If you think customer support simply needs to consist of a 1-800 number, you may need to re-think your strategy. Today’s businesses dedicate a tremendous amount of time, money, and resources to promote themselves; however, giving little attention to customer support is one of the fastest ways to create a negative impression of your business.
In order to deliver customer support that gives your customers the help they need when they need it, here are five expert tips to incorporate into your strategy:
1. Make customer service available 24/7.
If you have the resources to do so, a great way to differentiate your business is to offer 24/7 customer support. There is nothing worse than calling a help line and receiving the automated recording to call back during business hours.
2. Embrace text-enabled customer service.
Does a large portion of your customer base consist of millennials? If so, consider offering text-enabled customer service. Considering that millennials prefer to text, this method of delivering customer service can greatly improve customer satisfaction.
3. Provide a live chat option.
You can make it extremely easy for customers to reach you by incorporating a live chat option into your website design. Live chat can help to remove the barriers of contacting customer support as it’s quick and easy to type a message versus hunting down a contact number. Another best practice is to include a link to a live chat page in your email signature.
4. Be social.
Considering that most of your customers are already on social media, incorporating social channels into your customer support strategy is key. However, in order to do this correctly, your business needs to dedicate the resources needed to ensure that social media conversations are addressed promptly and professionally.
5. Offer a self-service option.
You can create an FAQ page on your website to address some of the more common questions that customers have. Another great self-service tactic is to create an interactive customer forum. Both options will reduce customer support workload while providing customers with the support that they need.
As you work towards enhancing your own customer strategy, be sure to incorporate these five highly effective tactics for the best results.
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