As a B2B organization, your continued success depends on the quality of support you provide your clients. This can’t be ignored in today’s competitive marketplace. However, occasional mistakes are to be expected in the customer service industry. They simply can’t be avoided. But what happens when you’re providing poor customer service on a regular basis?
The first thing to consider is what exactly constitutes bad service. For a customer support team, high resolution times and repeat inquiries are both telltale signs something’s wrong. You may also notice an uptick in the amount of time your agents are spending on common issues. Finally, if client feedback is negative, you have a big problem on your hands. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to turn things around. Keep reading for some easy ways to overcome poor customer support.
Implement the Right Tools
Technology is integral in modern support infrastructures. If your agents don’t have the right tools at their fingertips, there’s no way they can provide the level of support needed to remain successful. By integrating configurable customer support software into your operation, you’re providing invaluable capabilities to your agents. The right software will enable your staff to have access to client profiles, regardless of the channel they’re interacting with. This means they can jump from channel to channel without having to hold up the resolution process. In addition, customer support automation will take a lot of the workload off your agents so they can concentrate on providing timely, high-quality support instead of attending of menial tasks.
Provide Clients More Ways to Get Answers
It’s no longer good enough to only provide email and phone support. Businesses that rely on a customer service department must provide their clients with additional means of resolving issues. A chat feature is imperative. Your busy clients will be able to get answers to product questions without interruption in their own workflow. Even better is a self-service portal. This provides clients with a knowledge base that allows them to find answers to their questions without having to contact your support team. As long as you keep the content fresh and well-written, you’ll cut down on client frustration. In fact, you’ll probably find that your clients prefer this method.
Look to Metrics for Help
If you can’t figure out why your support process is failing, you need to analyze metrics on a regular basis. This is will help you pinpoint where changes need to be made. With configurable customer support software, you can get detailed data reports that focus on specific trends. You can discover wherein the support process tickets are getting held up. This information is invaluable when refining your procedures. Metrics can also expose a need for additional agent training. You may even need to move certain agents to new roles. Finally, data reports will give you a clear look at how your self-service portal is working. If you use your portal as a selling point when signing new clients and it’s not providing quality service, it needs to be refined.
Find a Solution to Poor Customer Support
The longer you provide poor support, the more damage you’re doing to your bottom line. Bad customer support is also detrimental to your business reputation.
Let PhaseWare help by providing customer support automation tools that will put the power back in your agent’s hands. Contact us to learn more.