Ever surprise what the client assist queue for a buyer assist platform may appear to be? Welcome to the Help Crew Mailbag, a weblog sequence the place you may be taught what’s on our prospects’ minds and get the within scoop on how we offer assist.
In the present day’s query:
Do you may have any examples of how completely different assist groups handle their queues and construction their inboxes? I’d like to see what people are doing!
Nice query!
There are a variety of methods to arrange your mailbox and handle your queue. Some assist groups make use of assignments to offer possession of every dialog to a particular particular person. This could be a good strategy if one crew member is an skilled on a particular subject or if you happen to simply wish to be sure that your whole buyer requests are equally distributed amongst your division.
Holding conversations unassigned
At Assist Scout, we take a distinct strategy. We primarily depend on retaining conversations unassigned, making it a team-shared duty to reply to any conversations that land in our inbox. Every member of our assist crew is educated to deal with the big selection of questions we obtain. Hopefully, we’re capable of resolve the client’s query with one reply, but when not, when the client writes again, the following accessible crew member will decide up the case.
We like this strategy as a result of it permits us to get prospects again on observe extra rapidly. We don’t have to fret about ensuring our particular circumstances are coated once we log off for the day or have a vacation off from work. One among our teammates in one other time zone or location will maintain the dialog transferring ahead.
Nonetheless, this methodology of queue administration will also be difficult. As a completely distant crew unfold the world over and its many time zones, we are able to’t jump over to a different particular person’s desk when we have now a query. Ad-hoc video calls or Slack messages are undoubtedly helpful, however they don’t seem to be all the time doable and never all the time the quickest solution to resolve an issue.
We’ve wanted to develop particular and clear processes and communication tips to assist us assist our prospects, no matter time zone. Right here’s how we leverage Assist Scout options to do that.
Utilizing views for higher focus
Since we’re all primarily within the unassigned folder, it’s been actually vital to assist our crew prioritize conversations and stave off emotions of overwhelm. In any case, weeding by an ever-growing queue masking all the pieces from password resets to difficult API points could be a lot to absorb!
Whereas some of us could thrive in chaos and the unknown, an organized inbox can assist the remainder of our crew discover focus and higher strategize their strategy to the queue. To assist, we’ve created views in our inbox to allow us to identify pressing issues and control conversations which have been sitting within the inbox longer than we’d like.
We kind conversations into views primarily based on particular circumstances we set, similar to conversations which have particular tags or key phrases, or through the use of time-based standards. Views are seen to everybody on the crew, and the conversations inside every view additionally present up of their top-level folder (e.g., an unassigned dialog in our “pressing” view may even present up within the unassigned folder).
We repeatedly assessment how our crew works from these views. If a view feels clunky or isn’t serving to, we’ll make changes and check out once more!
Notes to offer readability
Since we don’t assign conversations to ourselves, we want to have the ability to decide up the place the final particular person left off. Leaving clear notes could make that course of loads simpler.
Including inner notes for each other permits us to restate the issue when working by a posh state of affairs, share our troubleshooting course of so the following particular person is aware of what has already been tried, recommend doable subsequent steps, or ask lingering questions. It additionally offers us an opportunity to loop in somebody who might need some additional perception.
We frequently accomplice notes up with different options to assist make issues even smoother.
Notes + saved replies
Saved replies are useful for sending out fast e mail or chat replies to prospects, however we additionally use them to construct inner templates that assist us present consistency in our communication.
When we have to escalate a dialog, we create a be aware and insert a saved reply that has a troubleshooting template in it. We fill within the template earlier than assigning the case to our triage crew, giving all of them the data they should decide up the dialog.
Having a standardized solution to talk presents readability for all concerned: the one who first labored on the dialog is aware of precisely what data must be offered earlier than escalating, and our triage teammates can begin with a helpful overview of the state of affairs.
Notes + workflows
A few of the emails we obtain have frequent subsequent steps. To offer our crew a head begin on these kinds of emails, we use automated workflows so as to add a be aware with helpful troubleshooting recommendation or subsequent steps as quickly as our system receives them. This helps ease the crew’s psychological load, as they don’t want to begin from scratch.
For instance, our assist crew assesses purposes to Assist Scout’s startup program. We use an automated workflow to identify startup purposes and add a be aware with particular directions for dealing with them. Without having to click on anyplace or keep in mind what to do, we instantly are reminded decide eligibility, see names of saved replies we could discover related, and have a hyperlink to a associated inner useful resource in case extra assist is required.
AI for a second set of eyes
One of many newer introductions to Assist Scout are our AI options. Identical to all of our prospects, we’ve needed to determine how and when to introduce AI into our current processes. We’ve discovered it helpful to think about AI options as an additional software in our rising assist toolkit that we are able to select to make use of when it makes essentially the most sense — and we depart it as much as the person to determine when that’s.
AI summarize is a function that many on the crew have discovered useful of their day-to-day work.
I summarize conversations to see if I can achieve any extra insights that I might need missed. It does not even need to be a protracted dialog — having that additional test will be useful as AI summarize may interpret the state of affairs in a different way than I did.
Javier Silverio
Senior Technical Help Specialist
I exploit it when the dialog has gotten actually lengthy! I typically concern that it gained’t catch one thing, so I’d find yourself re-reading issues anyway, however the abstract is a useful snapshot when my mind will get tangly and begins zoning out.
Kelly Hummell
Senior Technical Help Specialist
Even crew members who’ve been at Assist Scout for a very long time have discovered the function useful. For example, VP of Prospects Abigail Phillips has been on the firm for eight years and finds that the generated abstract helps her course of longer conversations:
AI summarize offers me a fast preview of a dialog, permitting me to leap into the case extra simply by already realizing the general circulate earlier than entering into.
Abigail Phillips
VP of Prospects
Discover a system that works for you
Our assist crew is like yours — we goal to offer our prospects with the very best assist doable. The practices above assist our absolutely distant crew navigate a shared queue easily, with good outcomes (i.e., pleased prospects!).
What works for our crew may fit for yours too, however earlier than adopting our strategy, we encourage you to think about what your personal crew’s challenges are. Listed below are some questions which will assist begin the dialog to your crew:
What does a wholesome queue imply to your crew? What’s your teamwide strategy for sustaining that well being?
What’s the smoothest a part of your crew’s day within the queue, and what course of, information, or assist software function has been most useful to assist that?
What’s a snag in the best way your crew works within the queue that will get in the best way of serving to prospects or collaborating with one another?
What’s in your crew’s wishlist for issues that may assist them work extra successfully?
These kinds of questions can assist immediate helpful reflection on what your crew wants as a way to present nice assist. From there, take into account how the options of your chosen assist software program — we’re keen on Assist Scout 😌 — may be used to satisfy these wants.
We’d love to listen to what options you’ve leveraged to help your groups, in addition to if in case you have any questions for us. Is there a assist course of or circulate you’re mulling over and aren’t certain accomplish it? Let’s discuss about it!