Customer support has evolved quite significantly over the last decade. Not only have the digital environment and online platforms improved the way that you can communicate with your customers, but they have also allowed you to enhance their experiences with you.
With this evolution in the digital realm, hundreds of platforms and tools have emerged, providing brands and companies with a plethora of tools to choose from to service their customers.
What that means is that it is now up to those brands to choose the right journey and platform for them and map out a customer experience blueprint to reach, retain and bring back customers to the company.
So, we thought we would take a look at the ways that you can enhance the customer support efforts of your business. We took a look at what brands are doing globally and picked the most effective methods of enhancing customer support.
Have Various Channels Available for Them
Here is the thing about your customers; they are all different. Not all of them want the same levels of engagement, they want different ways to communicate and talk to you. While some prefer using the phone to contact you, especially for urgent matters, others prefer to chat or forms to get queries sorted. So, make those available to them.
Have plenty of options available for them to choose from. Whether they want to email, call, chat in real-time, or send a message over social media, allow it. You will notice that your conversion rates will start to improve as queries and questions get sorted out quicker and quicker.
Chatbots and forms are the top choices right now. Real-time chat with an agent is not only possible, but it is also highly effective. It is also simple to integrate on a platform like WordPress and just needs some support from agents. Look for a WordPress support ticketing system or chatbot for any of your online support needs.
Focus on your Customer Journey
Having the platforms and tools in place is one thing. But, what you do with it, and how you manage it is another. One of the key elements of customer support is how it fits into your customer journey.
From the minute your customer comes in contact with your brand until they make the decision to purchase or subscribe, and the subsequent delivery thereof after, you want to wow them. Every single touchpoint, where they come in contact with your brand needs to be thoroughly optimized.
Quality customer service is an absolute necessity; not only do you need to focus on the customer communication tools, but you also need to look at all messaging going out to customers and audiences. All messaging needs to be uniform, brand-centric and focused on creating a streamlined and optimal experience for your customer.
Ensure that All the Staff are Customer-Centric
It is one thing to have your customer-facing staff be focused on the customer and the customer journey. But, the fact is, this is a company-wide operation.
Every single one of your staff members needs to be performing and doing their functions with the customer in mind. From your development team who are putting together your website, to the finance and HR teams who need to deal with everything in the background, it is a company-wide effort.
Keep in mind the roles they play, even indirectly, with the customer. Devs are responsible for the UX design of the site. HR manages the staff who are responsible for dealing with the customers. They are in charge of training and ensuring the staff are performing optimally. Company-wide customer training is absolutely necessary.
Have Feedback Options Available for Them
Find out what your clients want. Directly ask them how you are doing and what the products and services were like. You can ask them to rate the delivery as soon as it has taken place, especially if you have an app, or simply send them a message after a selected period of time to establish how the handoff was.
You can also send follow-ups and surveys about the products and the full interaction with your brand. Although customers might not like filling out surveys, you can perhaps incentivize them to do so by offering free delivery or discounts on their next orders. By having this sort of feedback and insight, you will be able to create a strategy for the future to not only reach but also hook customers.
Remember, the more insights and information you have from customers and about their behavior, the more you will be able to put together a future strategy. If you can find out where you can improve parts of your company from the horse’s mouth, you will save yourself a lot of time and money from the outset.
The Bottom Line
Customer support can be one of the most challenging aspects of a company. The wrong move can impact customers and customer retention can be impacted. Remember, it is more lucrative, and cheaper to keep customers returning than to land new ones.
