Customer service is an integral part of business, for online companies, that translates to call centers, customer support teams, ticketing systems, and live chat
Customer service is an integral part of business, for online companies, that translates to call centers, customer support teams, ticketing systems, and live chat. Mistakes are costly, over 60% of customers will now move to a competitor after just one bad experience, and this number is growing every year. If a customer has two negative experiences, then the odds of them leaving jumps over 75%. So, at least for the sake of retention, having a capable support team with the tools to solve customer queries and complaints is essential. How must the support team conduct itself? Happy you asked, below is a list of how and why to operate in a certain manner.
In today’s instant gratification society, more than 60% of customers say their service standards have risen. At a minimum, this means customers expect to be responded to promptly regarding questions or issues. If there is a reason why a resolution cannot be made within a satisfactory time frame, then your support team should offer the customer an exact time for an update. If you satisfy a customer’s issue or question, then it increases the likelihood that they’ll purchase from you again.
Now, don’t go to extremes to satisfy a customer regardless of their demands. A challenging customer can test a support teams’ patience, but it’s very important to show respect, remain patient, and show understanding. Thus, it’s important to hire friendly individuals that are calm, empathetic, supportive, and take initiative to act fast.
Once the customer feels like you understand them, issues typically get resolved easier and faster. Sometimes the solution is selling the customer another product or service you have, but that’s never going to happen if the person is frustrated or questions you. So, realize it’s vital that the customer feels understood prior to selling something else. On the positive, know that once you have customers engaged in conversation there’s a +45% chance of being able to sell something else because you’re already talking to them. Incentivize your agents to cross-sell or upsell.
So, what does good customer service look like?
Be Quick
Responsiveness is number #1, especially via live chat which is fast becoming the world preferred contact method, so make sure you have a live chat icon on all pages of your website. Customers expect to be engaged with a company representative within 60 seconds, with an industry average response of 23 seconds via live chat, you want to ensure someone is ready to reply at a moment’s notice. Note, once a customer contacts you if it’s something the support team cannot resolve quickly then they need to open a ticket and send it over to the technical team.
Personalize
Everyone wants to feel special, if you cater the service to someone’s individuality then they are not only likely to remain as a customer but spend even more money in the future!
Optimize the website
Many customers and prospects don’t even want to contact the service department, they know there’s a chance you may not respond fast enough so they’d rather find the answer online. So, pack your FAQ page with many responses to possible customer questions. With live chat messenger bots, you can even pre-program responses to customer questions, this way if the computer cannot offer a satisfactory response, a ticket will be automatically opened and sent to the technical team for response (integrating live chat with a ticketing system, which is efficient!)
Now if you don’t have a live chat or ticketing system, it’s essential you do. However, let’s say you’re starting out, and still don’t have them, then prioritize agent training. Ensure your support team has knowledge of the product or service as well as the technical skills to resolve customer issues. Remind agents to be patient with customers all the time and personalize the interaction. This means you should equip support agents with the tools to know information about the customer.
Continuing Education
Always have someone in a leadership role pop into the support department to explain new service plans, metrics, and developments within the company. There might be employees within the support team that desire a greater understanding of the company. These individuals are great to substitute when co-workers in the operations department go on vacation. This way the person usually working in support will have a greater understanding of how the company operates.
For the optimal customer support setup, you should combine using an automated live chat and ticketing system. Linking both will empower your customer support team to resolve issues efficiently. Managers and employees alike will know who’s responsible for what and tasks will be resolved and closed out in a timely fashion. Use convosio for live chat and claritick for ticketing, both available on mydev.com
For questions: info@mydev.com or call +1 (224) 279–1076
