Posted by The customer support department is the gatekeeper of any brand. Support reps fight until the end to fix the customer issues. They try to do their best to rectify the situation and make the customer happy and satisfied. Your support representatives bridge the gap between customers and services. They serve as a library for all support-related questions and communicate customer experiences to the product team.
It is obvious to understand when I say, “No company can survive without customers.” This means that customer support teams are literally responsible for the further fate of the business itself. Every brand aims to develop and grow. With that, the customers also grow, and the number of problem reports also grows. With increasing problem reports, it is becoming easier to forget/lose something. Plus, it becomes annoying for the customers to wait for long. This calls for businesses to arm themselves with helpful customer service tools to support you in continuing growth.
The “We don’t hold anyone. Wanna walk away, there is the door. I will even hold it for you” attitude will doom your company. It costs multiple times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one. Even a single negative review can cost your business a considerable loss.
So, you need to support your agents with the best customer service tools and avoid these problems.
These tools can help your business improve its customer service experience.
1. Answering service
An answering service is an inexpensive and invaluable addition to your tools. Usually, customers get frustrated when they have to reach out to the customer support team multiple times just to register their queries. Therefore every company needs a tool/service that would help customers register their queries seamlessly and at one go. A tool would make sure that not even a single query slips through the crack. It will also save time as it does not usually need manual intervention.
2. Phone software
Many customers would prefer to call instead of reaching out online for urgent queries. Therefore, you must offer your audience a seamless way to contact you and resolve their issues. Phone software has helpful features that can improve your customer’s experience.
Implementing phone software will help your reps serve customers more accurately. It also saves time and resources:
- Sorts the callers and reduces the need for manual intervention.
- Connects the right agents to the right customer service reps instantly.
- Logs all the conversation history (if needed.)
Multiple customers switch brands after their calls are passed around by the support teams. That’s why I see phone software as one of the most important customer service tools.
3. Query tracking software
A query tracking software is essential to track the timeline of every issue. When you get an email or call from a customer about a query, you will need to keep track of a lot of information. The number of times that query has appeared. Therefore you need to have a process in place to develop a solution to the issues. You also need to deliver the fix, follow a timeline for it, and then implement a follow-up procedure as well. Doing all this manually seems dreadful and calls for a lot of errors.
4. CRM system
CRM systems allow businesses to manage projects better, create more streamlined forms of communication, and put automated practices in place. This makes the follow-up process extremely easy, and you can continuously stay in contact with your customers. A CRM system that is properly utilized and managed will not only improve your customer service but also improve your sales.
5. Live chat software
Customers are more likely to buy from a brand if they offer live chat support. A live chat enables customers to find answers and resolve queries whenever and from wherever they want.
You can implement AI chatbots to make support available 24*7. Live chat has become a leading digital communication method for online customer support with a staggering 41% customer preference. (Where phone support lies at 32%, emails at 23%, and social media at 3%.) You can connect your self-service channels with chatbots so that your customers can ask their questions to the chatbot and can be redirected to relevant answers.
It’s clear that live chat can significantly impact user experience. But make sure you choose the right software for your business. A poorly designed and clunky chat screen is worse than no live chat at all.
6. Knowledge base software
A knowledge base (often referred to as an automation tool) reduces the support agents’ work. When customers visit your website, they might want solutions at lightning speed. Providing a self-service knowledge base reduces the burden on the support department and boosts customer satisfaction.
Besides, customers have become very comfortable with technology lately. They prefer getting the information on their own without the need to contact the company or its support reps. Don’t believe it? Remember the last time you Googled your symptoms before visiting a doctor. A knowledge base software will help you organize self-service so that customers can find answers on their own.
7. Chatbots
Chatbots have helped streamline the customer support flow by providing answers intuitively and interactively. And they are here to stay! Chatbots help in reducing the overall customer interaction count. It makes it easier for customers to get answers on the fly. Hence, customers won’t raise issues on social media, automated phone systems, or communicating via emails.
Chatbots provide the most effective way of communication with customers during offline hours. They help you keep the customers engaged until your support reps can take over. Chatbots can also help study customer behavior while they interact with your website. You can find the overall time customers spend on your website, what questions they click on the most, what issues they are facing the most, etc. A chatbot can study the issue and automatically route it to an appropriate answer from the knowledge base. It can also transfer the issue to a support rep if required.
8. Shared inbox
Collaboration sits at the heart of every customer support process. A collaborative workspace allows all the customer support agents to share the same inboxes and social media messaging platforms. And enabling collaboration within your team is extremely important. If support agents don’t communicate with each other effectively, it might lead to chaotic and unnecessary errors. This is why a shared inbox tool is a must-have. Agents will chat and comment within the tickets through a shared inbox.
9. Online community
People like to communicate and to share. There are plenty of forums where people talk about names for their dogs or about ideas, so why not create a similar medium for your customers where they can talk about your products and services. With online community software, you can create your own community and moderate it.
10. Customer feedback tools
Customer feedback will unravel important answers for your support. It helps brands improve their products and services, measure customer satisfaction, and improve customer experiences. Also, is the most reliable source of information as it uncovers the loopholes in your system.
It helps you to take business decisions and create a better image by showing that you value your clients’ opinions. The right customer feedback tools will help businesses capture and quantify the feedback.
Hence, you must consider conducting a thorough analysis using the right customer feedback tools. Transform your raw feedback into meaningful data and lay a further roadmap for your business.
11. Reporting and analytics tools
Analytics and reporting tools are essential in order to improve certain parts of your business. Insights are essential to study the trends, loopholes, dos, and don’ts of any support system. If you have analytics tools in place, you’ll be able to figure out what customers are looking for, how they are being answered, how your team is performing, and what all changes you need to make.
12. Customer service software
Customer service software makes the entire support process much more seamless. Using it is as easy as writing an email, but it is a lot more organized. Most customer service software involves multiple in-built features like:
- Knowledge base
- Chatbots
- Ticketing features
- Automation features
- Live chat
- Multi-channel/ omnichannel communication
- Analytics features
- Feedback options
- Shared inbox
- Data management features
Having a system in place will make you quicker with responses and will help you meet your goals.
Take a leap of faith with the right helpdesk software
They say that the hardest thing is to start. But your customers won’t wait for you to take this courageous step. I understand that the list is long, and it can be overwhelming. But, you need to start now! Start with the essential and basic things.
If you want to manage your brand reputation, you will need to adapt to the latest customer support ticketing system to upgrade your support. So, where do you want to start from?