What is a canned response? The ultimate guide with 11 examples

Every morning, your customer support agents arrive to find the same pile of FAQs waiting in their inboxes. They feel stuck, typing out the same replies for hours as an endless stream of replica queries stares them in the face.

Does this scenario seem all too familiar?

According to Deloitte, 80% of customers depend heavily on support from solution providers. This dependence translates into a never-ending list of queries. Even as your support teams try to type them away, your customers are left waiting longer for responses, growing frustrated by the minute.

The good news is that there is a way to lighten the load.

Canned responses help automate responses to common questions, shortening response times and freeing up your team to handle more complex issues.

In this guide, we explore the potential of canned responses in achieving support efficiency and improving the customer experience.

What is a canned response?

A canned response is a pre-written message used in customer service to provide quick answers to common questions. It reduces wait times and allows agents to focus on complex issues. Canned responses can be customized with customer details, adding a personal touch to each interaction.

Why are canned responses important for businesses?

Canned responses are essential for businesses as they boost productivity, ensuring faster resolutions for basic queries while freeing agents for complex issues. They deliver consistent, error-free support, scale easily with demand, improve quality assurance, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.

Here are the 5 reasons why canned responses are important for your business:

1. Increased productivity:

Canned responses can address most L1 support requests and increase the speed at which they are resolved. This delivers faster solutions to your customers and more time to your team to address complex L2 and L3 queries that need high-level, personalized support.

2. Consistent support:

Crafting manual responses from scratch carries a high risk of errors. With templatized responses, you never have to worry about spell-checking and removing inadvertent typos. You can also be sure that the information offered is accurate and uniform across channels.

3. Scalability:

Canned responses are easy to send, automate, and personalize. This means you can scale your customer support efforts to meet growing ticket volumes without putting efficiency or accuracy on the back burner.

4. Increase customer satisfaction:

When customers receive quick and accurate answers to their questions, they feel heard and appreciated, thus experiencing a boost in customer satisfaction. Research shows that businesses that put customer satisfaction first may see up to 41% faster revenue growth and 51% higher customer retention rates.

5. Improved Quality Assurance (QA):

Canned responses improve quality assurance by allowing you to pre-approve outgoing messages. This way, you can ensure that responses are accurate, compliant with company policies, and reflective of your brand’s tone and voice.

Where can you use canned responses?

Canned responses can be used across multiple channels, including website chats, email, and social media. This is important to meet customer demand, as research shows 43% of customers desire omnichannel interactions with brands, but 43% of businesses find creating omnichannel experiences to be challenging.

1. Website chats:

Customers use your website’s chat for real-time troubleshooting, general inquiries and immediate assistance. For example, if a customer needs more information about a product or needs help checking out, they may use the chat feature. Canned responses such as quick answers to FAQs, step-by-step instructions, and escalation options pave the way for helpful and effective interactions.

2. Email support:

Customer support requests by email are usually detailed and formal. Customers send emails for specific inquiries like requesting a refund, reporting billing issues, or for detailed instructions. Some canned responses you can use for quick email support include acknowledgements, process or product explanations, personalizable templates for order details and follow-up communications.

3. Social media:

Engaging with customer service queries on social media has been shown to bring 20-40% more revenue per customer. On social platforms, customers may reach out to you with quick questions or minor complaints. Professional greetings, offering escalation options and redirection links, and acknowledgements can be useful canned response templates for social media-based customer support.

11 examples of canned responses

To build effective canned responses, start by taking stock of the most common questions your customers ask and tailor responses that direct them toward a solution.

Here, we list canned response examples of some commonly occurring situations that you can promptly address with some templates.

1. Greetings, welcome, and acknowledgement

First impressions are everything. With the right greeting message, your customers feel welcomed and acknowledged. This sets a positive tone for further interactions.

Examples:

• “Hello [Customer Name], welcome to [Your Company Name]! How can I assist you today?”
• “Good [Morning/Afternoon/Evening], we’re glad you’ve reached out to us. How may I be of service?”

2. Requesting more information or context

In certain situations, you may need additional details to resolve an issue or to understand it better. A polite request for information helps you gather more context without causing frustration.

Examples:

• “Could you please provide more details about the issue you’re experiencing? I’d like to help.”
• “To assist you better, may I ask for your (list of required information).”
• I understand you’re facing issues with (issue). Can you describe what troubleshooting steps you’ve taken so far?

3. Instructions and technical support

Giving your customers clear and concise instructions helps them understand your product and use it effectively. You can also offer step-by-step troubleshooting to help them identify and resolve issues.

Examples:

• “I understand you’re having trouble with (the issue). Let’s address this issue together. First, could you try [troubleshooting step]?”
• "Let me help you with (issue/set-up step). To get started (instruction 1) and then (instruction 2)

4. Status updates

Honest and transparent communication builds trust and reduces frustration. With canned status update responses, you can keep your customers informed about the current status of their support requests or orders.

Examples:

• “We’re currently processing your request and expect to have an update for you within [Time Frame]. Thank you for your patience.”
• “Your order #[Order Number] has been shipped on (Date). You can track it here: [Tracking Link].”

5. Recording customer complaints

Acknowledging a complaint in a professional manner tells customers that you take their concerns seriously and are committed to resolving issues. Here is how you can make them feel heard and understood.

Examples:

• “I’m sorry to hear about your experience. I’ve recorded your complaint and will escalate it to the relevant department.”
• “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We take feedback like yours seriously and will investigate the matter.”

6. Acknowledging a mistake and apology

Most customers understand that mistakes can happen and are willing to forgive you when you own up to them. This transparency positions you as a trustworthy brand.

Examples:

• “We apologize for the mistake on our end. We’re taking steps to correct it immediately.”
• “Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. Please accept our sincere apologies for the error. Our team is working hard to make this right for you.”

7. Escalations

Some issues may need specialized attention from specific teams. You can inform customers about escalations with canned responses to keep them in the loop and reassure them that their concerns are being addressed.

Examples:

• “I understand the urgency of this matter. I’m escalating your case to our senior support team. They will contact you within [Time Frame].”
• “Your issue requires further investigation. I’m connecting you with (name) from the (team name) team to provide you additional assistance.”

8. Closing messages

Ending conversations on a positive note leaves customers with a good impression and makes your business seem approachable for future interactions. Your closing messages can either end the conversation or prompt customers to interact further.

Examples:

• “Is there anything else I can help you with today?”
• “Thank you for choosing [Company Name]. We appreciate your business! If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out anytime.”

9. Offering additional resources/information

Once you’ve acknowledged and offered support for an issue, providing extra resources can help your customers find further answers independently and show that you’re proactively helping them.

Examples:

• “We have a helpful guide that covers this issue in detail: [Link].”
• “You might find our tutorial video useful: [Link]. It walks you through the process step by step.”

10. Feedback requests

You can improve your customer communications significantly by gathering feedback. This can help you tailor your canned messages even further to deliver more appropriate replies.

Examples:

• “Your satisfaction is important to us. We’d appreciate it if you could take a moment to provide feedback: [Survey Link].”
• “'We apologize we couldn’t fully resolve your issue with (issue specifics). Our team is actively working on it. Please let us know if there is anything we could have done better to assist you.”

11. Upselling and cross-selling

Once you have addressed a customer query successfully, you have the opportunity to pitch another product or service that they may find useful. Recommending additional products can increase sales if done thoughtfully and tastefully.

Examples:

• “Customers who purchased [Product] also enjoyed [Related Product]. Would you like to hear more about it?”
• “We have a special offer on [Service] that complements your current purchase.​​ Would you like to learn more?”

Using canned responses for increased customer satisfaction

Customers value quick and personalized responses. Generative AI combines the efficiency of pre-written canned responses with the ability to tailor them to individual customer needs. This way, you can offer real-time assistance and increase customer satisfaction without spending time crafting individual responses.

DevRev is an AI-native platform that brings together customer support, product development, and engineering teams to facilitate cross-functional collaboration and data-sharing.

A key offering of DevRev is PLuG, a GPT-powered live chatbot that automates your canned responses, gives you intelligent customization capabilities, and allows you to incorporate actionable elements in your replies. The Turing AI-powered PLuG chatbot makes responses human-like and intent-aware, drafts responses from internal and external sources, and gets better with every conversation.

With DevRev, you can improve your response time and increase customer satisfaction AI-led automation. To learn more about what DevRev can do for your online business, book a demo today!