Survey: Optimizing Tone for Email Customer Support

To help CSS agents understand when to use a friendly, casual tone and when to keep things serious and formal, Software Advice conducted an online survey examining what kind of tone people prefer in various email-support situations. We collected data data to address the following questions:

• What are customers’ general preferences as to tone in email customer service?

• To what degree would a CSS agent’s using the wrong tone at the wrong time (e.g., casual language in a sensitive situation) damage customer satisfaction?

• Are there are specific textual elements (e.g., emoticons) that most customers almost always find inappropriately casual or formal in email customer service?

Abstract

Most Customers Generally Prefer a Casual Tone

Of those who indicated a preference, 65 percent of respondents preferred a casual tone in email support correspondence, with 35 percent preferring a formal tone.

35%

65%

CasualFormal

Impact of Support Agent’s Tone on Customer Satisfaction

78 percent said agents’ using a casual tone when denying them a request would have at least some negative impact on their customer satisfaction.

22%

78%

Tone impacts satisfactionTone has no impact on satisfaction

65%

35%

Granting Request with Formal Tone

Denying Request with Casual Tone

Degree to Which Support Agent’s Tone Impacts Satisfaction

Of those impacted, most (78 percent) said that they would be at least “moderately less satisfied” if a CSS agent used a casual tone when denying a request.

Percent of sample

Denying request with casual tone

Granting request with formal tone

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Much less satisfied Moderately less satisfied Slightly less satisfied

Elements Customers Find Too Casual for Support Emails

A significant number of respondents (35 percent) found the use of emoticons, such as smiley faces, to be too informal for email customer support.

Emoticons

Very colloquial words

Exclamation points

None of the above

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Percent of sample

Elements Customers Found Too Formal for Support Emails

Sixty-seven percent said they didn’t find any of the given options to be intrinsically too formal, with fewer than 20 percent disapproving of any single textual element.

Formal greetings and sign-offs

Courtesy titles

Not using contractions

None of the above

0% 15% 30% 45% 60% 75%

Percent of sample

Software Advice™ is a trusted resource for software buyers. The company's website, www.softwareadvice.com, provides detailed reviews, comparisons and research to help organizations choose the right software. Meanwhile, the company’s team of software analysts provide free telephone consultations to help each software buyer identify systems that best fit their needs. In the process, Software Advice connects software buyers and sellers, generating high-quality opportunities for software vendors.

@SoftwareAdvice /company/software-advice

@SoftwareAdvice/SoftwareAdvice

Read about our findings in more detail.Read Report