If your business success depends on the type of customer support you provide, it’s important you stay informed about support ideologies. Doing so ensures you stay up to date on current methods for serving your client base. There’s a lot of terminology involved in the customer support industry. Much of it deals with new technologies such as B2B customer support software. Other terms involve techniques for delivering good service to your clients.
Many customer support terms may seem interchangeable. However, when you drill down into their meaning, you get a lot more information from them. Three of these terms are “customer success,†customer service,†and “help desk.†Knowing how to differentiate between these terms will help you understand the value of your support operation and make changes when necessary. Let’s break down each of these terms.
Understanding Customer Success
This term means your client’s business success, right? Well, not totally. In the support world, a customer success team focuses on the overall relationship between your company and the client. They act as a liaison to help your client get the most out of your remaining support team. In order to do this, they must fully understand your client’s business goals. A big difference between a customer success team and other support departments is they don’t work directly with the customer to fix issues. Think of them more like the big picture team that’s working behind the scenes to ensure your organization is doing everything it can for your client base.
The Idea of Customer Service
Regardless of whether they’re consumers or business owners, most people are familiar with the phrase “customer service.†Of the three terms, this one is the easiest to understand. Customer service refers to finding a solution to an issue when the customer reaches out to the business. Customer service departments handle simple problems, such as troubleshooting a product issue or setting up a refund. However, due to the nature of B2B products, it can get much more extensive. Agents in this industry must rely on configurable customer service tools such as live chat and a knowledge base to provide quick answers to complex issues.
The Different Types of Help Desks
Most people have a perception of what a help desk is. For the most part, they’re not wrong. However, there are actually two levels of a help desk, external and internal. An external help desk is involved with solving customer support issues. For most businesses, this is one of several customer service channels. An internal help desk focuses on issues within the organization instead of handling client problems. They have a huge impact on the day-to-day operation of a business. Regardless of your needs, B2B customer support software can help you implement the right kind of help desk solutions for your operation.
Bring the Best Solutions to Your Client Base
To remain competitive in the B2B marketplace, you need to provide the best possible solutions to your clients. This means using state of the art tools in your in-house support infrastructure.
PhaseWare can help by providing configurable customer service software. Contact us today to learn more.