Customer Support Team Must-haves: Top Tools and Practices

 

Today we'd like to move a bit away from our usual focus on technical details towards matters filling business life with. In our texts we often speak about CRM, Help Desk, and Support — let's take a wider view on support and think about what makes service better and customers happier.

Indeed, delivering happiness and excellent customer support cements the relationship between businesses and their consumers, something that all businesses should strive to accomplish.

Studies have shown that companies that offer excellent customer support are more likely to retain customers, with 93% of customers saying they’ll buy again from such companies. On the flip side, 50% of the same customers vow to switch brands if the customer support leaves a bad taste in their mouths.

For such reasons, we’ve prepared the following article to help you learn the must-have tools and practices for customer support teams.

An online ticketing system is a help desk tool designed to process and manage customer issues from the time they submit their ‘tickets’ to the time they get them resolved.

Companies using an online ticketing system find it easier to collaborate and solve issues faster without the need for voice solutions. It also creates a better customer experience, as customers don't have to wait for minutes on end for voice agents.

If you're looking for the best online ticketing system, check out Freshdesk, Zendesk, or Kayako. By the way, with the first two Softphone.Pro has integrations out-of-the-box.

Live chat simply refers to a communication system allowing instant communication or ‘chat’ between the customer support team and its customers.

It works as a pop-up window on the web pages that offers a quick way of asking questions to the company’s representatives or, in this case, customer support.

Even the best online ticketing systems can suffer lags in minor requests from customers, and this is where the live chat system shines.

The chat system is ideal for responding to simple questions instantly and efficiently. Besides, most customers tend to prefer this over most support channels.

Check out LiveChat or HubSpot Live Chat if you’re looking for the best live chat systems.

Although this might sound straightforward, not many companies and customer support teams have been making the switch from voice support in a bid to save costs. But contrary to this move, many customers with pressing issues and emergencies would prefer to speak to a real person.

If you are looking to deliver an exceptional customer service experience, you should seriously consider having a voice support system. This includes providing a public phone number for support.

If that’s not an option, consider using a customer support software that features voice and video chat that you can share with your clients as needed.

Simply known as CRM, customer relationship management tools extend support to marketing, customer service, and sales functions for your overall business functions. They are exclusively designed to help support teams organize customer data, including recording and tracking customers at every stage of the buying journey.

These tools help teams manage their customer interactions with ease. Also, it makes data about all your customers available to any member of the team who might need it. Studies have shown that CRM tools can help you increase your customer retention by up to 27%.

If you’re looking for some of the best and most popular CRM systems, consider HubSpot and Salesforce — Softphone.Pro is integrated with both.

Enhancing your customer support services starts with educating your team about your customers. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by implementing a B2B customer support software solution that doubles down as an information management tool.

This allows you to store vital and actionable information about your customers. If you're looking for good B2B customer management software, check out TeamSupport.

Are you keeping close tabs on the online conversations around your brand? How do customers on popular social media platforms and forums like Twitter and Reddit perceive your services?

Social listening and monitoring tools are great for keeping a close eye on brand sentiments across various social media platforms. They help you track what your customers are saying, and from this, you can leverage these insights to provide more personalized experiences.

Hootsuite is a good and popular social listening and monitoring tool.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is not just a useful tool for protecting your online privacy and security, but it can also serve as a great customer support tool. A VPN offers you an encrypted and secure connection allowing you to communicate with customers from different locations in the world.

And besides, there are VPNs for all operating systems, including Macs, making it easy to use and access. You can improve your customer support experience and ensure that your customers receive the best possible service.

Here are three of the best customer support practices that you should consider incorporating to enhance your customer experience and prevent bad service.

Having a resource page on your website is great for you, as it helps your customers find answers to common queries or questions. Not only that, but it saves your customer support time and effort, which can be allocated to other customer support services.

You could start by including an FAQ page that also includes instructional videos on your products or other educational resources.

One of the popular trends in customer support involves making follow-ups with your customers even after their query has been satisfied. A simple call or email will only take a few minutes, but it shows that you genuinely care.

Prompt response times demonstrate respect for the customer's time and indicate a commitment to resolving their issue as quickly as possible. It also allows companies to build trust and loyalty with their customers.

Customers appreciate having multiple options to communicate, such as phone, email, and chat, which makes it easier for them to reach out for help. This approach can lead to increased satisfaction and loyalty as customers receive timely and efficient support through their preferred channels.

We hope you find some of these tools useful in improving your customer experience and overall customer support function. Remember, putting the customer first is always key to delivering excellent customer service.

After all, “To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.” — Douglas Adams. Nothing to add, no greater wealth than wisdom. Be wise, put the customers first, keep calm.

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