Category: customerservice

How Can Utility Companies Optimize Vendor Relationships Use a Ticketing System?

Posted on by Eric Klimuk

Utility companies have to deal with various factors to ensure that their customers get all of their essential utilities without any issues. They are constantly working with regulators and managing vendor relationships to generate and provide power to people around the country. However, there can be cases where issues might slip through the cracks, resulting in unhappy customers.  

Utility companies are dealing with various challenges, such as keeping customers happy, dealing with regulations, and managing relationships with unhappy customers. Therefore, they might have complex workflows that can mix up everything.  

So how can utility companies maintain good relationships with their vendors and keep their customers happy? The best solution for this problem is a ticketing system for their business process. Let’s discuss more it in this article.  

What is a Ticketing System? 

Before we understand how a ticketing system can help maintain optimal vendor and customer relationships, let’s go over a brief overview of it. The ticketing system is software that allows you to process and record end-users requests. Tickets are also issues or requests the end-user has sent to the business.  

Most businesses use it to record their customer tickets and their suppliers. Ticketing systems play a critical role in building strong utility vendor relationships. An essential element of the ticketing system is that it should be easy to use for all managers, representatives, and other staff.  

The best thing about the ticketing system is that it allows you can set automation to categorize tickets based on their urgencies. It can give you a better idea about the issues that need immediate attention.  

How Can a Ticketing System Help Utility Companies Maintain Good Vendor Relationships? 

Utility companies can take advantage of the ticketing systems to streamline their workflows, improve the vendor experience, and ensure that everyone is on the same page.  

This system allows utility companies to focus more on the core mission of providing essential services to their community. Let’s understand how a sound ticketing system can help utility companies maintain good vendor relationships.  

Provides Visibility into All Communication Channels 

A ticketing system can help you document all their communications with different vendors. It consolidates all the information in an organized manner. As a result, you can easily track and access the details you need for vendors.  

To create profiles, you can get data and insights into your interactions with the vendor. The profiles help you get the different market, interaction, and performance data specific to each strategic vendor. Consequently, it would help streamline the communication process between the vendors and develop strong relationships with them.  

Helps the Upper Management Keep Track  

Running a utility company is a huge responsibility since you are accountable for any power cuts or issues that can disrupt citizens and businesses. You are responsible for providing people with water, electricity, or natural gas. If you don’t have a robust system to manage vendor relationships, you might find it challenging to perform the core responsibilities efficiently.   

An inefficient system means you will spend a significant amount of time getting information from vendors. Also, you would constantly communicate with them via phone or email to keep everyone on the same page. In a nutshell, it can drain your time and energy.  

So, what could be the best possible solution for this problem? The short and simple answer is to use a robust ticketing system. It can help utility companies optimize vendor relationships by providing a single interface for managing all vendor communications. 

Makes Project Management Easy  

Managing and working with different vendors can be hectic and challenging for utility companies. They might work on a particular project which involves working and coordinating with various vendors. It can create a communication gap and lead to issues for the utility company.  

The ticking system is an ideal solution to deal with these situations. It can optimize vendor relationships and ensure that all vendors are on the same page. Moreover, the utility company can be aware of each vendor’s progress. They can track and monitor each vendor to ensure the project is completed on time without any issues. 

Why do Utility Companies Need a Ticketing System? 

Since there are many things that utility companies are dealing with at a time, it is easy to miss out on essential things. Following up and staying in touch with the vendors is critical for utility companies to provide essential services to the community.  

Also, you need quick access to the data and the previous interaction with the vendor. It will save time and energy you would spend catching up from where you left off. Let’s see some advantages a utility company can enjoy by implementing innovative ticket management software.  

Improves Relationships 

Businesses want to have a good relationship with their vendors and customers since they are critical stakeholders. Since utility companies are providing essential services, having good relations with their suppliers is more than necessary.  

A ticketing system can ensure all customer and vendor requests are answered without delays. It can identify critical issues and escalate them to the relevant department.  

Identifies Areas of Improvement 

Another essential advantage of a ticketing system is that it allows you to measure your support activities. You can identify the possible areas for improvement in the customer or utility vendor support services that you offer to further improve the communication processes.  

This way, you can remove any misunderstanding or other issues that can lead to issues in the future. Moreover, it will improve the overall customer and vendor experience.  

Reduces Errors  

There is always a chance of making some sort of error that can lead to delays in resolution time. It can negatively impact your relationship with the vendor or customers and earn you a bad reputation.  

However, a ticketing system can reduce the chances of errors since all the information and communication would be available to the team. Therefore, you can provide better customer service and maintain optimal vendor relations.  

Collects All the Information in One Place  

One of the best things about the ticketing system is that it allows you to keep all the information in one place. The centralized system gives you easy access to all the necessary vendor details and data.  

Therefore, it optimizes the overall process for your team to coordinate with the vendors. They can get a clear idea about the communication they previously had with any particular vendor.  

How to Find the Right Ticketing System for Your Utility Company?  

The requirements and criteria for each business’s ticketing system would differ. As a utility company, you have to understand your needs and other factors to find the best ticketing system. Here are a few things you need to look for in a ticketing system to make things easy for you. 

  • Automation: The system should automate and simplify most of your processes to decrease the chances of human errors.  
  • Centralization: The system should gather all the information about the vendors or customers to provide easy access whenever you want. It would save you time and energy in finding the information you need.  
  • Personalization: The system should be adaptable according to your business needs. You would need a scalable solution that can respond to the changing requirements of your utility company’s needs.   
  • Speed: The implementation process shouldn’t take too much time.  
  • Support and Training: The solution provider you choose for your ticketing system should offer you complete support and training. They should help you at each step to ensure that you understand this solution and its features correctly.  

Keeping these things in mind before choosing a ticketing system will help you find the right solution. You can also discuss with the solution provider any particular needs that your utility company has and whether or not the system can cater to them.  

Conclusion  

Utility companies play a crucial role in society since they provide necessities to homes and businesses. A slight disruption in these services can significantly impact our daily lives. Therefore, it is more than vital for utility companies to have a robust system for managing their relationships with their vendors.  

A robust communication process between the company and the supplier is vital to ensure proper services. And the best way to communicate efficiently with your supplies is by having a ticketing system. Utility companies can streamline their operations and increase overall efficiency.  

Since the energy crisis is becoming a significant concern for many countries around the world, utility companies must maintain good relations with their suppliers. This way, they can fulfill their responsibility of providing essential services to the community.  

Reference Links:  

  1. https://www.sysaid.com/resources/what-is-a-ticketing-system#Ticket-lifecycle-stages-from-identification-to-resolution 
  2. https://www.deepser.com/advantages-ticketing-system/ 
  3. https://www.helpshift.com/glossary/ticketing-system/#what-is-a-ticketing-system-most-useful-for 
  4. https://www.n-able.com/blog/ticket-management-best-practices 
  5. https://docs.servicenow.com/en-US/bundle/sandiego-it-service-management/page/product/vendor-performance/concept/c_VendorTicketing.html 

How Energy Companies Can Optimize Vendor Relationships Using a Ticketing System

Posted on by Eric Klimuk

As the need for power grows, so does the demand for companies that can provide it. Generating power is a capital-intensive industry, meaning that smaller players have a harder time breaking into it. Bigger players have an easier time raising capital and gaining trust among potential investors, giving them an edge when it comes to expanding their operations. If you are a power generation company reading this, your primary concern is not getting outbid on projects by larger competitors. To stand out from the crowd and lower your costs, you need to streamline your supply chain using a ticketing system. This will help you manage all stages of procurement – from the initial request for proposal (RFP) process to final delivery and invoicing – which will reduce your overhead costs and enable you to compete against larger companies more effectively. 

 

What is a Ticketing System? 

A ticketing system is a software platform that helps companies manage their procurement processes. Ticketing systems are often integrated with other business systems, such as CRMs. And they come with a wide range of features designed to help business owners save time and improve their vendor relationships. Traditionally, purchasing departments would use a ticket system to track purchases. When someone in the business needed something, they would go to the purchasing department and write a ticket. The purchasing department would then track the progress of the ticket. They would do this to make sure everything ran smoothly and everyone knew who was doing what and when. Today, businesses are implementing similar systems, but they’re calling them ticketing systems. This is because ticketing systems do so much more than just track purchases. 

 

Why Are Vendor Relationships Important? 

Procurement is one of the biggest costs that most businesses face. And while businesses can’t control the price of their raw materials, they can control their procurement costs. And that’s where the importance of vendor relationships comes in. The better your vendor relationships are, the more likely those vendors are to give you special rates. That’s because vendors want to keep customers who make their lives easier. And when you take the time to cultivate good vendor relationships, you’re making their lives easier. When vendors know that you’re the kind of customer who makes things easy, they’ll reward you. And when you’re rewarding your vendors with large purchases, you’ll have the power to negotiate better rates. This will help you reduce your procurement costs. 

 

What Can a Ticketing System Do for Power Generation Companies? 

 

As we’ve discussed, a ticketing system is a software platform that helps companies manage their procurement processes. And while it’s important to have a ticketing system in place, it’s just as important to choose the right one. There are many ticketing systems on the market. And many of them will fit your business. However, there’s no one ticketing system for all businesses. Businesses need to find the ticketing system that best fits their needs. Here are some of the ways a ticketing system can help power generation companies optimize their vendor relationships. – Save Time and Increase Efficiency – When business owners purchase a ticketing system, they’re investing in their future. They’re investing in a future where they spend less time on administrative work and more time on the work that actually matters. When ticketing systems are optimized, they make administrative work faster and easier. This means that business owners can spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time doing the work that truly matters. – Improve Collaboration – One of the best things about ticketing systems is that they encourage collaboration among employees. This is because when everything is in one system, collaboration is easy. When ticketing systems are optimized, they allow different departments to work together. This means that sales, marketing, and finance employees can work together to negotiate the best deals with vendors. – Reduce Risk – OK, risk isn’t something that you can measure and track. But it’s still something that businesses should be wary of. When businesses don’t have a ticketing system in place, they’re more likely to experience issues with procurement. This can cause problems with cash flow, regulatory compliance, and more. By investing in a ticketing system, businesses reduce the amount of risk associated with procurement. This helps businesses avoid issues that could disrupt their entire operation. 

 

3 Tips to Optimize Your Vendor Relationships Using a Ticketing System 

 

  1. Create Strong Processes  

When you use a ticketing system, you have an opportunity to design your processes from scratch. You can design your processes to maximize efficiency while minimizing errors. You can also use the system to track your progress. When ticketing systems are optimized, they make it easy to record core business processes. And when you record your core business processes, you have an easy way to document them. This means that you have an easy way to train new employees.
 

  1. Manage Vendor Relationships

    When you have a ticketing system in place, you have a foolproof way to manage vendor relationships. This means that you can easily follow up with vendors, track progress, and escalate issues if necessary. When you buy from vendors, you want to maintain healthy vendor relationships. And you want to manage those relationships so that they’re mutually beneficial. When you have a ticketing system in place, you can easily follow up with vendors. You can easily let them know what you need from them and when you need it by following their progress through the system. This is a simple way to manage vendor relationships and drive value from them.
     

  1. Optimize These Vendor Relationships 

    When you use a ticketing system to optimize your vendor relationships, you’re taking a huge step towards improving your business. A ticketing system is a one-stop shop for procurement. And when it’s optimized, it can save you valuable time and money. It can also help you make smarter decisions. 

 

 

Assign Partners and Vendors to Tickets 

 

If a vendor is responsible for providing the items on your ticket, you should clearly indicate this on the ticket. You should also specify the type of ticket (e.g. purchase, return, etc.) so that both parties know what their responsibilities are. A ticketing system enables you to assign a unique ticket number to each order. You can also set up workflow rules to determine which ticket is assigned to an item when more than one ticket is attached to it. This will help you organize your business and make it easier to search for particular transactions. In addition, a ticketing system will allow you to attach documents to a ticket, such as RFPs, purchase orders, and invoices. This will allow you to track the progress of each item included on the ticket and provide proof of the transaction if necessary. 

 

Monitor Compliance & Risk with a Review Process 

A review process can help you monitor compliance with your VMP and vendor risk. Vendors are likely to make mistakes when you first start working with them, so a review process will allow you to identify and correct these issues before they become a problem. Vendors can also make mistakes or have issues with their operations that negatively affect your organization. You can use your review process to provide feedback to vendors and help them improve. You can also use it to spot problems and take action before they become a major issue. You can conduct reviews in many different ways. You can have an employee review the vendor’s operations and performance, or you can have a vendor review your organization and operations. The best way to conduct reviews depends on your organization and vendors. However, you should clearly outline what you are reviewing and what the results of the review are. 

 

Conclusions 

A ticketing system can help you manage your vendors more effectively. It can also be used to track orders and inventory, manage delivery and transportation, and more. In addition, a ticketing system can help you improve your relationship with vendors by making it easier to communicate with them. Now that you understand how a ticketing system works, you can start implementing one in your business. This will enable you to grow and remain competitive in your industry. 

How Can Your Support Team Collaborate On Product Roadmaps

Posted on by Eric Klimuk

Product roadmaps are visual representations showcasing the company’s product’s growth and progress. They are invaluable to companies during product development and product evolution.

But how exactly are product roadmaps valuable to companies, and how do they affect product evolution?

This blog post will discuss why product roadmaps are important, how product and customer service teams can collaborate to create better roadmaps, and why this collaboration is more effective.

 

Why Are Product Roadmaps Important?

Product roadmaps are integral to the product team’s work. The product team and product managers look after them. However, because a company revolves around its products, all other departments and stakeholders are impacted by the product evolution.

Even though product roadmaps are worked on by the product team, keeping that planning and development in isolation is not a good framework for the company.

 

Why Should the Product Team Collaborate with the Customer Service Team Before the Product Has Been Launched?

To create product roadmaps, the product team needs to consult all stakeholders, including the sales, marketing, engineering, and finance departments.

However, the customer support department can be the most valuable collaborator for successfully driving the product roadmap and product evolution.

Both teams, including project managers and customer support agents, aim to provide customer satisfaction through a good product and excellent customer service.

The product needs to improve and evolve over time, and the customer support department is the most direct resource of valuable data that can help guide this evolution.

The customer support department knows and understands what the customers like and don’t like. They get direct feedback on the product and have an in-depth knowledge of problems with the product that they have been helping customers solve through their help desk.

Even with this seemingly obvious connection, only 58% of product teams take in influence from their customer support teams on the product roadmap, and only one out of three product managers follow up with the feedback being provided by the customers.

 

How Should the Product Team Collaborate with the Customer Service Team After the Product Has Been Launched?

Once a product has been launched and used by the customers, the customer support team becomes a company’s primary point of contact with the customers.

Any future product changes and add-ons should be guided by what the customers want and would respond to. Here’s what a typical collaboration effort would look like:

1.     Create a Cohesive Product Roadmap

The product team’s prediction and tentative plan may oppose customer feedback completely. In such a case, the product managers must consider the valuable insight offered by the customer support team and come up with a cohesive product roadmap.

2.     Incorporate Knowledge From the CS Team

The product team must incorporate knowledge from the customer support team, and it is equally important for customer support staff to get product training from the product team to be better able to serve the customers.

3.     Create a Plan for Answering Customer Queries

The product team should effectively communicate any new developments in the product to the support agents. Hence, they are well-equipped to deal with customer queries.

With this in-depth understanding of the product, the support agents can also filter out customers’ concerns and criticisms, creating a plan for answering customer queries.

4.     Communicate CS All Insights to the Product Team

The valuable feedback given to the support staff can then be relayed to the product team for product planning and tweaking, as when it comes to improving the product, adding in more features, or drastically changing the product plan, customer feedback is more valuable than any external product research in the market.

 

How Can You Strengthen the Collaboration Between the Product Roadmap and Customer Teams?

The collaboration of the product team with the customer support team can also be taken one step further to be transformed into collaboration with customers themselves.

Since the end goal of all company efforts is to make the customer happy, taking their feedback to drive the product roadmap is a way to ensure success.

Here are some ways you can strengthen the collaboration between the product and customer teams:

·        Products Analytics

Product analytics shows the product team what the customers are doing with the product or how their product is being used. It also includes insights that describe what the customers need from the product.

Moreover, product analytics provides you with the necessary information that can be crosschecked with real interactions between customer support agents and customers. It also gives concrete numbers that product managers can use to support their ideas in front of executive members and other concerned departments, such as finance and marketing.

The teams can collaboratively derive invaluable metrics from product analytics and customer feedback, including customer engagement, conversion rates, customer retention, churn, feature adoption, cohort performance, etc.

·        Qualitative Feedback

Both teams can also come together to collect direct qualitative feedback from the customers through product analytics. When the customer support teams have the guidance of the product team, their interviews and surveys can become more in-depth and concentrated around specific product features or development plans.

Using the knowledge and reach of customer support, the product team can work on a development plan, roll it out, and get specific feedback from the customers regarding the development.

These rollouts or soft launches can be supervised using product analytics where both teams keep a close watch on how the customers have received the rollout, and further improvements in the product can be guided.

 

The Bottom Line

The collaboration between product and customer service teams has a world of potential for companies to benefit from. This collaboration goes beyond company structure to involve customers in the feedback loop and empower employees to contribute more to their work than just their fixed roles.

You can achieve this collaboration by having product managers shadow the support staff, allowing product developers temporarily serve as customer support workers, and making the product and customer service teams work together whenever an opportunity arises.

How to Ensure That Your Customer Service Chatbots Meet Customers’ Expectations: 5 Tips and Considerations

Posted on by Eric Klimuk

Keeping up with your customers’ demand gets tougher without automations such as customer service chatbots. As your business starts to grow, without the right tools, your customer service can suffer. And you might end up losing your customers in the process.

If you struggle to accommodate their needs, it’s a sign that you have to level up your customer service. You need customer service chatbot software to automate your operations.

What are Customer Service Chatbots?

Customer Service Chatbots are programs that automate conversations and interactions with customers through messaging platforms. You usually encounter them when visiting a business website via a pop-up message that would appear on the bottom of your screen.

Other businesses also use chatbots to man their help desk ticketing systems, customer support channels, and even their social media accounts.

With today’s technology, a chatbot can serve as a stand-in for live agents. It can effectively assist customers in solving issues, answering queries, and recommending relevant products.

It has even come to a point where customers won’t notice they are talking to a chatbot instead of a live customer representative. This allows you to automate your customer service operations and make them more efficient. With that, 78% of businesses are integrating chatbots into their customer service operations.

Why Do You Need Customer Service Chatbots?

Nowadays, automation is critical for business growth. It ensures you can keep up with changing demands as you attract more customers to your business, especially in customer service.

Customers can easily get frustrated and impatient if they have to wait too long for a customer representative to assist them. Fortunately, customer service chatbots can greatly reduce waiting time for your customers and improve the overall customer experience.

You can use it to man your help desk and automatically provide support upon demand. In fact, some of the best helpdesk software already has a chatbot feature to help you save up on time and operation costs.

Chatbots do more than just automate your customer service.

You can also use it to collect and leverage data from your customers. It can extract and store data from its interactions and conversations with customers which you can then turn into valuable insights for your business. This allows you to understand your customers better, learn about their behaviors, and more. Improving your customer service through chatbots can also boost sales. It can help promote your products and services to website visitors and keep customers engaged with your brand. You can use it to become more proactive with your customer service instead of just waiting for your customers to come to you.

 

How to Implement Customer Service Chatbots?

1. Take Advantage of AI

More customer service chatbots use AI and machine learning technology to improve customer interactions. This feature allows the chatbot to learn from past conversations by studying customer behaviors, speech patterns, and reactions.

It processes such information and implements changes in its system so that it can adjust its behavior accordingly. The best perk of using AI-powered chatbots is that they can do all these with minimal human intervention. According to Statista, 57% of businesses have adopted AI-powered and machine learning software solutions to improve their customer service. Compared to rule-based chatbots, AI-powered ones have the capacity to expand their capabilities to accommodate your customers’ demands. So even when conversations stray from their usual programming and pre-defined rules, they can adjust accordingly.

2. Give your customer service chatbot character

Customers may find it uncomfortable when they realize they are talking to a machine instead of a live agent. So it’s best if you add enough personality and character to your bot to make them sound natural and casual.

You can do this by programming your chatbot to speak and behave in certain ways. For example, you can make your chatbot use emojis when interacting with customers. You can also personalize their responses so that they would be different depending on what type of customer they are talking to. For instance, you can make them sound more sympathetic in case of complaints or cheerful when promoting a product.

Some customer service chatbot software allows you to create a definite character for your bot. You can give it a name, an avatar, and a personality. Just remember that your chatbots are usually the first touchpoints that customers would encounter with your brand. Make sure that when creating your chatbot’s character, it would capture your company’s brand and identity.

3. Add extensive protocols

Before you start using your customer service chatbot, it’s important that you set it up first. You do this by inputting different protocols, commands, and responses into its system which it would use in its interactions with customers.

Fortunately, this doesn’t require extensive knowledge in programming and coding. Chatbot software makes it easier to add these protocols to your chatbot. So don’t skimp out when adding responses and commands to your chatbot. Make it as comprehensive and in-depth as you can get. This way, your chatbot can handle even complex cases and questions.

Likewise, don’t forget to update your protocols every now and then. This means adding new responses especially if these are answers to frequently asked questions. You can also update the way your customer service chatbot speaks and behaves so that it can build better rapport with your customers. You can also use data to find out how you can improve customer support and your help desk via your chatbot.

4. Provide human backup

There can be instances where your customers’ concerns are too complex for your chatbot to handle. So when a conversation starts to shift beyond your chatbot’s programming, it’s best if you hand the customer over to a live agent. This way, you can avoid wasting your customer’s time and focus on resolving the issue at hand.

Having human-based support for your chatbot ensures that you can fully accommodate your customers’ needs. Your live agents serve as a backup in case things get hairy between your chatbot and customer.

Some customer service chatbot software can automatically transfer the conversation to your live agent upon the demand of the customer. This can be done via a set of conditions or triggers during the conversation itself. Once these conditions are met, the software will hand the customer over to your support team. It can even route it to agents depending on how many customers they currently have to accommodate or how good they are at solving issues. This automated feature can also help you create more proactive customer service.

5. Integrate with other solutions

A chatbot can be a great source of data for your business. Integrating it with other business solutions allows you to maximize the use of that data for other aspects of your operations. For example, you can integrate your chatbot with your other tools like your help desk software, marketing software, or customer relationship management system.

Integration is one of the best help desk software migration tips that you can do. Through integration, migrating your data from your chatbot’s interactions with customers to your help desk software is a lot more seamless and faster. This also applies to other software as well. So even when you are using multiple tools for your customer service, you’re sure that you are using the same information across all your platforms.

Consider integrating your chatbots with platforms where your customers tend to contact you. For example, you can integrate it with your website or your social media channel. You can also connect your chatbot to your virtual help desk. You can check out which help desk solutions are compatible with chatbot software by comparing help desk tools.

Choosing the right software for your business

There are various customer service chatbot software available in the market. Each one offers different features that could help improve your customer service. But keep in mind that there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all software. So when choosing the right chatbot for your business, make sure to find one that would fit your organization.

Choose a software that is compatible with your current customer service system and help desk system. And if you think that your current help desk system is too outdated to support chatbots, you can check out a guide to switching help desks.

So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and see what chatbots have to offer to your business.

Why Every Company Must Invest in Customer Service in 2022

Posted on by Eric Klimuk

Before, customer service for many companies started as an obligation. It was something that was done just because everyone else was doing it. In today’s world of immediate connections and cutthroat competition, no one can deny the need for a company to have customer service support for their products and services. However, having a customer service department and proactively building well-maintained customer service as a means of company growth are two different things.

Starting from the basics, the most obvious reason for having customer service is giving your customers a direct line of communication with you. Most people associate customer service with problem-solving. Any problems with the product or services, a customer knows they can contact support to get their issues resolved.

However, good customer service goes beyond just problem-solving. It is geared towards providing customer satisfaction. The help desk is equipped with all the necessary tools and strategies to provide customers with solutions to their problems and goes beyond that to establish a trust-based relationship with the customers.

Building a loyal customer base starts with having an excellent customer service team. This team needs to be empowered and invested in. It is up to the company’s higher-ups to realize the need and understand the importance of having impeccable customer support, which is the main distinguisher between companies in today’s competitive market.

Let’s look at some of the best reasons you should be investing in customer service in 2022.

 

1. Cheaper Customer Acquisition

It is no secret that retaining customers is cheaper than acquiring new ones. Having excellent customer service ensures that your customers are coming back for more. According to Dimensional Research, 52% of the customers report making additional purchases from a company after a positive customer support experience.

But that’s not all. In fact, having a retention rate of only 2% can decrease customer acquisition costs by as much as 10%. These stats are not new but are even more relevant in today’s fast and saturated market. Companies are spending thousands and even millions on unique marketing tactics. By ensuring good customer support (that is significantly cheaper), you can reach and lock in more customers than your competition and retain them.

 

2. Representing Your Brand

As mentioned before, customer service is not just there for problem-solving. Your customer service agents are the main point of contact between your company and your customers. So, investing in their training and equipment should be a top priority as they represent your brand to the world in general.

When a customer contacts support and have a good experience, it is not just the individual agent that is regarded positively but your company’s name. Similarly, having a slow or a downright lousy response to customers brings your image as a company down. In a recently published report, 17% of Americans state that they are more likely to do business with companies having an excellent customer service reputation. So, investing in the quality of your customer service is imperative considering the massive influx of potential buyers to the market after the pandemic as well.

Additionally, if a brand can sell itself as a company that values building a solid relationship with customers, the better revenue it will be able to generate.

 

3. Happy Employees Means Happy Customers

We all work better in a healthy and progressive environment. Keeping your employees happy and connected with the company’s mission is the best way to ensure success across all departments. When it comes to customer services, this need is even more pronounced.

Since your customer service agents come in direct contact with the customers, they must associate with the company’s name and want to excel at their job. This passion can only be cultivated when these employees feel empowered and cared for. In fact, 80% of employees report that they work harder when their boss appreciates their work.

So, the road to customer satisfaction directly goes through ensuring customer support staff’s satisfaction.

 

4. Free Referral

Never underestimate the power of a “friendly suggestion.” Your happy and loyal customers are your best promoters. You maintain such loyal customers by offering fantastic customer service. Whether it is simple queries, quick problem solving, or personalized connection to repeat members, everything related to customers is done by your hard-working support staff. Customers that report a company’s customer service as “good” are 38% more likely to recommend the company to others, and 72% of customers are likely to share their positive customer service experience with six other people.

So, keeping the customers satisfied is a priority for every company, but it is only when the top leadership realizes the importance of customer service in building that satisfaction that a company can reap the benefits of this satisfaction loop.

 

5. Increasing Company Revenue

Organizations need to realize that having good customer support results in revenue growth. We have discussed how an effective customer service team helps marketing and sales. All these benefits are directly tied to an increase in the company’s revenue. According to Business experts, a company can only increase profits from 25% to 125% by preventing customer defection by 5%. This prevention can only happen through an exceptional helpdesk and a dedicated customer service team. Also, companies that offer a better customer experience have 4% to 8% higher revenues than the rest of the market.

 

The Bottom Line

Happy, satisfied, and loyal customers are not just acquired by chance. These relationships need to be first established and then maintained. This can only be ensured when companies invest money and time in their customer service teams.

So, from employees to tools and equipment, customer support should be a priority for all businesses in 2022.

Customer Support Platforms Are Driving More Revenue Than CRM Systems

Posted on by Eric Klimuk

Customer service is crucial to running any business. In fact, you can’t run a business without building a good connection with your customers, and maintaining that loyalty and ensuring you provide the best customer service to your customers, not just your offered product, is vital to succeeding in the ruthless business environment.

The importance of customer support was realized long ago. But the dedicated platforms and software now becoming integral to businesses across most industries, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), have changed the game.

 

The Importance of CRM Systems

Customer relationship management systems (CRM) have long been popular with businesses, especially in the B2B market. Their popularity was justified because they provided a holistic approach to strategizing and practicing customer service using technological tools.

CRM platforms offer cohesion among different business departments that use customer information at every point of the customer lifecycle.

From improving customer retention to bettering sales growth, all customer information gathered from different company fronts can be utilized to address customer concerns and use the compiled customer data for feedback and enhancements.

 

The Rise of Customer Support Platform

Even though CRMs provide a broad and integrated approach to customer service for the company, we are finding that customer support platforms are gaining popularity in the market and beating CRMs when it comes to overall revenue and business growth.

A customer support platform includes various functions that help customer service agents integrate valuable information, ultimately for the customer’s benefit, which is why we are seeing a rise in demand and acceptance of these narrower platforms compared to CRM approaches.

 

Why Have Customer Support Platforms Become so Popular?

Customer service or customer support platforms are dedicated to assisting customers directly. If CRM aims to integrate all relevant departments in using the customer data, customer support platforms deal with customer satisfaction, handling customer queries and doubts, and providing an excellent service experience to the customers.

The difference in the customer service included in most CRM platforms and dedicated customer support platforms is the intention to serve the customers wherever required, using all tools and methods available. The intention focuses on the cause instead of having too many boxes to tick, which can often be the case with a large CRM platform. Too many bells and whistles and a divided focus can be detrimental to the initial cause of customer support.

 

Introducing the Helpdesk System

Having a customer service department as a part of your business strategy is no longer sufficient for total customer satisfaction. Companies have to provide support to customers whenever required and be proactive in predicting potential issues to build a connection based on trust and confidence. One such feature of a dedicated customer support platform is a helpdesk system.

A helpdesk system is a cloud-based or on-premise software designed to assist the customer service agents of a company serve the customers effectively and efficiently. It can seem like something already part of the large CRM platform, but there is a significant difference between them.

While the CRM system helps the company use customer information for company progress, the helpdesk tool actively uses the information to aid the agents in delivering improved customer service. According to Microsoft’s Global Report, more than 70% of customers express they expect and want customer service agents to “know who they are, what they have purchased, and have insights into their previous engagements.” Helpdesks in a dedicated customer support

platform and other tools help agents achieve just that and make sure the customer builds a connection with the customer support staff instead of just using the service as a last resort after encountering a problem.

 

Customer Support Platforms – A Brighter, More Successful Future

Customer relationship management systems provide excellent tools and strategies that help a business use technology and customer data to help strengthen their market presence and make better products.

However, a relationship first needs to be established in the first place for this data to be useful and for the company’s growth to begin — and that is why more businesses, especially SMEs, are opting for more specialized and dedicated customer support platforms than relying on an all-encompassing CRM platform to also cater to customer support avenues. There is a reason that seven out of ten U.S. consumers report spending more business money with companies that deliver an excellent service. This great service started from their first interaction with the company. Whether it is through a query or a direct purchase, the customer takes a significant step by putting their trust in the company. This trust needs to be nurtured through personalization and human touch.

While you can achieve many great things with CRM platforms and reduce potential customer churn, the fact is that you need your front-line warriors — your customer support agents — to be well equipped to deal with the customers productively and efficiently.

This shift in the industry from only valuing the product to now expecting excellent customer service is a fact of our time and is likely to prevail in the coming years as well. And customer support platforms are taking the lead in improving customer satisfaction on a global scale.

Customer Service Complaints on Social Media Gone Wrong

Posted on by rpsstudios

So someone made a mistake and responded poorly to a customer service complaint on Social Media. What will you be able to do to make things right? Is fixing it even possible?

Crisis Management for Customer Service Complaints

Today, complaints are received through social media and traditional channels. And as a result, it’s harder than ever to step in and help the customer.

Of course, it’s still the human’s duty to respond and as a service provider, it’s your responsibility to help the customer. Of course, unless there is legal liability, doing so is also generally beneficial to the brand.

Since your customers are likely shocked at being criticized online, you’ll want to start your mitigation strategy well in advance. Don’t forget to include information about rescheduling your phone call or meeting the person personally. In fact, sometimes you’ll want to reach out through social media. If you can only resolve it by tweeting, perhaps it’s time to tweet out the inquiry to the company at your name for their sake and to your satisfaction.

When You Won’t Even Be Able to Say No

When a customer does reach out on social media and you can’t help them, you might be able to solve it with professionalism.

So how can you support them when you’re not even able to get in touch? From here, there are some steps you can take to resolve their problem.

The first is to respond quickly. If you can find out who wrote it, the second option is to handle the problem internally if possible. Finally, it may be time to consider taking the situation to a customer service manager who is knowledgeable in this exact area.

Mistakes Can Happen

This is a huge misconception when it comes to customer service. As a matter of fact, mistakes can happen all the time with customer service and you won’t be able to avoid them. But the fact is, they can be avoided to a degree and this is why it’s worth taking a look at what else can be done when a customer service complaint is called out.

Manage the Relationship

The first step is to simply apologize. You can also show them that you take their problem seriously. Understand where the issue occurred and then talk about what you can do to resolve it. It’s a good idea to address the issue with the customer as soon as possible. If you can find out who it is who brought it up, you can address it quickly as well. Do Your Homework

Once you’ve addressed the problem, it’s time to research the issue. You may not be able to fix the problem immediately.

Taking time to research the issue will show the customer you have a good idea of what you’re dealing with.

Listen

When the customer realizes how much effort went into addressing their concern, it will be hard for them to walk away. They’ll feel like you got their problem resolved. Remember, you should never try to resolve the situation unless you can. So keeping your word is a good idea.

It’s not a Guarantee

There are chances that you may not be able to resolve your customer’s issue easily, especially if it is outside your job description. This is why it’s so important to reach out to a customer service manager when this happens.

As a matter of fact, customer service managers can even save you from making common mistakes. When you do reach out, they’ll be able to handle things more professionally than you could. Keep in mind, handling a social media complaint is not a one-time deal. So, always remember to keep in mind the above steps to handle a customer service complaint.

Discount

Taking care of the customer is more than just writing a review, taking a picture of the issue, or offering a discount. Treating a customer well means ensuring they’re satisfied.

Therefore, don’t just send a message to them but instead take the extra step of having a face-to-face meeting with them. Or even better, get a dedicated counselor to help them on their own. It won’t cost you anything to set it up for the service managers to handle it. That way you can deal with the problem before it escalates.

One Tip

As a business owner, you’re in charge of keeping the company afloat. However, you also must remember to treat your customer s with respect and dignity.

Disrespecting them, speaking poorly about them, or alluding to their problems will not reflect well on your business. In other words, treat your customer s as you want to be treated. Do not underestimate them or make them feel like you are treating them with contempt. But if you truly want to win their business, don’t make them feel like that.

Supportbench unifies customer support, success, experience, knowledge management, and account management into one simple platform. Do more, with less, to maximize your retention.

Ready to provide excellent customer support? Contact us today!

Customer Feedback is Critical to Customer Success

Posted on by Eric Klimuk

Does the word “customer success” even make you cringe? If you say it a lot, you know that even though it feels nice to praise your customers, the “thank you” can feel empty. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that what mattered the most to a customer is providing something of utmost value. In customer experience management, feedback matters.

We conducted research with the relevant sources, such as customers, analysts, and researchers; and designed a dozen customer surveys, with content that combined detailed questions, applications of observable behaviors, and social media in order to improve customer success.

These surveys, along with every piece of content created for customer communication, were then developed to reflect the following customer-centric metrics and insights:

Retention: Is the experience your customers have with your organization consistent with their feelings of a strong relationship?

Customer Satisfaction: How will your organization’s actions enhance your customer’s lifetime value, and will it be worth it for a business with only 100 customers to pay for the lifetime value of one customer?

Sales Opportunities: Do customers leave your business in large numbers because they encounter their best opportunities elsewhere?

Vision: Does your organization have enough leadership clarity, resources, and vision?

Innovation: Are your customers adopting new systems and processes when they realize you don’t offer this feature?

Data-Driven Approach: Is your organization committed to providing the best outcomes for customers with the right data, facts, analysis, and outcomes?

Connections: Do your organization’s customers feel heard, understood, and believed in?

Visionary Leaders: Are your organization’s leaders courageous enough to trust the customer and to think long-term about the future of your brand?

Providers: Do customers perceive your business’s providers as allies or competitors? If you’re new to the concept of customer experience management, or if you’re new to online customer engagement, we have some suggested ways to get started.

We also give you a glimpse of what we’re doing to help other businesses succeed, alongside our customer success centric approach for every page of a blog post.

What if you could create exceptional customer experiences with less effort?

Not possible? Better use existing customer data to offer customer actions that seem more convincing and have better chances of customer satisfaction.

We’ve all had those customer experiences – that annoying, ill-informed person who just won’t make a change despite the experience being horrendous. Or let’s say there are many issues and the issue with each person is different, so to say that there isn’t one right solution is to do a disservice to the customer and it’s customer success metric.

It’s a problem that all businesses face when trying to think of valuable customer insights that can enable better business decisions. Reality check

Research analyst IDC stated that the potential value of a customer experience is $117 for each dollar spent, and a new report by Forrester found that companies with an exceptional customer experience win 73% of their customers back, while losing only 8% of their customers.

They found that in order to create better customer experiences, businesses need to have customer data available to them from the very beginning. More than three quarters of companies surveyed said they had some kind of customer intelligence product and software to collect and analyze customer data and improve customer success.

Different businesses need different solutions in place to drive better customer experiences. Plus, they are not simple to implement and could be expensive, which most businesses simply do not have time for.

Fortunately, there is technology out there to help business understand their customers better.

Supportbench has a growing ecosystem of solutions that businesses can use to enhance their customer experiences, taking customer feedback even further. Supportbench works by building and connecting experiences with businesses across multiple channels and to various companies in real-time.

We are confident that if you are currently using a customer intelligence solution, you are missing out on the benefits of this technology in order to drive better customer experiences. Make the most of customer intelligence

The answer to creating exceptional customer experiences is giving customer insights a chance to shine. Whether that means identifying marketing shortcomings or finding more relevant ways to connect a customer with the right employee when a customer has specific issues.

We work with the top brands in the world to create great customer experiences, from 3M to Budget and these companies are setting great business goals by creating insights that can help them do just that.

Here are some of the top ways in which companies are using customer intelligence software:

When it comes to implementing new features, Supportbench creates customer success solutions that embrace the philosophy of moving fast and breaking things to understand how people are actually using the app. By helping a team understand what a new feature needs to do to ensure success, businesses are able to take steps to protect their customers and drive improved functionality. Intercom users are able to put customer insights into action through real-time action actions. Identifying and improving applications with customer insights can help increase work efficiency and reduce time spent on manual tasks. Transform a customer experience by continually learning from user feedback.

As a result, you can solve multiple critical business problems, making it possible to turn failures into successes and failures into discoveries.

Supportbench unifies customer support, success, experience, knowledge management, and account management into one simple platform. Do more, with less, to maximize your retention.

Ready to provide excellent customer support and build customer success? Contact us today!

Revamp Your Consumer Experience

Posted on by Eric Klimuk

As our world becomes increasingly digitalized, reshaping consumer experience in almost every sector changing how we interact with them. If you haven’t done it yet, why not evaluate your customer journey, if needed, your business should revamp its consumer experience strategy if you want to stay in the game in 2020. Here are some ideas for your customer experience revamp.

Connect with Your Customers

It used to be that driving out a visit to a store or even a trip to the home office had the best chance of reaching our customers. Now, with the majority of purchases conducted on the internet, the number of retail and business owners who have established customer experience strategies has increased significantly. However, all it takes is one bad experience to sway our buying audience and skew our wallets.

Having a physical store is good but if you don’t sell online, you are missing on great selling opportunities. We’re seeing a huge shift from brick-and-mortar retail in favor of online purchasing. Consumers purchase items from anywhere especially now that purchases are becoming more convenient with smartphones. Incorporating mobile capabilities with your existing products or services will win your organization a loyalty boost from millennial and Generation Z consumers in particular.

If you don’t have to means to create your own website, why not sell your items on Amazon? This move could propel the businesses into bigger monthly sales and will likely bring in more customers who have never heard of you before.

Streamline Your Branding and Make Sure Your Website’s Design is User-friendly

You could spend a lot of time curating funny and educational content however none of them matter if no one can read them on your site. Light text on a light background, a slow-loading website, and ugly images — can put off users from staying on your site and reading your content. There are more than a million websites in the world. They won’t bother with yours if they have an unpleasant browsing experience.

Pick your colors for specific reasons. Colors have a psychological impact and can greatly influence your brand’s image. Yes, you can create a website on your own but ask for a lot of feedback from your friends and relatives on how you can improve your site and your consumer experience. Your website can market for you 24/7. Make sure that it is up to par with the message that your company wants to impart.

Open Your Product for User Reviews (Beta Test)

Most people research product reviews before purchasing a product. So why not allow customers to evaluate your product before purchasing it? Tell them you are available for a free review experience, and invite them to help you test how your new product holds up to the usability tests of their buyers. Ask your customers whether they are satisfied with the overall experience, listen to their feedback and give it extra consideration.

Your company’s customer service culture will matter a lot in determining how valuable that segment becomes, whether it is individually engaged marketing or an ensemble full of brand evangelists, customer service is constantly evolving. As an organization, your culture can serve as a measuring stick to understand how involved you are with customer needs and expectations.

SEO
Images and design are not the only important factors of a website, SEO or Search Engine Optimization is also a vital aspect of a website. You need this if you want Google search engine users to find you. SEO specialists used to hack the system and use tricks to appear on Google’s first page. Google, however, is constantly updating its policies to make sure that people find relevant information that they are actually searching for.

Knowing how SEO works is great but as long as you produce well-written, plagiarism-free content, and use proper categorization and tags, your audience will notice and Google will notice too.

An Omnichannel Customer Engagement Strategy

The average internet user goes online on multiple gadgets in a day. Imagine if someone goes to his laptop, visits your site, adds an item to the cart but for some reason does not complete buying the item but leaves it in the cart.

Later, he remembers and tries to continue the purchase, however, he no longer has his laptop. If he can’t access your site using his smartphone, or maybe he can, but if he visits the cart and can no longer find the item there, he might just abandon the purchase altogether and move on to a different site.
It is very important to provide your customers with a seamless experience across all customer touchpoints.

Understanding your customer’s journey better will provide you with tons of insight on how you can serve them better. If you want to please your customers and meet their demands, you should consider a revamp to your customer experience.
Supportbench unifies customer support, success, experience, knowledge management, and account management into one simple platform. Do more, with less, to maximize your retention.

Ready to provide excellent customer support and a great consumer experience? Contact us today!

Effects of Good vs Bad Customer Service

Posted on by Eric Klimuk

Do you want your customer service team to take your customer service to the next level? All businesses know it is important, but not everyone can do it well.

First, you have to define what good customer service is, then convince the sales team and the other departments of your company to apply good customer service practices for it to have a major impact on your company’s bottom line.

If this is something that you want, you should ask your colleagues these questions:

What is good customer service?
What is bad customer service?
How will providing one or the other affect your company?

Their answers will reflect how well your company has oriented its employees about the significance of customer service. If there are members of your team who could not give a satisfactory answer, then help them realize how valuable providing excellent customer service could be.

What makes customer service GOOD?

One of the most important factors in providing a positive customer experience for your customers is for them to achieve their desired outcome.

They feel that this happens when their issues are resolved quickly and the customer service rep who assisted them had a “nice attitude.” Customers don’t necessarily have to always get their way, especially if their perceived solution would not help resolve their problems. Don’t look at customers who come to you with concerns as villains. Most of them are reasonable and can handle not always getting their way all the time.

The solution you give them might be contrary to what they believe but when they are explained clearly and with patience, customers tend to acknowledge that the reps are the ones with the expertise and they listen to the suggestions.

Avoid sounding condescending and make sure that you do not disregard their ideas. Make them feel that they are being listened to before you inform them of the right way to do things.

At the end of the day what they truly want is fast and convenient support, from customer service reps who treat them with respect. In response, they will show thanks and become loyal to your brand and your company.

87% share great customer service stories with others
45% post about their experiences on social media
35% will leave a review on sites like Yelp
52% will become repeat customers and continue to do business with your company
24% will choose you over your competitors

What makes customer service bad?

Knowing the benefits of providing good customer service, we strive to deliver the best service that we can. However, there are instances when our team members fail at their responsibilities and this can result in negative consequences for the business.

Knowing what constitutes bad customer service will help you and your team evaluate your standing and even reverse any negative effects that your faulty practices may have caused.

One of the most common examples of bad customer service is placing the customer on hold for several minutes. If your company is getting a large number of calls that makes your queue time too long, you might have to employ new reps to accommodate all your incoming calls. If you think you have sufficient reps but still get long queue times, it could be because your knowledge base is insufficient and your reps spend a long time looking for answers to queries.

Place a supervisor who can monitor your KPIs (key performance indicators) so you can pinpoint the problem and come up with a solution. If you want your solutions to be most effective, include your team in brainstorming for ways to improve their performance.

As mentioned previously, customers expect a certain level of respect when they contact your customer support. If a rep comes as rude and disrespectful your company’s customer support will already be tagged as bad and ineffective.

It is also important for your reps to sound confident and cheerful, even when they are uncertain about their answer. The best way to approach this situation is to ask for a minute while the rep looks for the right solution. Saying “I don’t know” is simply not acceptable.

Proper training is needed for your customer support reps to become efficient in their role. Training shouldn’t be just focused on product mastery; it should also include skills like staying positive and approaching issues with a can-do attitude.

Customer service can have good days and bad days. Some customers become too aggressive because of frustration however your support team should handle situations like these professionally. If a customer comes in too hot, reps should keep a cool head so as not to aggravate the situation. Being impolite is never acceptable for a customer service rep especially when a customer calls with regards to a complaint. It is the customer service rep’s responsibility to try and pacify the situation.
Customers who feel that they have been wronged expect the customer service rep to offer some kind of solace for their trouble. A customer support rep should be able to show empathy and acknowledge the inconvenience. If it is indeed the product that is at fault, the rep should apologize and offer a solution. If the problem is caused by the customer and not the company, the rep should not blame the customer, rather, he should explain why there was a problem and assist the customer, and still suggest a solution.

If agents follow a script without any emotional engagement, the customer might feel as if there’s no admission of responsibility or genuine apology.

Agents without proper listening skills can cause more frustration to a customer. Having to repeat information, again and again, can be annoying especially if a customer is already calling about a matter they don’t feel happy about.

Customers who call for support also do not feel happy when they get transferred to multiple people. Your support reps lose their credibility because it will look like they don’t know how to solve a problem or that you do not have agents who specialize in that area.

In case of a call interruption, there should also be a system that allows a customer to continue with their conversation without having to repeat every detail they have already narrated during the previous one.

There may be different reasons why customers call in to ask for customer support. Your role as a part of the customer support team is to make sure that their experience dealing with you is pleasant and that they are fully satisfied with the company’s products or services. If you do the opposite, you’ll be chasing customers away and destroying the image of your brand.

Supportbench unifies customer support, success, experience, knowledge management, and account management into one simple platform. Do more, with less, to maximize your retention.

Ready to provide excellent customer support? Contact us today!

12 Tips for Improving Customer Chat Experience

Posted on by Supportbench

In today’s fast-paced world, customers prefer a good customer chat experience for a faster and more convenient way to interact with businesses for customer service. It is considered superior compared to traditional methods like telephone calls for the following reasons:

The customer chat experience is less personable. Customers can convey their message easily with a less emotional investment in the conversation. They have time to think and they have to build less courage to talk. It is more convenient to type a message rather than interact in real-time with another person.

They can have it in writing. If there’s a matter that needs clarification, there’s a message trail that both parties can refer to later on.

It takes less time. Customers can also resume whatever it is that they were doing while waiting for a reply from the chat representative. They can open multiple windows and do different activities, not wasting too much time waiting for a response.

In our years of dealing with businesses and customer concerns, here are our suggestions on how your website should have this tool on your website.

1. The Contact Us page

Website visitors usually look under Help or Contact Us when they want to find the customer chat experience so it would be helpful to place a “link to chat” on the Contact Us page.
When the link to chat is not clear on the Contact Us page, users see it as an indication that the company does not want their customers to contact them. Even if the Help page contains a lot of information, or if the website has an FAQ page, customers still prefer a chat option when they can’t find an answer specific to what they are experiencing.

2. Don’t Just Rely on Floating Buttons

Some websites offer chat options but only through floating buttons on a corner of their home page. Some customers who are looking for something in particular on a website tend to ignore popping up buttons. Customers appreciate seeing a big Live Chat Now button as it saves them from navigating through pages they feel they don’t need.

3. The Floating Chat Button Should Contrast with the Rest of the Page

We’re not saying that floating buttons on a website are completely useless. Actually, it is a very helpful feature but people tend to ignore them when they are placed somewhere else other than the standard one (bottom right corner of the page) or their visual design does not make them stand out enough relative to the rest of the page.

4. Use Live Chat instead of Ask a Question

Chatbots have been recently used to replace human-assisted chat and because it technically is not “live chat” they can’t label it as such and generally label it as “Ask a question.”

While chatbots and FAQ pages can be helpful tools, some customers prefer to skip them all in all and directly ask their questions to a customer chat representative who will surely have a responsibility to their dilemma.

5. On Product Pages

If you have a site that sells products or services, it would be helpful to have a chat link not just on your contact us page but also on your product us pages. Sometimes, when inspecting products, customers may require clarification regarding features and specifications that might not all be listed in your description. People don’t have to navigate elsewhere if you have a chat link on your product pages.

6. Inform Users of the Usual Response Wait Time or Specify Available Chat Hours

Not all businesses can afford a 24/7 customer care service. Informing customers when they can expect a response is essential so they don’t waste time glued on their screens to get a response when there are no reps available.

There are also times when there are too many inquiries for your chat reps to accommodate, periodic messages that inform users about the state of the agent allows them to have more patience waiting for a response.

Customers also appreciate getting messages like, “Still checking” or “I’m still working on that” if their request takes unusually long to respond to. It lets them know that the agent has not abandoned the chat entirely.

7. A Separate Chat Window

Chat is one of the few exceptions where we advocate opening up a new window or tab for a business’s website navigation. It is easier to user refer back to information (such product details or order numbers) that they may have questions about when they can switch to different tabs or windows. It also makes it easier to explore whatever links the agents will provide

8. Have Precautions for Possible Interruptions

Internet disconnection or other reasons can cause chat interruptions. It would be frustrating to have to wait on queue just to continue a conversation or get a different chat agent who is not aware of their issue. Chat reps should provide a reference number to the customers to avoid this. It could also help if they ask for their phone number or email address in case of a chat session interruption.

9. Send Customers a Transcript of the Session

Customers appreciate having a transcript of their conversation with a chat rep. They could use it as a reference to quote the agents in case there is a dispute or some type of issue.

A transcript also restrains customers from being rude as users can use it as proof to complain about their behavior.

10. A Canned Response Should Not Take Long

As a business, you should know what customers usually ask and your agents should have prepared responses to them. Users are aware when their questions are common and simple and they expect quick responses to those uncomplicated questions. Your reps should have some “copy-paste” answers in their arsenal.

11. Avoid Starting the Conversation with “How Are You”

It is important for chat agents to be polite but efficiency is a matter of importance. Users want to get their issues resolved as quickly as possible so instead of asking “Hello! How are you?” a better starter is “Hello! How can I help you today?”

12. Disclose that You Using a Bot

People tend to have a higher expectation when they are corresponding with a human rather than a bot. They also tend to be more polite when they know that it is an actual human on the other side of the chat window.

Bots require messages to be clear and understandable and customers can better calibrate their language when they have this knowledge. Sometimes they feel they have wasted time with pleasantries when they realize that it is a bot that they were talking to so it is good to be upfront with them when you are using a chatbot.

Supportbench unifies customer support, success, experience, knowledge management, and account management into one simple platform. Do more, with less, to maximize your retention.

Ready to provide excellent customer support and a good customer chat experience? Contact us today!