Can you give me advice on how to become a better customer rep for email support?

Im not in the US but I have used an email based support center. The thing I found most helpful was that when I first used it I didnt know whether it would be an actual person typing it or just a whole lot of pre-typed responses that were just picked out and sent out. I actually felt that it was a person typing as it was a bit personalised, its a bit difficult to explain how he did this but I felt a lot more reassured as I knew I was talking to a person, and not just a computer. I dont know what rules your company will have regarding what type of emails you can send but if there is a way you can personalise it, maybe even just changing some words around, people prefer to know that they are dealing with people and not a computer. I dont whether that will help you much, hope it does!

I haven't in one of those but i know you'll be using templates to respond to inquiries so you'll be fine. You don't have to worry. And also, be courteous in replying when you have to manually type the msg. Empathize with the costumer and greet them nicely.

Hi Liz! How's the e-mail support job so far? I wrote a module on e-mail support a couple of years ago. Although most e-mail support have templates, we tended to discourage the use of those. Instead, every e-mail was personalized. Customers hate it when you sound robotic. I asked my agents to always make reference of something the customer said and to address a concern directly. Sometimes, it also helps to flatter a customer (like if he attempted to troubleshoot and followed logical steps). And this is not always allowed, but a witty remark sometimes goes a long way. Enjoy! It's the most fun medium to support.