There was a time when you had to hire a team that would take care of your customer service for your business. This would include chat support, call support, and everything else related to customer service. You also had to pay a hefty amount from your business’s budget as salary, and there was always room for error, since humans do make mistakes sometimes.
However, things changed with developments in the tech industry, and it made providing customer service a lot easier. For instance, there are a lot of tools that you can use to streamline your customer service and reduce any room for error.
Before you begin working on your own customer service, it is best to take a look at other companies and draw inspiration from what they are doing. For instance, Xfinity customer service provides support around the clock, all through the week, for their internet service. Whether it’s for plan upgrade, billing, or installation, Xfinity internet customers reach out to 24/7 support. If you want happy customers for your business, too, a 24/7 service is what you should be aiming for.
Other than that, here are a few other tools that you can use to make sure you give stellar customer service not only to retain old customers, but to attract new ones too:
1. Live Chat Tools
If you wish to provide a speedy service to your customers, it is best that you begin by subscribing to a reliable live chat tool.
The purpose of live chat is to give support in real-time, so there are two things that the process depends on: a great internet service and an amazing live chat platform. That way, you can answer queries faster, and if you are successful enough, you can close sales faster as well. Some live-chat platforms also come with AI-powered greetings and responses to speed up the process. They can also trigger nudges and offers based on the user behavior, and seamlessly transition between bot and human if you are using a chatbot.
Some platforms that you can consider using include Zendesk, Intercom, and Tidio. Each platform has most of the features that you need, designed to give you a smooth live-chatting experience.
2. Ticketing Systems and Help Desk
Having a shared inbox is always a bad idea, since it adds a lot of clutter to your service and slows down response times. If you do have a shared inbox, your customers may need to follow up in the chats over and over again, which increases frustration and makes you lose your credibility as a business.
However, you can use ticketing and helpdesk tools instead, which helps to streamline the process. These tools can record every customer query, and then the agents can assign them to each other to ensure that there isn’t any clutter or confusion. You can also track progress on chats through these tools and can cater to queries coming in through various sources, such as chat, emails, phone, or even social media.
Some tools that you can consider using include Freshdesk, Zendesk, and Zoho Desk. Some of these are even backed by AI so that you can have an easier time getting your tasks done.
3. AI and Chatbots
You can’t rely on a team of humans all the time because they have limitations. For instance, one agent can only cater to one chat at a time. If they cater to more than their capacity, they won’t be able to do the job properly, and unintentionally make errors.
However, you can avoid this hassle if you get a chatbot for your business, since it can cater to multiple chats and queries at one time. This will help you build credibility and trust for your business.
These chatbots not only help you with customer support and queries, but also with collecting essential customer data and even assist you in sales in some cases. You can also train your chatbot to assist customers through self-service, which can further speed up the process for you.
Some chatbots that you can consider using include Botpress, WotNot, and Voiceflow. Each of them has its own perks, so make sure you do your research so that you can decide which one works the best for you.
4. Knowledge Base Tools
Sometimes, it can get monotonous for customers to ask the same kind of questions over and over again, and it can also be the same for customer support agents.
Invest in a good knowledge base tool allows your customers to solve their problems on their own at any time, without having to start a chat with a support agent.
Through this tool, you can utilize the power of AI to create intelligent hubs for your customers to use. The most prominent knowledge bases combine content suggestions, search, and usage data to determine what your customer might want.
Some of the best platforms include Notion, GitBook, and HelpScout, where you can find all the features that you are looking for. Just make sure you use all of these tools so that you can make the most out of your customer service process.