IM'ing (Instant Messaging) Feature Story Series
Featurecast Story 1 - Canned Messages
Have you been Canned yet?
Do you ever get tired of typing out the same responses again and again, all day long? Especially for your customer support teams. Canned messages, also known as "canned responses" or "saved replies," have been a game-changer in the life of many support agents.
If you're unfamiliar with canned messages, this article is for you.
A canned message is a crucial tool for improving your team's response rate, particularly when customer service agents are responding to repetitive questions on multiple channels.
Why should you usemessages for customer support?
Easy to implement
A common goal across all business types, whether small, big, start-up, lean or enterprise, is improving customer engagement solutions. By implementing canned messages, you can streamline costs and assist your customers with simple and easy-to-understated responses.
Provides a personal touch
Do you feel like a robot every time you send a canned message? If the answer is yes, you might consider incorporating some dynamically stored values to make your templated messages more personalized and customer friendly.
For example, you could set up something like this:
Canned message #1
Canned message #2
These examples may sound very basic, but only some companies can do so. You can even go further by using the company's name and other custom data that helps your team form a connection with customers.
Skillfully organize with labels (#tags)
Enter relevant tags and associate them with the canned messages you create. You can associate multiple tags with a single message. This makes your messages easier to locate and send.
For example, you could use tags, like:
Building canned responses has clear benefits for your team; we have established this so far, but it might become a big mess if you create an extensive library of templated answers, but keeping them organized can take time and effort. A simple solution is categorizing your saved replies.
• Welcome message
• Feedback
• Discount
• Competitors
• Product
Now that you know what canned messages are and how you can build and customize them, it's time to begin!
Still wondering if you need canned messages?
Are you still deciding whether you need this feature for your company? Here are some reasons you should get started with canned responses right now.
Responsiveness
Using canned messages will make your teams much more responsive, especially when dealing with simple and straightforward requests.
Peace of mind
Ensure your brand's identity and voice are reflected by every agent response. Canned responses make your team confident about the quality, accuracy, and tone of their messages.
Interoperability
Canned messages can be reused at will across channels. You can benefit from this feature by using all the media connected to your shared inbox. You can also edit the display picture, description, and more for all default categories created for departments.
I hope you find this article helpful and that you use this feature to make your work life simpler with canned messages.
Be sure to watch this space for upcoming IM feature stories—there's plenty more to come!
Until next time,
Kavya Rao
The Zoho Desk team