When frontline reps answer customer email or chat, they can build rapport with the same type of mirroring they use on the phone. “For example,” says Marvin Sadovsky, a leadership consultant, “if the customer’s email is brief and to the point, that’s what they will respond to most positively in a response. If they send a longer email, they will probably value a longer response.”
The purpose in mirroring the customer’s language and style is to show a “deep level of respect at the unconscious level, which will result in good feelings on the part of the customer” — the same thing you would want if you were talking to the customer over the phone.
More on replying to customer email appears in the September issue of Customer Communicator, the training newsletter for frontline reps.