11 Customer Service Phrases To Use To Delight Your Customers

Quite simply? Because good customer service equals happy customers. Happy customers buy more, and refer their friends and family. Those people will do the same, until you have a sustainable, self-generating audience of engaged, involved customers.

All because you delivered high-quality customer service? Sounds good to us.

Great customer service plays a role in:

• Loyalty: Customer service is an important factor in a customer’s loyalty to a brand.
• Word of mouth marketing: Customers will share a positive customer service experience with people they know.
• Profitability: Customers will pay more for a better customer experience. So, it’s not just your reputation that excellent customer service can boost… but your bottom line, too!

Read our full guide and learn how to deliver great online customer service.

There’s a lot you can (and should) say while handling a customer service enquiry.

For those strapped for ideas, though (or time!), here’s our quick ‘cheat sheet’ with 11 ready-made phrases to help you satisfy your customers, and deliver world-beating online customer service.

When you’re speaking with a customer – a complete stranger, remember – it can often be easy to neglect common courtesies. And, if you’re communicating with your customer via a live chat tool (rather than a more personal medium, such as a phone call) it’s even easier to forget that you’re speaking to a real person.

That’s why a simple “Nice to meet you. How can I help?” is such an effective way of opening a conversation. It’s affable, it’s courteous, and it’s a perfect, personal (and perfectly personal) way to kickstart the conversation.

At this stage, your customer has already laid out the reason they’re seeking support.

However, there’s a good chance you’ll require some more information. That could be further details about their issue, or some personal data to verify their account or identity. Remember, levels of literacy and an ability to articulate the problem will vary among your customers – so you might need extra clarification to understand the case.

At this stage, the customer service phrase “Could you provide a few more details, please?” is a handy one to solicit more info. Be sure, however, to substitute “a few” for a more exact explanation of the details you need.

When a customer gets in touch with a question, you won’t always know the answer. So, responding with “Great question! Let me find that out for you” recognises the validity of the customer’s question, and buys you a little more time while you dig out an answer on your end.

Plus, it’s far better than simply replying with “Sorry, I don’t know”, or “I’ve never been asked that before.” (Or, more cheekily: “It’s my first day!”)

Much like “Great question!”, the customer service phrase “Thanks for bringing this to our attention” validates the consumer’s question.

It recognises the worth and legitimacy of the question. And it reinforces to the customer that it’s a reasonable question to ask – reassuring them that they’re not wasting your time with something silly.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes for a second. What’s the first thing you’re thinking when you hear the phrase “we can definitely help with this” ring out through the other side of the phone?

Our bet is phew – what a relief!

When a customer gets in touch, they’ll always harbor at least some implicit fear that you won’t be able to help. These simple six words will assuage that doubt instantly, and set the conversation to follow up for success.

Sometimes, delivering good customer service means delivering bad news.

Here’s where the words “While we can’t do that, here’s what we can do” come in handy. This customer service phrase is useful because it does two things well. It:

• Informs the customer that you can’t do something
• Tells the customer what you can do – thereby alleviating any potential frustration or disappointment the first part of the sentence might cause

Instead of nursing resentment that you can’t action the entirety of their request, the customer’s left with an optimism that what you can do, you will.

When seeking support, customers can often find themselves bounced from one customer service agent to the next. This is irritating for all the obvious reasons, but most prominently because – when paired with yet another new agent – all the context from the previous interaction evaporates.

Here’s where this – one of the most excellent customer service phrases you’ll come across – comes in handy.

A simple “I’ve taken a look through the conversation so far” lets the customer know you’ve come to the party armed with the full context of their issue. And, ergo, an understanding of exactly what the problem they’re looking to solve is.

It’s reassuring, it’s soothing, it’s… good customer service!

Let’s face it – waiting to speak or hear back from a customer service agent isn’t fun. At worst, it’s boring. At best, it can be downright frustrating. (Infuriating, even!)

Wait times vary across industries and companies. Depending on how diligent your business is at jumping onto support requests or service enquiries, your customer may have been on hold from three seconds to three hours. And, hopefully it’s the former!

Regardless of this, though, they’ll still have been waiting some time. So a little thanks for that time won’t go unappreciated.

Deploying this – one of the most empathetic phrases for customer service – demonstrates that you genuinely care about the time, effort, and interest your customer has taken to get in touch with you.

Which, of course, you should. If the customer had kept quiet about the issue (as it may well have been easier to do), you might’ve never known it existed at all. And then you end up facing further requests for support in the future for something you could have identified and fixed much earlier.

You appreciate them getting in touch. So tell them that!

This two-parted online customer service phrase works, unsurprisingly, on a couple of levels.

The first part – ”Feel free to reach out again” – encourages the customer that you have an open-door policy. And that, should they need to get back in touch about this issue (or a separate one), their support request will be welcomed, rather than shunned.

The second part – ”Our hours are…” is the icing on the cake. It lets your customers know exactly when your team will be online, reassuring them that, if they get in touch in that window, there will always be someone there to handle their enquiry. It also sends the message that you value your customers’ time – you don’t want them to be waiting in vain.

A little gratitude goes a long way. So before you sign off, don’t skimp on the thanks!

This is also the ideal time to ask your customer if they’re satisfied, and to leave a review of your business.

There you have it: 11 of the best customer service phrases to reassure, encourage, and thank your customers.

One thing to remember, though? That words are still just words. To deliver truly excellent customer service, you’ll need to back these phrases up with action. To follow through on the promises, responding to any Google reviews and solve your customers’ issues with empathy, efficiency, and expedition.

Do this, and your customers won’t just leave the conversation happy and satisfied. They’ll come back to your business, and buy from it: again, again, and again!