Writing a great support email: tone
Don't look at me with that tone of voice
This is the third part of a series on writing great support emails. Part 1 covered the content of the email, in Part 2 we talked about structure, and this one is about the overall email tone.
This is the trickiest one to talk about, and also the most difficult to do consistently. When you’re interacting with a customer you always need to keep a few things in mind:
- Who am I talking to?
- What information am I trying to convey?
- What persona or mood am I trying to project?
The first two questions were pretty much covered when we discussed the actual content of the email, so I won’t belabor them again here. The last one, though, is where things get sticky. When you’re interacting with a customer, you’re representing your company and its values as much as you are conveying technical information. What impression are you giving your customer by the words and phrases you choose?
At the same time, keep in mind that you’re also trying to achieve a specific goal: resolving the customer’s issue to your and their satisfaction. You’ll find it much easier going if you’re able to motivate them to help, and choosing the right tone is a large part of that. Always keep in mind the following when writing or proofreading your email:
- Am I representing my company well?
- Am I coming across as friendly and competent, or grouchy and unhelpful?
- If I received this email would I want to do the things I’m being asked to do? If not, how can I further explain my request?
Personas
Before even hiring their first support engineer, the founders of one company I worked at determined that they wanted to project a certain persona when interacting with the customer. Consultative, friendly, reliable, and empathetic were words used to describe this persona, and they even gave it a name: Kelly (name changed to protect the innocent support persona). We talk about Kelly during onboarding, not only for support engineers but for everyone in the company, when discussing how our support team approaches solving customer issues. When interacting with customers, we think about Kelly, and remember that she’s got a skeptical, step-by-step mindset. She’s trustworthy and discreet when dealing with sticky issues. And above all she is always aware she’s dealing with real people, not just tickets to be closed. Be like Kelly.
It may sound a little silly, but it’s a great way to help folks, especially those who are new to the team, internalize the values that we want to embody when working with customers.
An example
Consider these two email fragments.
Go to the settings page, find where it says ‘Login settings’, and make sure that ‘Enable SSO’ is turned on. That will fix it.
It sounds like you might not have SSO enabled; that would cause the error you’re seeing. You can take care of that by going to the settings page and looking for ‘Login settings’. Under there you’ll find a checkbox for ‘Enable SSO’ - if it’s turned off, turn it on. Then try again and see if that takes care of your issue! Please let me know the result so we can troubleshoot further if needed.
Which one do you think will more effectively get your customer to do the things you’re asking them to? It only takes a few more moments to write the longer, friendlier version, but it’s a lot nicer to read and will go a long way to getting the desired result. Once you’re done with your email, look it over to see if there are places you can soften requests, add a bit of empathy, and explain context more thoroughly.
Before you send
Once you’re satisfied with the content, structure, and tone of your email, don’t click that send button immediately! I can’t emphasize this enough: read your email through, end to end, before sending it. It’s so easy to miss a word, or misplace a modifier, or have a copy/paste error that renders your entire message nonsensical. Do one last pass through to make sure it’s clear, understandable, and includes all of the information you need to convey. This will save a lot of pain down the road.
Next time: style. Not the same thing as tone!
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