and keeping the records of the customer contacts with the business through any
mode of communication. Any deviation from the customer’s order patterns is helpful to identify
the demand and supply of the services.

2. It is an established fact that the customer service is best shown through email or chat. Email
helps to resolve complex customer queries and chat is very helpful to provide instant or near
about instant resolution with more or less simpler queries.
When a customer attacks the marketer, the customer service advisor might include the quoted
statements in email or chat. As for example, “I am sorry if our services could not meet your
expectation and I request you to provide us another opportunity to serve you better.”, “I
understand the severity and the gravity of the situation you have been engulfed.” The advisor
should give assurance of better service by writing “Our goal is to provide a consistent reliable
service with an exemplary level of customer services.”
A simple system called CARP might be used to deal angry customers. Control – Acknowledge –
Refocus – Problem Solve are the steps to deal angry customers. The first step is to be in control
of the situation. That means not letting your customer’s anger influence your own behavior. That
is, don’t get angry back. The next step is to acknowledge your customer’s feelings. Be
empathetic and make it clear that you understand that they’re upset. Third, refocus the
conversation on what’s most important: the actual problem at hand. And finally, problem-solve:
work to find a resolution to the customer’s complaint.
An example of dissatisfied purchase experience:
Dear Esteemed Customer,
Thanks for your email to notify us of the difficulties you have been experiencing with our
products and services.
We are very sorry for such destabilizing encounters you have been faced with. One of our
strengths is the way we respond to our customers promptly. Therefore, your recent experience is
unjustifiable.
I have discussed with our Director and he has been directed by me to make a complete refund
and make a 25% discount on your next purchase. I want to use this opportunity to let you know
that I am sorry for the difficulties you have encountered as a result of this problem. It is obvious
from this incidence that our assistant sales personnel require adequate training for effective
delivery.
Thank you for your understanding. For any other question or request for assistance, you can call
me directly on +1234567890.
Best regards,
Rik Bhattacharjee
Customer Service Manager

3. There are certain phrases that work out excellently in customer service industry. In an email
customer service, the marketer has to deals with the customer remotely and has to understand the
psychology of the customers from the email. The better you understand the better you will
provide the service to the customers. In a 2011 customer service survey, American Express asked
respondents which common customer service phrases annoyed them most. The winner is “We’re
unable to answer your question. Please call xxxxxxx to speak a representative from xxxxx team.”
Good customer service isn’t always about knowing the right answer. Often, it’s about finding the
right answer so that your customer doesn’t have to.
If a customer sends an email “checking in” on the status of their support request, we consider
that a failure on our part. The two things that we do to avoid check-ins are: make sure
that we proactively keep the customer posted as often as possible (at least once per day) and let
the customer know exactly when they should expect to hear from us. While you can’t always
promise a solution by a given time, you can always promise an update. Delivering on that
promise doesn’t just keep the customer informed about the status of their request, but it’s another
opportunity to build trust.
According to a survey by Lee Resources International, for every customer who complains, there
are 26 customers who don’t say anything. Each customer complaint could mean that dozens of
other customers are having the same problem and not letting you know. That means
that resolving the problem for a single customer could make dozens of other customers happier
at the same time. That’s a huge opportunity and a huge gift from the customer who decided to
email you about it.
Despite our best efforts and intentions, we don’t always get it right. In fact, one survey
suggests that although 94% of online retailers provide email customer service, 27% of email
inquiries are answered incorrectly. While I suspect that most of you reading this blog average
much better than that, the fact remains that there are times that our answers don’t end up being
helpful. The problem is that research shows us that most people won’t speak up about problems.
So if your reply isn’t helpful, some customers won’t proactively ask you to clarify or help any
further. That’s what makes this one of the most helpful customer service phrases you can use. By
leaving the door open and inviting the customer to respond, you’ll give them a chance to let you
know if anything remains unresolved.