Because of the ease of reaching out through the internet and social media, there is continually an enormous number of customers looking for assistance from a great customer support team.
If you want effective customer support for your business it is helpful to have dedicated staff and officers who are always ready and willing to help. If you operate a manufacturing business, you may have someone on staff to help service suppliers, if your company is a consumer business like grocery and clothing stores, you need employees who can take care of questions from their customers.
Getting employees properly trained and equipped to assist their customers and how to use the right information to deliver the best answer to their questions is key to success. As the manager of a customer support company, you should also be knowledgeable about customer service matters and think of ways to strengthen your support team. Provide your employees with training and access to best practices that they can follow so they can develop positive traits of customer service that you want to instill in them.
Set Limits and Expectations
As with any aspect of business, it is important to create limitations and expectations for your customer support team. You need to give your staff some parameters in which they are to operate and you have to maintain clear lines of communication with your employees to ensure that the topics that you want discussed are handled properly.
Miscommunication is a major reason why a customer support team fails. Mistakes such as the failure to send an invoice or not following through on a refund, can cause you loss of revenue and unsatisfied customers.
Delegate tasks properly and let them know that you expect them to fulfill all the tasks that you or the team manager assigns to them. Keeping the team up to speed on their duties would help your company avoid mistakes caused by miscommunication.
Apologize and Move On
At one time or another, mistakes will happen but at the end of the day your customer support team will perform better if they feel supported.
Do not dwell on their mistakes and put them in a position where they are embarrassed or put on the spot for their error. Encourage them to acknowledge their error, apologize, and that should be the end of the conversation.
Equip them with proper training to avoid committing the same mistake. Supporting your customer service team’s growth will allow you gain their trust.
Train More Get More
It is good if your team feels comfortable enough to approach you and ask for help, however, you may not always have the time to answer their questions and give them support. As the customer service team that supposedly has the answers to customers’ concerns, shouldn’t they be more educated?
You might have to spend for training and education, but that would be a wise investment. A customer service team could not be unfamiliar with customer concern solutions. They need to be trustworthy and reliable and that would only happen if they are properly trained and armed with an updated knowledge base that would act as an encyclopedia of answers.
Equipped with all the necessary skills and information, your customer service team will help you retain your customers and keep them happy resulting in good feedback, referrals, and increased business.
Supportbench unifies customer support, success, experience, knowledge management, and account management into one simple platform. Do more, with less, to maximize your retention.
Ready to provide excellent customer support and build a customer support team? Contact us today!
