
Hone your tone of voice: A linguistic perspective on how to talk to customers - fmfamaral
https://unbabel.com/blog/tone-of-voice-linguistic-perspective/
======
davidmoffatt
We have too much of this saccharin sweet but vacuous tech support. What you
really need to do is.

1) Be polite even when they are not. (The authors approach of doing this makes
you sound like a teenager trying to take the car on a date, skip it)

2) hear what the customer is really saying not what you think they are saying.
Don't immediately bucket them.

3) Calm the customer down. "Yes Ma'am, I don't know why it isn't working but
we are going to fix it. I just need to ask a few questions..."

4) Don't waste the customer's time. This is a big one. Your staff should not
be constantly calling for a manager. They should be trained before they go
online.

Everything else is just trying to cover for the fact that you can't seem to do
your job. If you are rude, gruff, and speak with a funny accent they will love
you if you solve their problem.

~~~
andyidsinga
I started off my career in tech as a support technician - worked on both end
user/consumer product and business/corporate client support.

I can say without a doubt #3 and #4 are the absolute most important things a
support technician can do - and do _fast_ after answering the call.

I had so many irate customers - just like my wife is with me when it's her
turn to call the phone company(!). The second they believed I was going to fix
their problem _and_ not waste their time - we would be on the same team.

Corollary - try hard to never, ever, EVER pass a customer to someone else. I
would tell them my name, their case number and tell them if they call back to
ask for me ..and then more or less demand in the case notes that the next
technician pass them back to me (caveat: as long as the customer was ok with
that).

I look so fondly on my time doing tech support - but geeze was it rough
emotionally.

------
nmstoker
Interesting point about using a person's name. I've always associated that
with a slightly patronising manner, which makes me wonder what're they after.

An old boss used to drive me up the wall, as any vaguely difficult
conversation he wanted to have would be peppered with my name - it can easily
go too far and rapidly become false

~~~
alleyshack
I absolutely hate people using my name in conversation. As you say, it feels
patronizing, and to me it also feels fake and manipulative, especially in the
context of customer support.

It's interesting to me how much advice about communication involves using a
person's name. Do most people like hearing their name dropped frequently in
conversations with strangers or near-strangers? Or is this one of those weird
unproven "truths of the business" that get repeated because they sound good
rather than because there's hard data backing up their effectiveness?

(I am not saying no hard data exists; I've just never seen any and the
anecdotes I've heard indicate the opposite, so I'm curious.)

~~~
gnicholas
Using a name feels even more unnatural when done incorrectly. For example, I
get this all the time:

 _I would be happy to help you with this Mr. Nick_

I have no idea why this happens — are there countries in which people call
each other "Mr. [first name]"?

~~~
jpatokal
This seems to be common in the Philippines, home to many call centers. Many
Filipinos are also prone to overusing Sir, to the point that one person I
worked with used to refer to my colleagues as Sir John, Sir Bob etc (and no,
this was not tongue in cheek).

~~~
jpmoral
I'm from the Philippines. I can't say 'Mr. First Name' is common but I totally
agree that 'Sir' is overused.

------
hood_syntax
Maybe it's just me, but 'negative' politeness has always been my default
conversation mode. I didn't even know what it was until a few months ago, or
that people studied 'politeness strategies'. Being deferential with words
leaves open the opportunity for dialogue, and doesn't bite you in the ass if
you're mistaken. Of course, it can be appropriate to be more direct in certain
circumstances, and tone can change the perception of modal statements from
sincere to patronizing very easily. Still, to me, it seems like people are
more willing to seriously consider direct statements when it's not your usual
attitude. "This person is very careful about making definite statements, and
they seem very confident about what they just said". When what you want isn't
to manipulate people but to have them open their mind to the possibility that
what you're saying is true, that train of thought (and I know this exists
because I've thought so myself several times) is very valuable.

~~~
gowld
This attorney Wayne Jarvis's approach.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRzxJZrm3iU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRzxJZrm3iU)

------
eikeegi
In the cultural context where I come from (Estonia), using ones name while NOT
being friends is a sure way to sound very passive aggressive. Doing this in a
formal dialogue pretty much guarantees that the person on the receiving end
will consider the other party to be very much a dick. I am pretty sure that
it's not just Estonia, but Finland too.

~~~
rebuilder
Yep, I'm from Finland and to me, using a person's name in a potential conflict
situation just feels like trying to make the problem personal. In the
article's examples, like "I’m not entirely sure we can do that, Liam", I hear
an unspoken "you fool" at the end.

~~~
fmfamaral
That reminds me of "I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that" :D

------
pcunite
_What’s the real meaning behind the words they’re using? ... Put yourself in
their shoes and understand the problem you need to solve._

I've found it to my great advantage to let the customer know that _I can_
(hold the ability), and that _I will_ (choose to) help them. This needs to be
spoken as well as using the correct tone. Nothing is more frustrating to a
client than to feel like they are not being heard. Of course, you have to back
this up with actions.

Sometimes I have a customer who is really a trouble maker, I tend to shut them
down quickly because I've dealt with their type before. But I feel like there
must be a better way. I know it'll end the same (they won't agree with my
pricing, terms, support, yadda) but maybe a better parting of ways.

~~~
lozaning
Following the 80/20 on everything. You'll get 80% of your business from 20% of
your customers, and you'll get 80% of all problems from 20% of your customers.
Figure out who is in the 20% of problem customers who isn't in the 20% of
profit customers, and fire them. Even better if you can refer them to your
competitors.

------
hammock
There is a POV baked into these suggestions that isn't called out. I would
retitle the article "10 ways to Weaken your tone of voice."

All of these are ways to make your voice less direct, less straightforward,
more deferent.

These can be good tools in your toolbox, but success in using them is entirely
context-dependent.

~~~
elhudy
If you are customer-facing then you are not necessarily in a position of
power. However, I've found success in getting the customer to listen and take
action based on my recommendations by mirroring the mentioned tone and vocab.
In this manner you essentially assume an indirect position of power without
offending the customer.

I think the author is writing from this context.

------
stcredzero
The number of times I've been faced with condescending comments from
developers of mobile and web apps here and on reddit is pretty amazing to me.
The presumption of cluelessness on the part of most developers faced with any
kind of non-praise feedback is stark and amazing. I can understand why it
exists -- since the degree of cluelessness out there is quite amazing -- but
it's pretty much anathema to anything in good customer service.

 _Could you just_

Sorry, but that phrase is _not_ necessarily softer. It can also be quite
harsh!

~~~
jumelles
> Could you just

Yeah, that's a really bad example - the "just" adds a tone of impatience.

------
briandear
What this article misses is adapting diction to the customer (at least in non
offensive ways.) For example, in my business I deal with a lot of mental
health professionals that tend to use a lot more bigger words. I match my word
choices to their own diction and tone, “educated collegues conversing.” While
when I am dealing with therapy clients, it’s more variable: For a customer
that uses words common in the South (such as y’all,) I will flow with that,
for European customers, I become more clear and deliberate with my word
choices, as an example. Having been a long term expat, that ability to adapt
English diction to the audience has been invaluable — just don’t be
patronizing or rude obviously. Just match the other person and stay within
their vocabulary and diction comfort level. That’s very powerful and it works.

------
fareesh
Most of my irritation with customer service here in India arises out of pure
and unbridled stupidity, or dishonesty, particularly with some notorious
companies.

I remember a few years ago I wanted to cancel my internet connection and the
agent argued that I had a bill due, which I hadn't paid because I was told I
didn't need to pay until their services were restored (their fiber was damaged
for several months).

Eventually I said I didn't want to cancel, but I wanted to know the status of
my complaint, which I had filed a few months prior when the fiber was damaged.
The agent said that there was a record of me confirming that my connectivity
had been restored (an obvious lie or fabrication).

Then I said I wanted to issue a new complaint that my connection wasn't
working.

At this point, almost seamlessly I was told that my area had no connectivity
due to a fiber cable that was damaged a few months ago.

That is around the time when I become irate, at which point I was begrudgingly
told that payment was not needed.

~~~
dingo_bat
My experience with Airtel has been that a well-written and firm email
describing my intention for a complaint is very effective. Also a simple "I
will not pay for your service if you don't resolve this" gets you very far
with customer service.

I'm waiting for the rumored Jio fiber thing to fuck up Airtel's business, just
like they did with the mobile services.

------
jscholes
The article raises some good points, but it's worth considering that even if
you take note of everything written here and everything ever written about
striking the right tone of voice as a customer service agent, you may still
end up sounding patronising, repetitive or dismissive. Because your
communication will often be surrounded by some wider context. Consumer
services aimed at less technical customers are well-known for this sort of
thing - addressed them by name? Check. Sprinkled in some positive words?
Check. But none of that matters if you've gotten their name wrong or are
replying in exactly the same tone to every customer in a public forum. Your
attempts at improving communications just end up making people frustrated.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Know. Your. Audience.

It's amazing how often people forget this detail.

------
rbankston
As someone working in a customer facing role for a lot of my tech career, most
of it is sound advice. The one missing item that isn't is deescalating urgent
situations by not assigning blame during the interaction.

------
Theodores
Realistically customer service is done by a team rather than one individual
and the members of that team will vary in ability. Tactics are therefore
needed to get the company tone of voice right regardless of who is on the
phones and tickets on a given day.

Customer service need support too. If a customer service team is well
supported and not considered lowest of the low within the company then they
will naturally project a more confident and enthusiastic tone than if they are
not supported, not considered worthy and seemingly at a never ending queue of
work that can never be done to their own or the customers satisfaction.

How to achieve this? A high level of automation helps. A contact us page that
has relevant boxes is a good start, if you know that they will need something
sent to them in the post or proof of purchase details then you can ask for
that up front and have an automated response that puts their ticket on hold
emailing them for missing details. These emails can be in a template where the
tone of voice is well considered and polite, not the text speak of a busy
customer service agent.

Reducing time on the phone is also important, if you need to send a code to
someone, e.g. a coupon code for goodwill reasons, then you can make that code
a simple mix of letters and numbers that take less time to dictate over the
phone, unambiguous (no '1's, 'l's) and you can also embed a digit that the
customer service can easily check for validity. 'A23S45J' will be easier to
dictate than 'XJWR-TYWE-RE3T-TTT3', taking a lot less than half the time.
Furthermore, the 'A' in 'A23S45J' could be the code for January and 'S' \+ 'J'
could be the initials of that particular customer service agent, so, in
aggregate you know who in the team is giving out the freebees (or converting
angry customers into happy ones).

Supporting the customer service team also requires having good answers, so if
you have a duff product and lots of people complaining about it then you don't
want to have the customer service team taking the customer side and 'going
rogue' against the company in off-piste ways. Or, on the flipside, having the
customer service team getting angry with the customers in this unsolvable
situation.

There also needs to be useful metrics, 'quality circles' to make sure that new
areas of complaint can be solved in a structured manner and also some
mechanism for feedback from the support desk to other company departments,
e.g. design. It is no good if the guys in design take six months to learn of a
new product flaw.

The more you can get the customer service team to feel that they are winning
and are valued then the more confident and enthusiastic they will be. This
tone will naturally be projected to customers and, if you get that right then
there is no reason for a formerly angry customer to not right a rave review,
to become a fan of the product and for their online review to be valued to the
customer service team as well as to other potential customers.

As for using the customer's name, if a customer service agent is on top of
their game, i.e. enthusiastic and confident rather than overwhelmed, then they
will be far more inclined to develop a personal 'bond' with the customer to
solve their problem and use their name as a matter of course. It should be a
pleasure to pick up the phone in less than three rings for a customer service
agent rather than phones ringing off the hook with every call prefaced by fear
and dread.

If problems can't be solved then no amount of couched faux language and name
dropping will help the situation.

~~~
fmfamaral
Wow, that's almost another article on itself. Great inputs!

------
dredmorbius
Solve. My. Fucking. Problem. Now.

I bought your product or service. Possibly out of choice. Very likely not.
It's failed. That's on you. It's often failed multiple times / repeatedly.

Don't waste my time. Don't patronise me. And fix the fucking problem.

~~~
dingo_bat
Sometimes the customer is wrong and it's not an issue with the service. And
sometimes the customer is rude. I won't expect any human being to accept rude
behavior from anybody.

~~~
dredmorbius
Organisations are often _systemically rude_ , whether by evolution or design.
This is not occult knowledge.

And not all organisations are bad at customer support. I'm also aware that
solutions aren't always immediately forthcoming. But it should be possible to
move toward resolution on a continuous track, respecting the customer's tiime,
intelligence (if indicated), and humanity.

Endless holds, bureaucratic busywork, front-line incompetence, inability to
retain state on aan issue, etc., are all failures.

Counterexamples: Apple will schedule support calls or call back rather than
keep customers on hold. Various no-hasssle return or exchange policies reduce
customer risk or aapprehension. I frequently find far more competence among
field techs than phone support, even in notorious areas such as residential /
SOHO telecoms, as the techs directly interface with both equipment and
customers. I've known enterprise software and hardware vendors who go all-out
in ensuring customer satisfaction (though you frequently pay up front for
this).

Invert these instances, and you'll find what I was calling out above.

And very little of the competence has to do with voice-honing. _It comes from
knowing how to do the fucking job and being authorised and expected to do just
that._

It means training, retaining, equipping, respecting, and rewarding support
staff for doing just this.

And not resorting to cheap, manipulative, ineffective, gimmicks.

