Winning and retaining customers are complex tasks that require strategies to boost customer relationship and satisfaction, such as customer support. In addition to standard support operations, did you know that you can use strategies to turn your customer support into a competitive advantage?
Read this article to learn more about customer support and understand why it helps improve your customer experience and loyalty.
What is customer support?
Customer support is the department in charge of customer service. It usually answers questions, receives complaints, and suggests improvements.
Support service is present at different stages of the buying journey and sales funnel. It can be provided on a number of online and offline channels, seeking to offer the best experience to customers.
It’s a strategic department for the company as it collects data about customer profile, behavior, needs, and expectations, supporting the development of actions of other departments, such as sales and marketing.
Difference between support service and customer service
Many people think support service and customer service are the same thing. However, although both seek customer satisfaction and retention, there are differences between them.
Support has a more technical approach, offering objective help to investigate problems and resolve them efficiently. Therefore, it’s focused on solving issues related to a product or service. Also, good support strategies measure the number of support services provided, the average duration, and customer satisfaction.
On the other hand, customer service is more subjective, as it seeks to understand the pain points of customers and help them, ensuring that all their needs are met. It is committed to delivering an exceptional experience, not limited to the product or service provided. Also, it measures the quality of customer experience using metrics like the rating given by a customer to the company’s service or product, which represents an opportunity for improvement.
Read more: Keys to building a good customer relationship
Business benefits of good customer support
To highlight the importance of efficient customer support, we describe the main benefits of this service below.
I. Customer retention
Customer support provided with efficiency and empathy reduces the chances of churn as customers feel valued when they know they are supported if anything goes wrong.
II. Product improvement
Whether through satisfaction surveys or frequent chats in relationship channels, customer feedback is essential for the company to find out what its audience wants. It allows continuous evolution of product or service and becomes a competitive advantage.
III. Improved corporate image and reputation
Customer experience helps build brand reputation. Therefore, by investing in efficient support, consumers can become brand advocates, that is, people who actively support and promote your brand, products, and services.
5 tips to transform your customer support
Customer support comprises a number of steps that ensure efficient operation and promote customer satisfaction.
With that in mind, we provide below some important tips to help you provide an extraordinary customer experience. See below:
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Prioritize customer experience
Customers seek a consistent experience on every channel they use to contact your company. Therefore, the adoption of an omnichannel strategy is so important.
An omnichannel solution allows a company to receive customer requests via email, telephone, social media, or another channel in only one place. Customer history on all channels is centralized too, allowing companies to provide personalized and proactive service.
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Create a culture of service excellence
Proper training is a relevant aspect to ensure excellence in customer support. Therefore, keep the staff updated with the skills required to handle customer requests and resolve issues efficiently.
To offer quality service, it’s also important to recognize and value teamwork. Asking customers for feedback is a great way to show that you appreciate their opinions.
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Use technology to your advantage
To manage various channels and interactions in a productive, fast, and efficient manner, we suggest choosing a comprehensive software tool. For example, Milvus can centralize the management of customer requests received by your support team.
Milvus intelligent solution for demand management offers several important features to the support team, including:
- Broad dynamic configuration for the distribution of requests among desktops and definition of request categories;
- Quick and flexible demand management by configuring personalized deadlines to every category, priority and/or client;
- Connection with an AI tool to help develop answers and search for solutions;
- Parent and child tickets;
- Pre-scheduled tickets;
- Submission of tickets for approval via customer support platform;
- Field customization by type of request;
- Complex automation that make work routine more dynamic, avoiding repetitive and manual work.
These features ensure automation of level 1 support, offering several benefits, such as 24/7 availability, quick responses, consistent service, and customizations.
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Track and evaluate support performance
To evaluate the efficiency of customer support, adopt metrics that help identify areas of improvement and make better and more informed decisions, including response time, resolution rate, customer satisfaction index, among other relevant indicators.
With this information in hand, you can develop effective action plans.
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Invest in team training
Finally, agents should be trained on the processes, tools, business model, and products and services offered by the company. This way, they’ll be able to perform activities properly, identify faults, and improve customer support.
Rely on Milvus for efficient and organized customer support
To transform your customer support into a competitive advantage, you should invest in a comprehensive help desk and service desk system, such as Milvus.
This way, you’ll be able to store data obtained during interactions and map customer behavior and profile, ensuring better service quality.
Milvus can help your team with these and many other features. To learn more about the Milvus platform, contact our team and take a free trial.
