The customer support department is one of the most crowded areas in any company. Having to solve customer problems and provide a prompt response is not always an easy task. Even more so when you have different customer service channels, and you have to organize a lot of information. Customer data, requests, processing complaints and so on, under pressure. In this article, we will focus on talking about 5 ways in which you can improve your customer support.
Why is effective customer support important?
Having quality customer support is important because customer satisfaction defines your success. If your customers can’t solve their problems with your help, they will go where they can be served. 78% of customers have backed out of a purchase because of a poor support experience, according to a Glance survey.
This is a fast-moving society, and it demands solutions that move at the same level. It doesn’t matter what type of request they submit. Whether it’s a question about pricing or technical service for a product installation. Strategies need to be implemented to achieve customer service that enhances the satisfaction of customers and employees alike. In this way it is possible to increase sales and business growth.
Learn these 5 ways you can improve your customer support:
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Keep your employees connected
Perhaps your company maintains customer service from multiple channels or with remote employees in different locations. One question to ask yourself to get started is: Can your agents collaborate effectively? Being connected with other agents has multiple benefits: learning about common cases, sharing important data, responding using shared knowledge, and assigning tasks depending on their level of workload. In addition, having secure means of communication and data sharing between employees allows them to know what each other are doing and avoid falling into duplicate tasks, double responses, and misplacement.
According to a Mckinsey survey, organizations with connected employees show a 20-25% increase in productivity. If your agents can stay in sync with each other they will be able to work more clearly based on your company’s unique criteria, and this will also make it easier for you to perform audits, performance analytics and error detection. Keeping you in control of customer data management and other security issues.
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Automate responses and suggestions with AI
No employee can remain active without ever stopping, but what doesn’t stop are your customer requests. If you have a clientele in different time zones, it also makes it difficult to have agents who can be available 24 hours a day. Staying attentive without the interruption of the human factor, was one of the main reasons that started the use of AI in customer service.
AI-enabled chatbots are built with the intention of delivering direct and valuable two-way conversations with users. Thanks to machine learning, these can respond online, simulating the assistance of human agents and providing customers with even personalized resolutions. Gartner predicted that AI bots would drive 85% of customer service interactions by 2020, and it is a fact that 80% of customers who have already used chatbots by this date rate the experience as positive according to Uberall.
This leaves us with the baseline idea that a customer service in 2021 must have artificial intelligence as an ally for customer interaction. However, another important aspect of AI intervention is intelligent assignment and suggestions for agents. Freddy, Freshdesk’s AI assistant can generate suggestions, categorize, prioritize and route incoming tickets and requests to agents based on existing data that is constantly updated.
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Build a self-service portal
Although an AI-powered chatbot can be highly effective, not everyone turns to a chatbot immediately. According to a Salesforce survey, 89% of millennials use a search engine to find answers before calling customer support. The most convenient strategy is to have a portal or knowledge base that allows them to find solutions with you.
A knowledge base that enables self-service also has the benefit of reducing the workload of your customer support agents. Allowing you to save time and money, while your customers can find immediate answers and increase their perception of your value as a company.
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Omnichannel customer support: all in one place
Customer support channels are becoming broader and more varied. Emails, text messages, social networks, and chats embedded in your website. Seventy-one percent of customers say they want a consistent experience across all channels. Yet only 29% say they get it. (Gladly).
Having an omnichannel customer support will allow your customers to feel attended even if they change devices or use a different contact channel. It will also allow you to maintain the sequence of requests made by the same customer. A very frequent problem and a reason for frustration for customers is having to repeat their situation to multiple representatives or having to send their data multiple times. According to Accenture, this is the case for 89% of customers.
There are also important advantages your agents get with omnichannel customer support: Less stress from using multiple tools and contact channels, easy tracking of tasks and requests, and a complete database of your customers, similar cases. In addition to having the collaboration of other agents.
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Let your customers open tickets
As a last point among the recommendations to have a better customer support, we should talk about ticketing. What happens once your customers have made a request? How to make sure that your customers have received the necessary help until their problem is solved. Ticketing is the action of generating categorized tasks and assigning them to agents. It is the way agents can handle separate cases in order and follow up on them. From the moment they are opened until they are finally resolved, and the customer is satisfied.
Freshdesk’s customer service management software not only allows your agents to create tickets themselves to handle requests, but allows your customers to generate them. Through your service portal, your customers can easily create tickets by specifying the nature of their request. Leaving their details and any pertinent information is easy. Once tickets are created, they are visible to your agents and can be automatically assigned depending on their category, keywords, and language. In addition, your customers can track these in your portal, for greater transparency.
Customer support depends on multiple important factors: effective collaboration between employees, speed of service, error-free request handling, multichannel contact systems, and self-service options. All this is possible through an omnichannel support technology solution called Freshdesk. Ask our experts at GB-Advisors about this tool and its benefits for your company.
