I’ve at all times labored in customer support. I’ve labored the field workplace at a San Francisco vacationer attraction, dealt with front-line and escalation assist for a client electronics model, labored in information administration, and now I assist produce content material at an organization that makes buyer assist software program.
Through the years, I’ve spent a good period of time excited about assist and what sort of expertise I’m offering prospects. How can I simplify the troubleshooting steps on this saved reply? Am I doing a adequate job of empowering prospects to self-serve? Is that this weblog publish helpful and relatable? How can I get these of us from Australia to Alcatraz wanting rowing them there myself?
Plenty of vital questions there, particularly if you happen to’re afraid of open water. Nonetheless, one query I’ve by no means actually thought of is “What’s customer support?”
At first look, it looks like a easy query with an apparent reply.
What’s customer support?
Customer support is the show you how to present individuals shopping for your organization’s items or utilizing its companies.
However I feel we will all agree that customer support is about much more than answering a cellphone name, offering troubleshooting steps, or processing a return.
At Assist Scout, we predict customer support is fairly vital, however there may be nonetheless numerous variance in what customer support means to every of us. On this publish, we’ll discover what members of the group assume customer support is, why assist is vital, and the way buyer care impacts your enterprise.
Customer support aids in product adoption and reduces churn
Have you ever ever purchased one thing, gotten it house, and couldn’t make it work? Perhaps you fiddled with it a bit by yourself, leafed via the instruction guide, or requested a member of the family for assist. Finally, you in all probability took to the web to (hopefully) discover a solution within the firm’s assist middle or on their YouTube channel.
In a scenario like this, if you happen to can shortly discover assist, be it via a well-designed information base, a thoughtfully applied chatbot, or a fast trade with the customer support group, chances are high you’ll forgive the preliminary unfavorable expertise and preserve the product. However if you happen to can’t discover a solution, contact data is hidden or lacking altogether, otherwise you wind up trapped in an unsightly tango with a nasty IVR system, what are you going to do?
That merchandise is heading proper again to the shop or, at a naked minimal, to a really darkish nook of your storage, by no means to be seen once more.
The job of customer support is to make it simple and pleasant for purchasers to make use of your services or products.
Chrissy Chavez
Technical Help Specialist
Some enterprise leaders would possibly assume that assist high quality and buyer expertise isn’t as vital as your services or products; nevertheless, 80% of consumers say in any other case. Whereas it’s true {that a} extra intuitive product would assist essentially the most in a scenario just like the one above, good service within the type of self-service choices or restoration technique couldn’t solely negate the affect of a nasty expertise however even assist construct model loyalty.
Customer support is everybody’s accountability
However, poor service can have an enduring impact. A 2023 survey discovered that 73% of consumers will abandon a model after only one occasion of subpar service. This reveals that assist’s affect on a buyer’s general expertise with — and opinion of — a model is substantial.
If you wish to present your prospects with the very best expertise attainable, customer support should be seen as an all-hands-on-deck operation requiring cooperation throughout each division.
I take into consideration ‘customer support’ within the broadest sense of the time period — each touchpoint is a chance to provide the client a seamless, gratifying expertise shopping for, utilizing, or troubleshooting a services or products.
That encompasses way more than simply assist when there’s an issue or query. It’s how effectively your web site tells your story and will get customers the place they need to go, the model values and persona prospects get to expertise in your communications, and the way simple it’s to work together along with your firm throughout each optimistic and unfavorable moments.
Hillary Noble
Director of Content material
At Assist Scout, the Advertising and marketing group at all times provides our Clients group — our title for assist — a heads-up when we have now an electronic mail scheduled to be despatched to prospects, are making ready to publicly announce a brand new function, or are making a change to the web site.
Equally, our builders give the group a shout earlier than rolling out a launch or in the event that they discover a efficiency challenge with the platform. This enables the Clients group to organize for questions, be looking out for associated points, and react extra shortly if one thing goes improper.
We additionally think about customer support in the course of the design course of for each the Assist Scout product and our advertising website. We use Beacons — our embeddable net widget — to offer entry to our assist group’s contact kind from throughout the buyer expertise. We additionally hyperlink to useful assets like stay courses and our weblog within the web site’s nav bar for straightforward entry.
It’s your complete firm’s job to assist our prospects really feel supported and have a optimistic expertise with Assist Scout, and we’re at all times searching for methods to enhance.
Customer support is about empowering prospects
Ensuring prospects don’t encounter obstacles to customer support is vital, but when we’re being trustworthy, a buyer’s ultimate situation shouldn’t be having to speak to your assist group in any respect. For easy points, prospects would fairly assist themselves.
Customer support to me is that feeling the place you are about to ask a query or elevate a grievance, and somebody passes you the answer at that second. They’ve anticipated what you want and have solved it for you with out you needing to ask or get your enter.
If you consider self-service, you in all probability think about a well-organized information base, an AI-powered chatbot offering 24/7 assist, and big value financial savings for your enterprise. And whereas sure, self-service can present buyer expertise and fewer tickets within the queue, it isn’t free.
Behind each profitable self-service technique is a devoted group, digging into buyer questions and issues and discovering the easiest way to proactively current data in order that prospects are arrange for fulfillment.
For me, the very first thing that involves thoughts helps individuals assist themselves. It shouldn’t be nearly giving the client a solution and sending them on their approach. As an alternative, good customer support ought to first get to the foundation of the issue by asking well-crafted questions after which empowering the client, not solely with the answer, but in addition serving to them clear up comparable issues sooner or later.
Tamara Zuk
Senior Engineer
The truth is, information administration groups are much more essential in immediately’s world of AI enthusiasm. In spite of everything, AI instruments are solely nearly as good as the data they’re fed, which implies that investing in your assist group is simply as — if no more — vital because it was earlier than ChatGPT got here on the scene.
As we begin to construct AI options into our product, the group is placing further effort into our personal documentation and analyzing how we will help our prospects create AI-friendly Docs websites that can result in a greater self-serve expertise for his or her prospects, too.
Customer support is a profession that requires ability
Customer support is usually simply seen as a stepping stone in a profession — a task the place you will get your foot within the door after which transfer on to one thing higher. Nonetheless, that is normally the view of somebody who has by no means held a assist place. Customer support is a occupation that requires an incredible quantity of ability, and never everybody can do it effectively.
Individuals who have a knack for assist are useful to firms in a lot of other ways. In fact, there’s the plain — they’re specialists at getting prospects again on observe shortly. Nonetheless, they’ll even have a major affect on the services or products itself.
[Customer] interactions also can assist form the product even when the client didn’t instantly share suggestions when reaching out. Nice customer support [teams] can learn between the traces and share that data with the Product group.
Tamara Zuk
Senior Engineer
Help groups do extra than simply reply questions. They will see previous the particular ask of the client and use their product information to determine and provide inventive options. In addition they use these interactions to advocate for product enhancements that scale back friction and enhance buyer expertise.
Customer support deserves a seat on the desk
As talked about above, buyer conversations are stuffed with precious data. Nonetheless, getting that buyer suggestions to the broader firm is usually a problem.
One strategy to preserve everybody within the firm up to the mark is by giving assist a seat on the desk. Your assist leaders ought to current at all-hands conferences frequently, offering concrete information and suggestions from actual prospects. In fact, visibility doesn’t have to cease on the management stage; each assist group member has one thing worthwhile to contribute.
Customer support not solely informs prospects but in addition acts as a significant channel for firms to persistently gauge buyer sentiment and preferences.
Wendy Chen
Assistant Controller
At Assist Scout, members of the purchasers group are supplied with a number of other ways to share the information gained from their work with prospects. One instance is the choice to work on “mini groups,” that are small squads devoted to a selected function or product launch. They’re accountable for issues like product testing, creating associated documentation, answering any questions that are available from prospects and teammates on the subject, and instantly passing buyer and assist group suggestions to the related product supervisor.
Pssst — are you a assist professional searching for tips about easy methods to make your case to the product group?
Hearken to Season 1, Episode 3 of The Supportive podcast, hosted by Mat Patterson. On this episode, Mat chats with product supervisor (and former Assist Scout!) Ben Henderson about his function and the way buyer assist leaders can most successfully make their case for product modifications and fixes.
Customer support is usually an underutilized useful resource, particularly on the agent stage. Firms that present distinctive service know that and make sure that assist is at all times concerned with any initiative that has buyer affect.
Customer support supplies area for human connection
Whereas it’s good to have a buyer advocate within the room, it’s no substitute for really rolling up your sleeves and answering buyer questions. At Assist Scout, your complete firm will get into the queue usually to remain in contact with buyer sentiment. It helps us improve product information whereas constructing curiosity and empathy.
It’s additionally good for the client. Customer support is a approach for us to construct relationships and join with prospects on a private stage. Based on Heidi Harris, a member of our Individuals group, generally that’s precisely what a buyer wants.
My first job out of faculty was working in customer support for a automotive finance firm. I used to be in a regional workplace and many of the cellphone calls I acquired had been from of us who known as the 1-800 quantity, sat on maintain for about two hours, after which had been lastly transferred to us. Most of them weren’t joyful once I picked up the cellphone, so my strategy was to convey as a lot kindness and empathy as attainable to each dialog — even once I was pissed off.
There’s one name particularly I’ll always remember. A buyer wanted monetary reduction for her automotive cost — and to maintain her automotive. Her daughter had most cancers and wanted to be pushed a number of hours away just a few instances every week for therapy. We decreased her funds for a number of months, and she or he was so grateful. She informed me about her daughter, the challenges they had been going through, and the way she was hopeful. She not solely wanted assist along with her automotive funds, she wanted somebody to hear.
For me, that is customer support. It’s in regards to the human connection. Whether or not you’re working with somebody over chat or electronic mail, calling an organization about a problem, or spending two minutes with a checker within the grocery line, it’s remembering that there’s a human being on the opposite aspect and discovering small methods to make their day just a bit bit higher.
Heidi Harris
Lead Individuals Enterprise Accomplice
Whether or not you’re a assist rep or a buyer, it may be simple to overlook that the one on the opposite finish of the cellphone is an actual particular person. Good customer support is all about tapping into one another’s humanity, discovering an answer to an issue, and constructing belief that spans past a single interplay.
Customer support is a mirrored image of your organization’s values
As I wrote this publish, I assumed loads about what I imagine customer support is. Whereas I can level to particular options of excellent customer support, like proactive assist or delivering buyer expertise, I’ve been considering extra about what customer support says about an organization’s values.
Everybody is aware of in regards to the nice assist that Chewy, the pet provide ecommerce enterprise, supplies. They do the standard assist stuff effectively — quick refunds, simple returns, and many others. However they’re additionally well-known for delivering surprising delight within the type of birthday playing cards and shock pet work, in addition to compassion and empathy when a buyer’s pet passes away.
These actions aren’t simply good service; they’re selections and practices that replicate what’s vital to the model, like being customer-first, delivering outcomes, incomes belief, and considering large.
Buyer-first values: How we work at Assist Scout
Whereas the connection between values and repair is effectively executed within the instance above, it isn’t true for each enterprise. Prior to now, I might normally discover a listing of values and statements on imaginative and prescient and mission in an worker handbook on my first day at a brand new firm. I might hear all about them whereas coaching, then by no means once more.
They had been out of my thoughts earlier than I even completed my new rent paperwork.
At Assist Scout, we have now 4 guiding values that assist outline how we work. They don’t seem to be simply ideas that stay in an onboarding slide deck, however fairly one thing that we stay and discuss day by day. In conferences, in efficiency discussions, in giving one another a shout out for a job effectively achieved — our values are completely embedded in our firm tradition.
For those who’re , you’ll be able to dive additional into what every worth means and the way we outlined them on this article, however for now, let’s take a second to take a look at how our values present up within the expertise and repair we offer our prospects.
Completely happy to Assist
Provided that assistance is in our title, it’s in all probability not shocking that one in every of our values facilities round serving to each our prospects and one another. Our group is made up of among the most pleasant, empathetic, and type individuals I’ve ever labored with and everyone seems to be at all times prepared to leap in and help.
When it comes to service, all of us have a:
Dedication to the observe of complete firm assist.
Willingness to go above and past and supply inventive options to buyer issues.
Dedication to offering proactive assist and schooling via documentation, stay courses, and useful content material to make sure that our prospects really feel effectively supported and assured in our product.
Craft over Conference
At Assist Scout, we really feel it’s vital to get issues proper, even when it goes in opposition to what is anticipated or what our competitors is doing. We’re given room to be bold and maintain our work and one another to excessive requirements.
When it comes to buyer expertise, we
Stay customer-first in an trade that’s typically obsessive about the following new factor.
Don’t goal for function parity. If a function isn’t adequate for our personal prospects or received’t present buyer expertise, we don’t launch it.
Constantly prepare and sharpen our group’s product information and troubleshooting expertise to make sure that our prospects at all times obtain the very best assist attainable.
Progress not Perfection
We ship our greatest effort, hear, iterate, and repeat, working with a CANI (fixed and unending enchancment) mindset. The Assist Scout group does our greatest to embrace vulnerability, welcome suggestions, and keep curious and humble.
Our group:
Values buyer suggestions and makes use of it to tell function enhancements and the product roadmap.
Is aware of that the work within the queue isn’t “achieved” and that there’s at all times room for enchancment.
Believes that there’s no such factor as a dumb query. Our assist professionals know that it’s inconceivable to know all the pieces about our product they usually aren’t afraid to ask one another for recommendation to make sure that a buyer will get the very best reply attainable.
Personal the End result
We all know that the work we do every day has a direct affect on our teammates and prospects. We imagine in possession, considering earlier than you act, and that belief and integrity are non-negotiables.
Assist Scout:
Empowers our assist group to make selections.
Encourages all staff to contemplate affect when taking motion that might have an effect on a buyer’s expertise with our group or product.
Takes a considerate strategy to new expertise, as we’re in the end accountable for the expertise our prospects obtain.
Values our prospects’ success above all and are at all times trustworthy if we don’t assume we’re the very best match for a buyer’s enterprise or use case.
Keep in mind: How your enterprise helps its prospects reveals them who you might be; it’s as much as you to resolve who that’s.
What does customer support imply to you?
Do our group’s definitions of customer support resonate with you? Have one in every of your individual? Drop us a observe — we’d like to be taught extra about what customer support means to you.