Even if the product or service is imperfect, the client most likely stays with you when he is confident that the product is developing and the team is always ready to provide adequate support. Of course, not all customers are so gracious - some need an immediate decision and they will go to competitors without hesitation - but sometimes it is immaculate support that soothes disappointments in a growing but promising product. The essence of support in managing the primary desires of human nature: to be heard, understood and to feel caring.
We have collected 10 tips on how to provide better support if you want to create a business that you love.
1. Inbox 0
It’s hard to find a balance between quality and speed of response, especially when your team grows. This will help templates with pre-compiled answers. But be careful: one template may not be the same at first glance. Use templates as the skeleton of the answer and do not forget about the individual approach.
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2. Literate priority
If you process appeals in priority only by the time of receipt, then when you get to the letter from an angry customer, which required urgent attention, it may be too late. Make it more flexible the principle by which the letters are waiting for their turn.
3. Communication within the team
Not only support is involved in solving customer problems, as a rule, several departments are involved. If this is an online store, then IT, delivery, operators. Draw up rules of interaction on client issues: how quickly colleagues must answer, where you communicate, how the history of resolving the issue is preserved. When you work, as a single debugged mechanism, the quality is immediately visible.
4. Support 24/7
From 10 to 15 and lunch work only in the housing office, and support for that and support to be ready to support and take care at any time of the day or night. If you still have a standard schedule, and customers in all time zones, let them know how much to wait for an answer. Inform also about the timeline for the consideration of the request and the change of statuses: the client does not want to feel abandoned and should know how the solution of his question passes. To manually not track each request, use automatic rules and notifications.
5. Language
Tone and language is the only way to communicate by e-mail when you cannot use facial expressions and intonation of voice. Every word has a meaning. Do not use official vocabulary and words that you will not use in real life. Avoid professional terms that are not understandable to the client. Humanity, care, a simple explanation of complex things - the three components of an ideal email support.
6. Formatting
It is easy for a client to read when the important is highlighted in bold, the steps are marked with a bulleted list, and what is not explained in words can be seen in the picture.
7. Staff rotation
At the front of the line, it is useful to sit with specialists from non-client departments. Marketers will get an idea about customers to improve their achievements; IT professionals will find out which functions or tools need to be fixed, and managers will turn proposals for business improvement into a real plan based on feedback.
8. Statistics
Monitor what happens in support. Does the team manage to respond to all emails? When is the biggest load? What questions are asked most often? If you know the answers, you can easily find weaknesses and be able to take action on time.
9. Inventiveness.
Once, a very unhappy customer, along with an apology, I sent such a picture.
He was pleased.
10. Tool
Make sure that the tool to communicate with customers is selected correctly and can withstand scaling. He should help to control and keep the support in order, even if the team has grown 10 times. If you have to substitute crutches to the outlook and turn inside out to maintain high quality of service, you should think about switching to
helpdesk.