Dealing with customers every day can be rewarding, but it’s also tricky—and sometimes stressful. (Especially if you’re having to navigate unhappy customers. Not a fun time.) Fortunately, you don’t have to do it alone. Having some customer service scripts to fall back on when you need to respond to a situation quickly and strategically can help.
Why are scripts important in customer service?
When you’re working in a frontline customer service job, you’re regularly faced with different situations. Some customers have common questions that are easily resolved, but others—not so much.
You might regularly talk to customers that face long, drawn-out problems that require other members of your team to get involved, for example. And while some customers are real gems, others aren’t always patient or reasonable. So it’s important to prepare yourself to respond to any situation. And that’s where these 13 scripts for different situations can help you out.
13 customer service scripts for different situations
Use these 13 customer service scripts to quickly respond to customers in different situations.
Scripts for greeting customers
1. A simple, first-time greeting
“Hey {First Name}, how are you today? What can I help you with?”
2. For when a returning customer follows up
“Hi again, {First Name}, how are you? Are you still facing the same problem with {insert issue} as before?”
3. For when a customer has already shared their request/issue
Some live chat prompts let customers share their issues or requests before they initiate the chat with you. Other customers might mention their problem when they join the chat. In either case, you can greet them with a script like:
“Hey {First Name}, hope you’re having a great day. I can see that you’re reaching out about {insert particular issue}, I’ll look into that for you now.”
Scripts for asking customers to wait or hold
4. At the start of the conversation
Sometimes, when a customer first shares their request or problem, you’ll need to pull up additional information or look into it on your system. In this case, you can use a script like:
“Hey {First Name}, thanks for letting us know. I’ll need 2 to 3 minutes to look into this, please wait and I’ll get back to you soon. Thanks for your patience!”
5. When a customer prompts you for a response
Sometimes, customers can get a bit impatient while waiting for you to get back to them. In these instances, you could say:
“Hey {First Name}, apologies for the wait. I’m just trying to get more information pertaining to your (request/problem). Thanks a lot for your patience.”
Scripts for when you need more information
6. When you need specific details
“Can you please provide me with {required information}?”
7. When you need to learn more about the problem
“I understand that you’re facing a problem with {product/service}. Can you please tell me more about the problem and any steps you’ve taken to troubleshoot it so far?”
Scripts for when you need to involve other team members
Sometimes, resolving a customer’s request might be beyond your ability to manage alone. Here, you might need to link them to other team members.
8. When you can collect the information for them
Sometimes, you won’t need another team member to actively solve the problem. If you can get the information on behalf of the customer, you can use a script like:
“Thank you for sharing the details of your problem, {First Name}. I just need to check in with {other department/representative} about your specific request. I’ll get back to you in less than 5 minutes. Thanks for your patience.”
9. When you need to transfer them to another department
Can a specific department serve the customer’s request better? If so, this script should come in handy:
“Thank you for sharing your problem, {First Name}. The team at {department} is better equipped to resolve your issue, so I’m going to connect you with them now.”
10. When you need to get a senior representative involved
Do you need a more senior member of your team to intervene? Let the customer know with a script like:
“I will need to escalate your case to a more senior representative, who can provide you with the best resolution. Please wait until I connect you with them.”
How do you handle an angry customer in a script? (Scripts for dealing with angry customers)
Dealing with angry customers is always difficult, so it helps to have some prepared scripts on hand. You can use empathy statements to connect with them better, but if a customer starts being rude, you might want to check out these tips for dealing with rude customers.
Otherwise, here are some helpful scripts in customer service for dealing with angry customers:
10. When the root cause is unclear, but the customer is frustrated
“Hello {First Name}, I apologize for your poor experience. I understand how this situation must be frustrating for you, and I hope we can resolve it together. Can you please tell me more about the problem you’re facing so our team can work to resolve it quickly?”
11. For when the problem is clearly not the customer’s fault
Sometimes, customers encounter a legitimately frustrating experience with your product or service. At times like this, it’s best to own the problem and work to deliver a quick resolution. You may want to offer some sort of benefit, too.
“Hello {First Name}, I understand how frustrating this must be. You’re totally right—this shouldn’t have happened. I’ve escalated your case to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. Would you be willing to accept a {refund/discount/voucher} as compensation for the trouble you’ve experienced?”
Scripts for concluding the conversation
Ready to wrap things up? Make sure your customers are satisfied and that you part on good terms with the help of these scripts:
12. For when your team will follow up later
“Thank you for your cooperation and patience, {First Name}, our team really appreciates it. I’m really sorry that we couldn’t provide you with a quick resolution, but rest assured, your case has been escalated to our senior representatives. You’ll hear back from us with a resolution in 2 business days. In the meantime, is there anything else I can help you with?”
13. For when the problem is resolved
“Thank you so much for your cooperation and patience, {First Name}. Our team really appreciates it! I hope you have a great experience from here on out. Please let me know if you have any feedback to share.”
How do you write a customer service script?
A customer service script is just a template that you refer to when you’re interacting with customers. So, you can create scripts by:
- Analyzing your previous interactions: What problems or requests do your customers usually have? And how can you standardize your responses to these situations?
- Consulting a resource: Like the script examples we’ve shared above. 😉
- Asking a senior member of your team: If you need help preparing to deal with different situations, talking to a senior representative can give you some ideas for scripts. They might even have some scripts of their own to share.
By the way, you can save your customer service scripts with the Magical Chrome extension and use them whenever you need to. Magical is a collaborative, no-code text expander that works where you do. It lets you save text templates—like the scripts we’ve shared above—with personalized variables, such as {First Name}, {email}, etc.
Ready to get back to the front line?
It’s true that customer service is pretty hectic at times, but it’s also very rewarding. There’s nothing quite like swooping in to solve a customer’s problem and save them from a lot of frustration—or, even worse, from moving over to a competitor.
Plus, if you prepare yourself for different situations, interactions with customers become less stressful for both of you. You’ll be under less pressure to think on your feet, and they’ll get quicker responses. So it’s really worth putting together a list of customer service scripts that you can use every day.
