Live chats start fast but often require follow up emails to resolve. That follow up doesn’t have to be so fast. It can happen tomorrow.
This is easy to overlook. Chats ping-ping-ping and create this latent pressure to follow up rightnow. Many issues aren’t time-sensitive, though, and good follow up can take time. You shifted to email to create that time, so it’s best to avoid adopting a false sense of urgency.
It helps to create space for follow up emails by blocking out time in each day’s schedule. This helps you stay in the flow during chat shifts. It also creates a simple decision point: Do you have time blocked out later in today’s calendar for follow up? If so, you may be able to follow up later today. If not, tell the customer that they’ll hear from you tomorrow.
When you set aside space for follow ups you give yourself room to breathe. Live chat shifts will no longer, one follow up email after another, steadily eat into the surrounding hours. Instead you’ll have time to focus and make sure you see the entirety of a customer’s journey.
Some customers inevitably won’t like this. And you shouldn’t delay just for the sake of moving slow. But when a slower pace is required it helps to give the customer some homework. There’s likely more than one task they were working on, especially if your product involves building something. Gather pointers and suggested next steps for them to work on while you and the team figure out how to resolve their earlier issue.
The next time you have a live chat that needs to shift to email, pause. Don’t instinctively commit to fast follow up. Instead, ask yourself if it’s required or whether a slower pace is best.