Steps To Tweak Your Customer Support

Gone are the days, when customer support was just about a casual telephone call or email support, every once a while. Today’s businesses are all about 24/7 support to customers via multiple channels that are flexible and prompt responses to customer queries or comments, while ensuring that the quality of service is maintained throughout. World, at large is seeking to multitask, hoping to catch an old friend for an online chat, watch TV as well as do online shopping, all together.

Hence, we are aware that the customers that seek out support services are wishing for the same level of choice, flexibility and access from the customer support team. This however is an opportunity for most businesses to gain the competitive advantage, as not all companies are meeting the requirements, as of now. If any would be able to bridge this gap, leaving their competition behind, then they need not look back in terms of building up customer loyalty and satisfaction. At the same time, one needs to understand that giving customer support 24/7 can also take a toll on your budget. There are companies who may lag behind due to lack of resources and cash.

Here, the option is to go for the most efficient and cost –effective ways of customer support services. Take a look at the tips on how to achieve this:

Cater to customer requirements and preferences:  Start off by first, getting to know the customer requirements and their needs completely. See, why they have reached out to customer support. What is the service they require? Do an in-depth analysis of the kind of customer support you can provide to that particular company or business.

Questions that should be addressed normally include; Is your customer a business? What are the products or services they sell? How does the particular customer approach you, when they need support? How quick would they expect a response or solution?

You can go on to Google for the answer, reach out with query on forums or other online communities, involve in live chat, pick up the telephone and make the call or reach out via emails or other social media etc. These answers would give you a better idea on what to expect from your customers and how to best cater to it.

Prioritize the support channels that you need to cater to:  After confirming on the customer requirement and needs, begin prioritizing the support channels that are made available. Take some time and do a thorough analysis of each of the support channels. Then identify, what it is that the customers expect. Finally, try and see if a viable solution can be found within the specified budget.

Support channels offered could vary between a knowledgebase to a forum, email, telephone, live chat, social media or other sources such as announcements etc. While a knowledge base would be a good source for customers to find the relevant, accurate and valid information that they are seeking on a subject, the forums not only address this need but can also act as the best tool, where most of the customer queries or concerns regarding an issue is correctly addressed. Meanwhile, emails are type of forms available online, which can get you the required details from the customers, so that you can respond quickly. Telephones or even live chats see a quite a lot of use from customers, especially those seeking quick resolution on the issues they face.  Social Medias are ever changing channels that need to be navigated carefully. But are still very useful to engage customers better if used properly. It helps turn bad customer experiences to good or deliver required help and information. Finally, announcements include blogs, twitter feed, social media status etc., which informs the customer urgently if the service gets interrupted in between.

Ensure that the support channel that you cater to is easily available:  Once, you have identified the channel of support or the type of support you plan to provide, see how you can make it accessible. People may be opting for various methods of customer support. It could also be that they may reach out via various channels to escalate the issue and would prefer not to provide the required information again and again. Hence, make sure that the customer interaction is easily accessible to all of the support agents, so that they can pick up from where their colleague left off, thus enabling easy resolution, even if the query has moved from email to chat, telephone or other channels.

Conclusion: This tells you that it is a good option for most businesses to outsource if not all at least part of the customer support services, ensuring first that it is the most suitable option for customer requirements and business needs.

For more clarification send mail inquiry to sales@truppglobal.com