Imagine this: 100% of your customers would appreciate getting quick answers to their questions, right? 

But surprisingly, only a small number of businesses actually get this and take action. Here's a helpful tip: Responding to your customers instantly when they're actively thinking about your product can really help you retain and convert them. However, there are some challenges we all face, like the time it takes to write detailed messages or the frustration it causes for both the customer and the agent. And let's be honest, no one likes writing the same message multiple times, especially when it comes to personalized responses that need a bit of tweaking before sending. 

But don't worry, this isn't a new issue, and there's a standard solution in the customer support industry-canned messages. Instead of writing the same thing every time, you can use pre-made responses. And to make it even easier, we've got some ready-to-use canned messages for you, so you don't have to create them from scratch.

What are Canned Messages?

Canned Messages are pre-made answers to frequently asked questions that you can quickly access while chatting with your customers. These pre-written replies, stored in the system just like well-preserved canned goods, can save you a ton of time and effort while ensuring that your responses are consistent and accurate.

Advantages of using canned messages

• Scalability:

As your business expands, the number of support inquiries will increase. To maintain a high level of customer service, it's important to scale up your team. But canned messages can make it easier for a smaller support team to handle a larger workload by speeding up the response process.

• Agent productivity:

Agents can save a lot of time by using canned messages. This allows them to attend to more customers in a shorter period of time.

• Faster resolutions:

Canned messages can really help speed up the process of resolving queries. This leads to higher customer satisfaction, which can improve retention and revenue.

• Consistency:

If you want to communicate with your customers in a consistent way, canned messages are a great way to create scripts for all agents to follow.

• Quality control:

Maintaining high standards of communication with customers is important for retaining them and keeping a good brand image. This includes the tone and language you use, the level of grammatical accuracy, and the calmness in your interactions with customers. Canned messages can help ensure that everyone in your organization practices these standards consistently.

Using AI Assist to enhance your messages:

While support procedures may be standard, every conversation is unique. That's why there's always an opportunity to send a more relevant and personalized message.

We recently introduced AI Assist in webchat and inbox conversation to help you do just that. It improves your messages based on tone, making them more engaging and relevant. When combined with canned messages, AI Assist completes the process of crafting, reviewing, and refining your messages before you send them.

Tips for finding the best canned messages for your team:

Here are some helpful tips to get you started.

• Keep track of your frequently asked questions:

To find the canned messages that work best for your team, it's important to identify the questions you receive the most often. Once you know which questions are most common, you can take your time to craft the best possible responses and save them in the system for everyone on your team to use.

• Understanding your customer's needs:

Just offering chicken wings to a hungry customer isn't always the best solution. You need to ask if they're vegetarian or not. The lesson here is that using templated responses without understanding the customer's intent won't work very well.

So, before blindly using canned messages, ask follow-up questions to find out what the customer really wants or needs. And hey, you can even save a canned message for that! We have a category called "Ask for more information" in our knowledge base.

• Focus on quality, not quantity:

While it's impossible to personally cater to every customer in a large team, try to make an effort to help each one as best as you can. Use canned messages as a helpful tool, but don't rely on them for complete, scripted chats. Instead, focus on genuinely helping customers with their unique situations and making them successful.

• Allow for improvisations:

While scripts are a great tool for scaling up operations, your agents will also encounter situations that aren't covered in the scripts. It's important to make room for improvisations and be honest with customers. Creating a knowledge base for your agents can also be helpful in these situations.