If your B2B organization has integrated a self-service portal into your support operation, you have a firsthand account of how it can lead to a better customer experience. In fact, this type of customer support is becoming commonplace. However, in order for this channel to bring long-term success, it needs to scale alongside your organization.
To effectively scale this service, you need to manage the growing complexity of the content you provide. You also need to properly manage the way your agents use the content to avoid inconsistencies across different departments. This will help ensure you’re providing a good customer experience to each client. Let’s go over some ways to scale your self-service channel as your business grows.
Keep It Simple
The information in your knowledge base may contain a wealth of technical information, but this doesn’t mean managing it should be complex. Agents should be accessing and editing content via a centralized interface. This helps prevent the chance of redundant information. It also allows for department-wide visibility of all information, which promotes the evolution of content that will help support multiple roles.
In addition to simpler internal use, client interaction with the portal should be clear and concise. Customers should be able to navigate the content gracefully and be able to easily search for topics. This will promote the use of the portal as a primary means of finding solutions to product issues.
Content Development
As your company grows, it’s imperative you add and revise the content your clients are accessing. This is especially important if you rely on your knowledge base to support your agents as well. You may want to consider breaking down pieces of content and becoming more detailed with regard to the product information you provide. If done well, your clients will turn to your portal more and more.
A good approach when adding more content to your arsenal is to first see which problems are popping up more than others. You can do this by running data reports regarding ticket issues. You can also check your current content to see which pages are being viewed more than others. Then, concentrate on improving and expanding this content. You can also consider doing away with or overhauling information that’s not proving useful to your clients.
Scalable Solutions
Taking advantage of technology can help you better utilize your portal and the content in it. Things like automation and customizable customer support software will allow your agents to more effectively work with and modify information. They’ll be able to use content while communicating with clients through other channels. Agents can also actively add to content so that information is consistent on a company-wide level.
This type of centralized solution is exactly what companies need in order to grow. However, this solution shouldn’t be thought of as homogenous. In fact, it allows for a more unique customer experience and provides more flexible management of knowledge base content.
Let Your Self-Service Solution Grow With You
If you want your client portal to remain successful, it needs to evolve as your organization grows. Use support technology to help make this happen.
PhaseWare can implement customizable customer support software to help with this process. Contact us today to learn more.