Customer service response templates can help streamline customer service operations by providing standard responses. These customer service templates can be used for a variety of purposes and scenarios, including welcoming customers, responding to inquiries, closing a conversation, asking for a review and more. Read on to find out how templates for customer service can improve the way your business communicates with customers.
What are Customer Service Response Templates
A customer service response template is a pre-written message that can be used to quickly and efficiently respond to common customer inquiries.
Typing the same answers repeatedly wastes time, while copying and pasting can be tedious as you require multiple windows or references open, which is even more troublesome on mobile.
Templates allow agents to spend less time with greeting customers and responding to generic inquiries or FAQs. They can then use the time saved to tackle more difficult issues or handle multiple customers simultaneously.
Customer service response templates ensure consistent information and brand voice since messages can be vetted beforehand. This gives customers a uniform experience with your business regardless of which agent they are assigned or platform they use to contact you.
Depending on the goal, customer service templates can be used in a variety of ways. For example, send welcome messages to customers who contact your business through an ad and use away messages to let customers know when agents are not available.
You can also use templates to close conversations, ask for reviews, provide FAQs, and more. Now that you know what customer service templates can be used for, which messaging apps are best for sending them?
Best Messaging Apps for Sending Customer Service Response Templates
While there are many different instant messengers available around the world, it’s quite easy to pick the best one for your business to use. Your choices are narrowed down to channels there are popular among your target demographic and where your business operates.
Be it WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, the best messaging app to send customer service templates is the one that your customers use most. The goal is to communicate with your customers, and you won’t be able to do so unless you’re on the same channels.
If your customers use many different apps to communicate, consider sending your templates from customer conversation management software that supports multiple channels, like respond.io.
Each channel supports different messaging abilities, such as embedding videos, links, buttons and more. But since the bulk of template messages consist of text, which is something all channels support, this blog will focus on them.
Let’s go over some of the best practices for writing customer service response templates.
Best Practices for Creating Customer Service Response Templates
There are no hard and fast rules for setting up customer service response templates, but here are some things to consider.
Since customers will be receiving these messages on instant messaging apps, take advantage of that and use a conversational tone. Don’t write instant messages like they’re emails. Keep your messages polite, short and to the point.
Create easy-to-customize templates because they will be sent to different people. This way, you can easily include customers’ names or other relevant details to make the messages feel more personal.
Avoid using jargon that your customers might not know. If your messages are clear and easy to understand, you won’t have to spend extra time explaining them to your customers.
Test and refine your messages for the best results. If you find that certain messages aren’t answering inquiries or getting the point across, tweak them until they do.
Make sure to include a call-to-action (CTA) where appropriate. If you want your customers to take action after reading your messages, make it clear.
In the next section, we’ll share some examples of customer service response templates.
20 Examples of Customer Service Response Templates
Here are some examples of customer service templates for you to copy or use as inspiration for your own messages. Feel free to tweak or modify them to make them suitable for your business.
Customer Service Response Templates: Greet Your Customers
Templates for customer service reduce the amount of time you spend greeting and saying goodbye to customers, letting you spend more time on actual conversations instead.
Here are some greetings you can use:
1. “👋 Hi! Thanks for reaching out to [business name]. I am [agent name], how can I help you?”
2. “👋 Good [morning/afternoon/evening], how can I assist you today?”
Delayed Response Message
Use these messages if you can’t reply to your customers immediately.
1. “Hi, [customer name], thank you for your message. We are currently away for the holidays until [date]. We will be in touch once we get back.”
2. “👋 Thank you for your message. We are currently away for the long weekend. We’ll get back to you as soon as we return on Monday.”
Inform Customers of Your Business Hours
These templates are handy for quickly informing your customers about your business hours or alternate communication channels for urgent matters.
1. “📆 We are open from Monday to Saturday (including public holidays), 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.”
2. “Thank you for your message. Unfortunately, we are closed today. Our offices are open from Sunday to Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. If you have urgent inquiries, please get in touch with our 🚨 emergency hotline at: [number]”
Customer Service Templates: Answer Frequently Asked Questions
Customer service response templates are perfect for answering frequently asked questions. Your agents will be able to use these canned messages to quickly reply to those questions.
You can provide complete answers to the FAQs in the quick reply itself or link customers to external sources for additional details.
1. “📍 Our headquarters is located at [address]”
2. “Respond.io supports multiple channels like WhatsApp, Telegram and Facebook Messenger. Check out the full list of supported channels here: [link]”
Schedule Appointments
Customer service response templates can also be used to schedule appointments with your customers.
1. “🗓️ We are happy to set an appointment with you! Please reply with your preferred date and time or select it from our calendar: [link]”
2. “Hi, [contact name], thank you for reaching out. We would like to speak to you over the phone to discuss the issue further. Please reply with your preferred date and time and our agent will be in touch.”
Send Order Tracking Messages
A template message where you can quickly input the order tracking link is also handy for customers who want to know where their orders are.
1. “Your order can be tracked here: [link]. If you have any issues regarding the delivery, please call our 24-hour hotline at: [number]”
2. “Your order is on its way! If you’d like to track its location in real time, please visit: [link]”
Return and Refund Policies
Ensure that all your customers get the same message about your return policies to avoid any potential headaches from miscommunication.
1. “✅ You can cancel your plan at any time, without additional charges. Simply get in touch with us and let us know you wish to do so.”
2. “We have a no questions asked, full-refund policy ✅ Ship it back to us in the original packaging within 14 days of delivery and you’ll get your money back. For more information, check out our return policy here: [link]”
Templates for Customer Service: Address Technical Issues
Nobody likes being left in the dark regarding urgent or inconvenient matters. Use customer service response templates to keep customers updated on any technical issues you might be facing.
Here are some examples of quick reply messages for technical issue updates:
1. “⚠️ Our platform is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance and will be operational by 8:00 a.m on Tuesday, 07/02/2023. We apologize for any inconvenience caused 🙇”
2. “💥 Oops! Our servers are currently facing some technical difficulties. We are already working on the issue and hope to be up and running in the next 12 hours. We apologize for any inconvenience caused!”
Product Stock Update
Customer service response templates are also great for updating customers about product stock.
1. “Thank you for reaching out. [Product name] will be back in stock next week. To reserve a unit, visit our online store: [link].”
2. “Hi [customer name], [product name] is currently in stock. Would you like to place an order?”
Ask Satisfied Customers for a Review
One way to learn if your customers are happy with your service is to remind them to leave your business a review after you’ve handled their inquiries.
1. “🙏 We hope all your issues have been resolved! If you have any comments about your customer experience, please leave us a review at [link]. We look forward to serving you again.”
2. “Thank you for contacting [business name]. If you have a minute, please leave a review of your experience with us at [link]. We appreciate and go through all feedback submitted 🙂”
Customer service response templates improve and speed up the process of answering your customers, but if your business is having trouble keeping up with the volume of incoming messages, consider using customer conversation management software like respond.io
Repond.io allows you to save dozens of customer service quick responses or even automate responses in its powerful Workflows module. This frees up your agents' time, allowing them to focus on unusual or complex inquiries.
Respond.io also supports multiple channels, so you’ll be able to message all your customers on different apps without switching messaging platforms. Reuse the same templates across all channels without rewriting them.
Interested? Sign up for a free trial today!
Further Reading
If you found this article informative, here are some other posts that might be useful to you:
- How to Send an Away Message for Business
- What is CSAT? The Customer Satisfaction Process Guide
- Chat Automation: How To Get Started
