The 5 communication styles customer service agents need to know

When communicating with customers over the phone, you must be good at thinking on your feet to form an appropriate response. Knee-jerk reactions and angry replies will only make things worse. Here are a few customer service communication tips on how to speak assertively during a phone conversation:

• Remain calm and confident. It can be challenging to keep a cool head, especially when responding to angry and manipulative customers. But using a call script to guide your responses will go a long way in de-escalating tense situations.
• Don’t take negative comments personally. Always remember that an angry customer’s reaction has less to do with you and more to do with their current emotional state. Stay solution-orientated and positive, no matter what the customer says to you.
• Practice active listening. Show customers you’re truly paying attention by saying their words back to them. To ensure you understand what they need, ask questions to clarify details. This is particularly important when speaking to passive communicators.

Communicating assertively via live chat requires strong writing skills. Author Leslie O’Flahavan provides some advice on how support agents can improve their writing in Clear, Correct, Concise Email: A Writing Workbook for Customer Service Agents.

• Develop probing skills. This means you must ask deep questions to get to the heart of what the customer needs. Although probing may entail some of the back and forth that usually occurs in online exchanges, you’ll be able to better understand and help the customer. Probing is a great way to get passive communicators to say more, too.
• Use quick and agile responses. According to O’Flahavan, the best chat writers are “fast, brief and good”. You have to communicate a lot in just a few sentences. Focus on relaying the most important details and cut out any superfluous words and unnecessary information.

An email can easily come off as cold if the sender hasn’t framed the message thoughtfully. Empathise with your recipient and choose clear, compelling language to write an email that makes the customer feel understood and valued. Sending a prompt response can also go a long way in soothing an angry customer.

• Understand their pain points. Before responding, put yourself in the customer’s shoes and try to see the situation from their perspective. A passive or passive-aggressive customer, for instance, might struggle to articulate their concerns clearly in words. So, you might need to read between the lines to understand the underlying issues that they didn’t specify.
• Acknowledge the problem. In your reply, it’s important to address the pain point and then apologise if necessary. After this, move on to finding the customer a solution.
• Use an appropriate subject line. Writing the subject line in all caps or using negative words might seem aggressive to the customer. Keep it professional, short and unique to the customer.

All customer interactions on social media have to be handled with extra care because the conversations are usually public. Without deft customer service communication skills, one wrong move can spiral into a social media firestorm. Protect your brand’s reputation by following these tips:

• Take the high road. You should never mirror the tone of angry customers who complain about bad service on social media – it’s a losing battle. “The business is never the perceived victor, even if they were truly in the right,” says Jay Baer, a social media expert. Always respond with empathy and do what you can to make things right with the customer.
• Follow the ‘Two-Reply Rule’. Baer also says support agents shouldn’t respond more than twice to a customer in one exchange. This prevents conversations from escalating. While you want to acknowledge a customer’s problem, it doesn’t mean you should put up with unrealistic demands or rude replies.
• Move the conversation offline. If you can’t resolve an issue out in the open, take the conversation offline and reach out to the customer privately. Because switching channels can be tricky, Baer suggests sending a private message on the initial contact channel.

Unlike communicating online, using your customer service communication skills assertively with customers in person requires you to convey confidence through both non-verbal and verbal cues.

• Avoid slouching. When speaking to customers, stand or sit up straight. Looking away can make you seem uncertain and unreliable, so maintain eye contact during conversations, too.
• Adopt the right tone of voice. You don’t want to speak softly and sound timid, but you also don’t want to talk too loudly and sound harsh. Keep your voice at an even level and express yourself with confidence.
• Listen to their complaints without interrupting. When interacting with passive communicators, make sure to ask more questions so you can get to the root of their problem.
• Stay patient and calm. Always keep your feelings in check, especially when speaking with more expressive customers – namely manipulative, aggressive and passive-aggressive communicators. If the situation with an angry customer escalates despite your best efforts, make sure to involve your manager.

Standing up for yourself and setting boundaries in the workplace might be uncomfortable, but this is an important part of assertive communication. The key is keeping your emotions in check during thorny in-person conversations.

• Communicate clearly and directly. When confronting a coworker, calmly point out what actions offend you or make you uncomfortable. Trust in yourself and speak confidently. Strive to remain solution-oriented, positive and sensitive to the other person’s point of view.
• Avoid hedging sentences. Don’t sugarcoat or soften things; instead, say “will” instead of “could” or “should” to make your statement more powerful.
• Say no to ineffective tasks that take up valuable time. Pushing back might seem rude, but it is sometimes necessary in order to avoid burnout and getting taken advantage of. Politely express why you’re unable to take on a task or project, making sure to use “I” statements.

Working remotely can present major challenges, particularly when it comes to communication. While working outside of the office, it’s easier for passive-aggressive and manipulative communicators to include negative and harmful comments in an email or Slack message. Aggressive colleagues tend to dominate Zoom meetings, making it harder for passive communicators to contribute to discussions.

So, how do you handle these different styles while communicating virtually?

• Watch out for hedging language in your writing. The majority of remote communication is written, so you have to use clear confident sentences when expressing your opinions over email or Slack (while still remaining polite, of course).
• Speak up. It’s easy to disappear into the sea of faces on a Zoom call, so try to stay visible by contributing to the discussion. Just make sure not to interrupt or speak over others – wait for your turn. When speaking, firmly state your opinion and look directly into the camera.
• Encourage balanced conversations. Especially if you manage a remote team, set clear expectations for online behaviour and communication. During meetings, make sure you encourage everyone to participate. Aggressive communicators will most likely be the loudest voices, so you need to ask for contributions from all team members when possible. Asking open-ended questions will also go a long way in getting passive and passive-aggressive communicators to speak their minds.