How to Save Time Responding to Frequently Asked Questions with TextExpander

This post is part of a month-long project where I’m learning three different operations tools: TextExpander, HubSpot, and Zapier. To learn more about my project, click here to see my project landing page.

This week I learned how to use TextExpander. TextExpander is a system that allows you to create “snippets” that have an abbreviation or “code” to expedite your customer service responses.

By using TextExpander to respond to frequently asked questions through email or a chatbot, you save precious time by only having to type in the code and getting the entire snippet pasted into your method of contact.

I created a few snippets by copying and pasting answers from Torque Detail’s FAQ page. If these are questions they get asked a lot, then it would save them time and effort to have the answers ready to go in TextExpander.

Take the image above, for example, the snippet shown answers the question, “How long does one bottle of Mirror Shine last?” (Mirror Shine is a product that Torque Detail sells). To answer this question all you’d have to do is type in the code “zmsonebottle” and the entire snippet appears. Pretty neat, isn’t it?

Other snippets I created were for things like customers asking about a damaged order or asking how they can cancel an order. These are all things that I’m sure Torque Detail gets asked a lot.

Email Templates

Another way to use snippets is by creating simple email templates that you would frequently send out. In Torque Detail’s case, this might be an order received or order shipped notification email. I created both. Here’s an email template for an order received notification:

To send this email, all you’d have to do is place your cursor in the subject line and type the code, “zreceived.” Why did I specifically say the subject line? Because by using the Tab function on the editing bar, I can make the succeeding text be placed in the tab below. Everything before the tab function stays in the current tab, or in this case the subject line. This means you don’t have to type in a subject each time you send an email like this.

Statistics Page

Another nice feature that TextExpander offers is the statistics page. This page allows you to see how much time you’ve saved by using TextExpander. As well as how many snippets you’ve used each day. I think that’s pretty cool.

To Conclude…

TextExpander might be a little bit of work on the front end to create the snippets, but in the long run, this system is an ingenious way to save time when responding to customers or sending out a common email. I’ve only been using it for about a week and I can’t imagine being a customer service rep without it.

Unfortunately, TextExpander isn’t free to use, but all good things come at a cost, right? It actually doesn’t cost very much at only $4 a month or $40 a year. I think that price is totally worth it to save all that time. You know what they say, “time is money.” And that definitely applies here.

P.S.

If you’d like to watch how I did this in a video tutorial, click here.