Building trust among customers is easy when you do it face to face because of the connection you can make through your presence and gestures. It can also be a piece of cake when you use call center support services to form bonds, as the voice and tone of your agents are a great way to convey empathy and care.

Online customer service, however, can be a different story. Assisting people and persuading them to support your brand–using only your written words–can be quite a challenge. Even companies that have aced traditional marketing need to exert effort in building a name and reputation when they take their market engagement activities to the web. Just because their brands have quite a recall and positive impression offline doesn’t mean that they’d automatically earn their online following’s trust.

So how should businesses present themselves on popular platforms like email, live chat, and social media in a way that would make customers confident with the service they receive? Here are some ways:

1. Have a persona

You or your representatives should be able to give answers and assistance without making customers feel that they’re merely exchanging words with a faceless corporation.

Give your brand a personality that suits the image that your company upholds outside the Internet. So, if your slogan is something along the lines of “Happy to serve,” then happiness should likewise exude in the manner that you put your assistance into written text.

2. Talk their language

More than just speaking with an identity that is uniquely your brand, you should be able to talk (or at least understand) your market’s tongue. This means more than just offering services in the language that customers natively speak; you should have a good understanding of their communication trends so that you can relate to them or become relatable through your posts.

3. Make your platform easy to navigate

Just like customer service in the real world, communication should be clear and easy. Since hospitality can’t be physically shown, the communication platform should be the one to make customers feel accommodated. How? Through its responsiveness and ease of use. Make sure that the design of your website, FAQ page, mobile app, or messaging software is fully functional and easy to grasp, with important buttons and navigation tools easily accessible.

4. Be prompt

If there’s one thing that mainly brings people to web-based customer service, it’s efficiency and convenience. They want answers not just within the day nor within hours, but preferably within minutes. If processing would take time, you should acknowledge receipt of their query and give an estimate of how long they should wait for a complete solution. Users take their questions to live chat or Twitter if they don’t feel like waiting for a phone representative to become available or if they find phone menus tedious, so answers should be given to them via the web instantly.

5. Respond where you were reached

Online customer service needs consistency. If a concern was sent via Facebook, then you should obviously reply through that same social network. If escalations to other channels (the phone, for example) are needed, then give a clear notice about it and regularly update the customer about the progress.

6. Promote testimonials

This should especially be done by organizations that are only on their way to making a name online. Share news about happy customers, successful transactions, and other forms of positive testimonials to prove that your brand is worth doing business with.

As a business in today’s modern age, your engagement platform should improve and not hinder you from pleasing your customers. Regardless of the channel you deliver customer service, it is always key to know your customers well in order to give them what they need.