We all have them: the notorious ‘bad day’.
Whatever the cause, sometimes it’s hard to put on a cheery persona. Even the most professional agent can find themselves falling foul of customer service bad days.
On bad days, it’s all too easy to accidentally come across as snarky or abrupt over the phone. This doesn’t make for great customer experiences.
But no matter the circumstance behind your bad day, you still need to offer prompt, personable customer service. This is where having a live chat channel proves invaluable.
So, on those bad days at the support desk, how can live chat software help your agents maintain their great service?
Customer service bad days: pass it on
Bad days are unavoidable. They’re part of being human.
The problem is, bad moods, when unchecked, are contagious.
Over the phone, agents having a customer service bad day must mask their tone of voice. They must measure their reactions and remain calm, even when nothing is going right.
If they slip for a second, they can impact both the customer experience and the workplace atmosphere.
For customers, an irritable agent reply is an invitation to anger. Most customers are already stressed or annoyed about having to get in touch. Feeling snapped at or like a burden doesn’t make for a good experience.
And so, the agent’s bad day gets passed on to the customer.
Customer service bad days can also infect colleagues. For example, an agent having a tough time might constantly complain or get tetchy with their team. This quickly becomes irritating and disruptive for others.
Once more, then, the bad day spreads. Other agents in the office take a mood hit, impacting the office atmosphere.
Live chat vs the customer service bad day
So, how can live chat prevent customer service bad days from spreading? First, there is the customer-facing side to consider.
Unlike phone support, live chat software doesn’t convey vocal cues. That’s one less element that can broadcast a bad day to customers.
Chat also enables agents to review their replies before the customer sees them. (Without, that is, losing the real-time attribute, as you might with email.)
This means that, as a result, it’s much easier for an agent to manage their tone of voice and reactions to customer messages.
Then, there are the live chat features that can further support agents on bad days. For example, canned responses and chat preview give an agent a quick way to reply, and extra time to consider their responses.
This means less pressure, more privacy for the troubled agent.
Other features like chat mood give agents a real-time indicator of customer sentiment. So, if their bad day messages are hurting, they can catch it and adapt before the bad day does damage.
Battling the bad day blues
Live chat software is also great for stopping the bad day blues from permeating the office.
For a start, live chat software can remove any service difficulties that might exacerbate the agent’s poor mood.
With features like distraction-free chat, for example, live chat makes focusing on the customer (not the bad day) easy. There’s no need to swap between channels, and no pesky settings to mess with.
So, there’s less for the agent to find frustrating. When it’s easy to solve customer problems, they may start to feel better.
Live chat software also facilitates teamwork. Whisper messages, chat transfers, and internal chat all give colleagues the ability to help each other. For the agent suffering the bad day, this creates a sense of support and teamwork that can lift them out of the bad day fog.
For other team members, meanwhile, helping to mitigate the bad day blues feels good. So, instead of customer service bad days harming the atmosphere, it’s lifted by teamwork.
Whisper messages 
Agent-to-agent chat
Lifting the fog
It’s okay to be in a bad mood sometimes. It’s not okay, however, to let that bad mood impact your customers or your team.
Live chat software is a great screen for your agents on their customer service bad days. It lets them do their job efficiently, without spreading the discord or making things any tougher than they already are.
So, could live chat software be the tool you need to combat customer service bad days? Give it a try, with a 30-day free trial of WhosOn.
Useful links
- - A live chat session: the perfect place to calm a storm in a teacup
- - The Mehrabian myth, non-verbal communication, and live chat software
- - Live chat software: the unsung hero in improving employee morale
- - A guide to tone-matching in live chat interactions
- - For all their training, your agents are only as good as their tech
- - The agent experience inside the contact centre