Customer service is an aspect of business that most companies can’t afford to get wrong. For many successful companies, customer service is more than just a department, it’s a business philosophy.
The statistics that support the need for great customer service can be astounding. Some research shows that fewer than 10 percent of dissatisfied customers will let you know about it, but 300 percent more people will know about your business from unhappy customers versus satisfied customers. Basically, an unsatisfied customer will tell everyone they know about a bad experience – at the click of a button – except the company itself.
The lesson is that very few things are more valuable than happy customers, who can become evangelists of your brand, an extension of your marketing efforts and long-term loyal patrons.
Businesses should be doing everything they can to make customers satisfied, and these five tools can help provide great customer service and support.
Live person chats.
Offering customers a live online chat forum with agents is a great way to give free and easy support and avoids the nuisance of a call center. Olark and Live Person are two popular products.
Social media adapters.
Several products enable businesses to identify relevant customer conversations from communities and social media channels and route them to customer service agents. The integration allows inquiries that haven’t been answered in sufficient time to be escalated into wider business operations. Lithium Social Web, Chatter Communities, and Jive are three such products.
Integrated help desks.
A ticketing support system can help manage support requests for companies with a high volume of inquiries. Zendesk is an integrated system that takes customer communications from your website, email, phone, chat or social media platforms and lets you respond from one place.Help Scout and Parature also offer integrated systems.
Peer-to-peer communities.
Discussion forums and communities are great ways to offer support and can benefit both businesses and customers. They enable customers to share information, tips, and best practices with each other without the need to engage customer service agents. The most popular vendors include Rusic, Get Satisfaction and Lithium.
Self-service and tutorials.
Some inquiries and resolutions can be resolved by the customer themselves after they receive some direction. This allows the rest of the customer service system to deal with more serious issues and thus saves money. WalkMe is a popular point-and-click tutorial creation system.
The statistics that support the need for great customer service can be astounding. Some research shows that fewer than 10 percent of dissatisfied customers will let you know about it, but 300 percent more people will know about your business from unhappy customers versus satisfied customers. Basically, an unsatisfied customer will tell everyone they know about a bad experience – at the click of a button – except the company itself.
The lesson is that very few things are more valuable than happy customers, who can become evangelists of your brand, an extension of your marketing efforts and long-term loyal patrons.
Businesses should be doing everything they can to make customers satisfied, and these five tools can help provide great customer service and support.
Live person chats.
Offering customers a live online chat forum with agents is a great way to give free and easy support and avoids the nuisance of a call center. Olark and Live Person are two popular products.
Social media adapters.
Several products enable businesses to identify relevant customer conversations from communities and social media channels and route them to customer service agents. The integration allows inquiries that haven’t been answered in sufficient time to be escalated into wider business operations. Lithium Social Web, Chatter Communities, and Jive are three such products.
Integrated help desks.
A ticketing support system can help manage support requests for companies with a high volume of inquiries. Zendesk is an integrated system that takes customer communications from your website, email, phone, chat or social media platforms and lets you respond from one place.Help Scout and Parature also offer integrated systems.
Peer-to-peer communities.
Discussion forums and communities are great ways to offer support and can benefit both businesses and customers. They enable customers to share information, tips, and best practices with each other without the need to engage customer service agents. The most popular vendors include Rusic, Get Satisfaction and Lithium.
Self-service and tutorials.
Some inquiries and resolutions can be resolved by the customer themselves after they receive some direction. This allows the rest of the customer service system to deal with more serious issues and thus saves money. WalkMe is a popular point-and-click tutorial creation system.
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