An outstanding first impression is the difference between converting prospective customers and losing their interest immediately. What your prospective customers see—and what they experience—during their first interaction with your business sets the tone for the rest of the relationship. However, first impressions aren’t the only impressions that matter. What about the last exchange? What about the post-sale interactions between your customers and your customer support team? Since these final moments stay fresh in your customers’ minds longer, there’s no denying that a great last impression is equally as important—if not more important—than a great first impression.
The problem is, customer support isn’t what it used to be. In a world where instant gratification and round-the-clock connectivity is the new norm, customer service teams are in a constant race against the clock. Luckily, there’s an easy solution: workflow software. By removing the burden of administrative tasks, workflow software can help your customer service team focus on delivering prompt, personal service to more customers. Here’s how:
Faster Responses = More Happy Customers
According to Forrester Research, 77% of people say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good service. And if you can’t make it easy for your customers to submit surveys or documentation, you can guarantee that they’ll move on to a competitor who will.
Workflow software offers customers a faster, more straightforward process to reply to vendors and send necessary documentation. This software not only allows surveys to be captured on any device, but it also ensures that the customers’ survey results are routed to the appropriate departments. And, if any documentation needs to be signed and reviewed, customers don’t have to worry about downloading and printing a PDF, signing and scanning—they can simply use the automation platform to review and sign legally binding agreements with their vendors.
Greater Agent Productivity
What happens when routine, tedious tasks are taken off of your customer representatives’ hands? It frees up their time so they can address a greater volume of service requests. And that adds up over time: According to an American Express survey, one happy customer will tell—on average—nine people about a good customer service experience they had. So, the more customers you can please, the more likely you’ll be to earn new business from word-of-mouth referrals.
With workflow software, customer representatives can easily complete and submit memos from phone calls, service updates, and requests to prevent misplacement. These platforms can also automatically route and assign requests, so customer representatives don’t have to spend extra time figuring out which departments the requests should be sent to.
Better Operational Performance
It’s impossible to offer great customer service if your team is working out of sync. And, unfortunately, that’s a problem that all too many companies are familiar with; in a study from The Economist, 63% of executives say silos within the organization and a lack of integrated information systems are the two biggest obstacles standing in the way of improving the customer experience.
Fortunately, most workflow software platforms offer streamlined dashboards so you can easily monitor the pipeline and identify areas where customer support is falling through. You can also track crucial data, like speed to completing requests, to figure out where more personnel training may be required.
Customer support is essentially your last opportunity to win over your shoppers’ affections. And with workflow software, you can easily boost your customer service team’s productivity, efficiency and speed, and in return, keep your customers coming back for more.
