3 Tips for Better Customer Support

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I’ve said before that it’s important to always strive for better customer support, no matter how smoothly you think things are going.

In business, just like all things in life, you should never settle for anything as ‘good enough.’ Always strive to improve things you hold important, (even when you believe it has been perfected).

The drive for always improving, always striving for that next level is what makes us human. It is what drives our growth, our happiness and our progress as the greatest creatures on earth.

With this logic, we should strive for better customer support. but why is customer support so important? And, how can we do this?

Customer support is the most critical part of your company. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. It is ultimately your customer support and customer relations by which you shall be judged. No matter how good your product or service is, if your customer service representatives are unpleasant, and if your system is incompetent or just plain negligent , you are ruined. Your company will be cast in the public’s eye, as a villain, not a hero.

Speed

The first thing to work on is your speed in resolving issues. This applies to all three of your basic modern channels: the call center, the help desk and the social network.

In the call center, you can improve speed by making sure to hire fluent speakers of your clientele’s language, increasing the amount of representatives, reduce hold times and creating a phone directory that is easy and fast to navigate. A good system would involve multiple shifts with a good amount of reps so that there are twenty four hour personnel to handle problems that arise.

Always have contingencies for the most common tech questions and issues that may arise, Train your technicians; If they are experienced with problems, they can respond with solutions quickly.

Diversify Support

You’re already doing this by working with resources other than call centers. Utilize social networks and help desks and be open to new possibilities.

A good place to start from is the forum, an outlet for user-powered, crowd sourced help. Forums allow users to help other users. This is a creative way to handle matters quickly. It may also take stress and traffic off your official channels.

Modern Technology

Along with forums, you can also utilize email and instant messaging to further reduce the traffic to call centers. Integrating Skype, AIM, Google Talk and other chat systems gives you the same ease of use and functionality as traditional phone systems – only with greater speed, voice quality, and the added functionalities of video and text.

When it comes to customer service, Don’t settle for ‘good enough.’ Speed, multiple forms of support, and modern technology are the keys to drive success.

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Stefanie Amini
Stefanie Amini is the Marketing Director and Specialist in Customer Success at WalkMe, the world's first interactive online guidance system. She is chief writer and editor of I Want It Now (http://ow.ly/gOU3a), a blog for Customer Service Experts. Follow her @StefWalkMe.

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