If you want to obtain positive responses and delightful word-of-mouth feedback, that’s where customer support comes in. The customer support process is about building a relationship with your customers that reduces their friction points and attends to their grievances smoothly. In this short guide, we’ll take you through every aspect of customer support, from creating a self-service portal to implementing chat support effectively. We’ll also cover the key metrics you need to track for customer support success and how product expertise plays a role in it all.
What is Customer Support?
Customer support refers to the help given to customers throughout their shopping journey, from pre-purchase inquiries to post-purchase concerns. Excellent customer support can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. It can be delivered via various channels, such as a phone call from a customer executive, in-application feedback surveys, social media managers, or using website chat bots. Understanding the role of customer support for customer success is a 360 degree exercise that involves multiple touchpoints in the organisation.
The role of empathy in CX
Empathy means being able to understand your customers’ feelings and sharing that understanding with them. This builds trust and rapport, leading to higher retention rates and increased customer satisfaction. By training your support team in empathy, you can create a personal connection, delighting customers while addressing their needs. This also includes a show of gratitude when the user base purchases a product or completes a survey. Gratitude and empathy can go hand in hand to create a better CX.
5 Ways to Create a Robust Customer Support
This involves keeping communication channels open- including social media portals, chatbot on websites, in-app surveys and toll free numbers for immediate assistance. While one should note that not every business operates on a 24x 7 basis. So when the availability of assistance is limited, mention the hours of operation to set the base expectation of consumers. Here are some of the good ways to enhance the quality of the support team.
Creating a self-service portal for users
To create a helpful customer experience, you can create a self-service portal that enables customers to quickly find solutions without having to wait for a response. This can significantly improve your overall customer satisfaction rate by reducing wait times. Moreover, it also allows your support team more time to focus on more pressing matters like troubleshooting complicated technical issues. Equip self-service portals with ample information, and a clear user interface that helps people navigate smoothly.
Omnichannel support-chat, email, website
Omni channel support extends from support team phone calls, website chatbots, in-application automated messages to email help desk. Since people can be in any platform, diversifying support systems in different channels can capture real time problems and offer quick solutions. Monitoring performance metrics like response times or customer satisfaction ratings can reveal dramatic changes that need attention. Use this valuable information to uplift workflows by identifying areas of improvement. A good customer service representative always goes the extra mile in delighting customers through empathy, personal connections, and technical support.
Use automation and AI
Automated responses are one of the most effective ways of acknowledging queries quickly and providing hassle-free service. You can also use chatbots for soft skills like responding to easy-to-solve queries or guiding customers through troubleshooting issues. Besides this, automated surveys help in collecting valuable feedback that can delight customers by improving workflows and resolving queries in a timely manner. AI for in-app messages can handle common queries and can be trained to collect responses, deploy surveys and offer feasible solutions. Generative AI and automation can also be helpful when human representatives may not be available round the clock.
Track with customer feedback metrics
Effective communication will measure response time, customer satisfaction ratings, ticket volume and agent performance regularly to ensure that customers’ issues are resolved quickly and efficiently. Additionally, net promoter score (NPS) can be tracked to understand how likely a consumer is to refer your product/service to others. Customer effort score is a great metric to understand the amount of effort the customer had to undertake during a certain touchpoint. Analyzing every metric collectively, can give an overview of real time data where the team members can jump into action in case of a friction point.
Having product and service expertise
When departments are equipped to handle constant queries, it is important for the customer service team to know the ins and outs of what the business has to offer. This way, the support department can troubleshoot issues in a timely manner while ensuring that important information isn’t missed. Not only does this result in happy customers, but also boosts customer retention rates and ultimately leads to more business through verbal-offline recommendations. So whether you’re upgrading your current team or creating a new one from scratch, be sure to place close attention on ensuring that your support staff has the right tools, knowledge base, workflows, and documentation to succeed.
Creating a Great Customer Support Team
A well equipped support team can attend to active feedback in a timely manner and stay equipped to handle most technical issues without escalating it frequently. Additionally, emphasizing on soft skills like empathy, honesty and upgrading the technical know-how of your customer service agents go a long way in building that personal connection.
How can google reviews impact support agents?
A company’s customer support reputation can be heavily influenced by Google reviews and in-application feedback and third party testimonial websites. Positive feedback builds trust and attracts new customers, while negative reviews can hamper online reputation. Responding to all reviews demonstrates a commitment to excellent service and can lead to increased customer satisfaction. Regular review monitoring is the key.
How to measure the ROI of customer service?
Measure customer support ROI via tracking retention rates, repeat purchases, and compare the cost of acquiring vs. retaining a customer. Feedback surveys (instant Whatsapp surveys, website based chatbots, in-application surveys) and key metrics of CES offer insights into effectiveness. Investing in quality support can boost loyalty, word-of-mouth marketing, and revenue.
How can you improve communication with customers?
Enhancing communication with customers requires active listening, good communication ability, clear language, empathy, and feedback. Providing multiple channels for communication and automation tools can improve accessibility and save time. Training support staff on effective techniques can also lead to better interactions and customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
Customer support is the backbone of any successful business. It is not just about resolving issues but creating a memorable experience for your customers. Empathy plays a vital role in creating a positive impact, and self-service portals, chat support, and automation can streamline the process while improving efficiency. Metrics such as response time, resolution time and customer satisfaction score play a significant role in tracking success. Product expertise also comes into play when trying to create a loyal customer base.
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