Solving customer problems is what any well-intentioned customer service team aims to do.
But coming up with the right customer solutions and creative customer support is far easier said than done – especially in the high tech industry. While there are countless trends in customer service, here are the following three ways we recommend using to better reach – and satisfy – customers with pressing problems.
Be (more) human.
High tech companies tend to be, well, very technical. This makes sense given their field, but it sometimes inadvertently infiltrates all areas of the business… including customer service. The issue is that when customers have a problem with a product, they don’t always respond well to pragmatic answers and technical troubleshooting. They want this eventually, of course, but first, they want empathy. They want to feel understood.
If you can train your customer support team to be more empathetic, they’ll diffuse a good portion of upset that may be brewing on the customer’s side. Once the emotion is diffused, the customer will likely be much more willing to work collaboratively with the customer service agent to find a solution to their problem. Productivity of the call increases, and chances of a successful first call resolution do as well.
Optimize your sequences.
It’s not surprising that tech companies have been leading the way with AI and chatbots, as they’ve become more and more mainstream. But just because they can help provide basic customer solutions and save your business some money doesn’t mean this tech should be relied on for everything. In fact, it just means you need to restructure what your customer service journey looks like.
Do you start with chatbots, and then escalate a customer to a human agent in certain situations? What about when a customer is complaining about a problem on social media? How does that get routed? Whenever you add new technology, you have a prime opportunity to reevaluate the customer journey through those support channels. When you view it through the customer’s eyes, you might find some gaps or frustrations that need to be addressed.
Customize your responses.
Many enterprise technology companies have loads of resources available on their websites or within customer portals, so customers can find answers when they need them. But tracking down the right tutorial is not always intuitive or easy. Make sure your customer support team has ready access to the right resources that can help customers with very specific problems.
If a customer calls in and needs help with an upgrade that seemed to wipe away all their existing data, they shouldn’t just offer them the link to the general “technical support” page on your website. Instead, they should have a specific article or video on hand that they can share with the customer to get them the exact help they need. This will make the customer feel heard, and help resolve their problem in a much shorter timeframe (and with much less frustration) than the alternative. The best part is, your business can continue updating and improving on what’s not working, and experience more success to serve more customers.
If you’d like help implementing these ideas, or elevating your entire customer support program, give us a call!
