Have you ever had a bad experience when shopping with a business online? Chances are, you have. We’ve all been in a position where something went wrong with an order, and now, we need to find out what happens next. This situation is frustrating, and you never want your customers to feel the frustration that comes with poor service.
The quality of your support team can make or break the experience a customer has with your site. Even if everything goes wrong during the ordering phase, a stellar customer support agent can turn the situation around and create a happy customer.
Customer support is often a complicated process, depending on how many products you sell and your team’s size. Streamlining support will lead to improved satisfaction, fewer refunds, and higher retention rates for new customers.
Today we are going to look at a couple of things you should keep in mind if you’re looking to get more value from your customer service team. Essentially, we are going to give you some helpful tips for streamlining the support process, which can boost productivity and the effectiveness of every encounter an agent has with one of your customers.
Let’s get started!
Make it Easy to Contact Your Business
The first thing you should check is the placement of your contact form. Do you have the form on your sidebar, or is there a button on your menu that allows users to reach your brand? Understanding where customers need to go on your site to get in touch can help you move your contact section to a place where more users are more likely to see it while browsing your online store.
It’s not hard to create a contact form, but it’s going to take some time to get the placement right. Look at how people engage with your forms now, and test the engagement levels if you move it somewhere more visible. If you see an increase in interactions after the move, it’s a safe bet that some of your customers were having a hard time contacting you.
You should also be mindful of your form’s design. A whopping 67% of users said they abandon forms forever if they run into any problems. In other words, it’s vital that your contact form is short and sweet.
Include relevant questions that ask for the user’s name, email address, and issue. Depending on the severity of their problem, you can escalate the ticket and gather additional information as needed.
Reach Out First
Let’s say you’ve optimized your contact form placement, but still worry that not enough people are reaching out when they need help. In this case, you need to reach them first. We suggest adding chatbots to your website that trigger when a user lands on your site or complete a specific action.
For instance, the average cart abandonment rate is 68% If you want to bring this number down, you could trigger a chatbot window to pop up when a user is getting ready to leave your site. Sometimes simply asking if there’s anything you can do will encourage the person to stay on your site when they otherwise would have left.
Another advantage of reaching out first is you can program your chatbot to solve basic issues. So if someone contacts you because they want to update their password, the chatbot can walk them through the process. As a result, you’re helping customers faster, and those who need personalized support can quickly reach an agent.
Provide Support Across Multiple Platforms
Next, we will touch on the importance of allowing users to get support through multiple platforms. Some websites have a support system that only allows them to help users who are currently on their website.
This system is considered outdated. Over 3 billion people use social media globally, so it only makes sense to include support options on your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram profiles.
You have plenty of options to choose from on social media. You could hire a designated social media support team that handles customer complaints through direct messages. Alternatively, you can create a group on platforms like Facebook.
When people have questions, they may end up on your group page. Use this opportunity to help your customers solve their problems and offer them relevant solutions from your online store.
It’s also worth investing in a support team that responds to emails. Plenty of customers will skip your contact form and social media, and email your contact address directly. Missing out on these users could result in a lower satisfaction, and cause friction if there’s a pressing issue a customer wants to resolve.
Focus on Support and Success Teams Separately
There’s a big difference between customer support and success teams. You have to make the difference known immediately and treat both sides as two different entities.
Customer support teams work on resolving questions or problems that users run into while using your product. On the other hand, success teams focus on helping users get the most value from their product.
Simply put, support teams solve problems, success teams inform and educate. The sooner you differentiate these two vital roles, the easier time you’ll have handling customer requests.
If someone who wants support gets in contact with a success agent, they will not get much help. But if you have distinct roles and funnel customers to the right team, it’s much easier to resolve tickets and keep your customers happy.
We suggest coming up with baseline questions you can use to transfer people on your website to the right department when they fill out a contact form or message your chatbot.
Use Analytics Data to make Improvements
Finally, let’s talk about the power of Google Analytics. If you don’t know, Google Analytics helps business owners fine-tune their strategy and understand their target audience. You can quickly and easily view reports that give you data on how users engage with your forms and support page.
Use what you’ve learned to improve the customer service experience you provide your audience. If you discover that a majority of your users are abandoning your contact page, it might be a good idea to go in and make some changes.
Similarly, if most people don’t finish their chatbot interaction by clicking a link or completing a specific action, it may be time to go back to the drawing board.
The more actionable data you obtain about your customer service team, the more room for improvement you’ll see. You have the opportunity to take what you’ve learned and build on your existing customer service strategy. Remove features that slow users down, feature new additions that speed up the contact process, and strive to create a customer support team that’s focused on building an excellent user experience.
