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Providing customer service is one of the biggest parts of running a business. For businesses that operate primarily online, this means having representatives available 24-hours a day. Not

responding to customer inquiries right away can be disastrous for your reputation, as upset online customers are more apt to take their complaints to personal blogs, review sites or social media. Investing in the right customer service software can help protect your business in several ways. Here’s how it works.

Become Readily Available

The goal of customer service is to diffuse a negative situation before it explode. This doesn’t just help you retain customers; it helps you gain future revenue. Customers that have had a positive customer service experience are more apt to make a purchase again. Unfortunately, the Internet never sleeps and problems do not always arise before 5 p.m. If you want to be seen as a company that is always there for their customers, you need to have several ways people can get a hold of you outside of traditional business hours.

Customer service software allows you to become readily available by helping you manage multiple channels across the web.Some of the most common channels people use to make customer inquiries include:

• Social media networks like Facebook or Twitter
• On-site live chat features
• Phone calls
• Email

Having all of these ways to connect makes your customer more likely to address a problem with you, rather than just being angry about it. Multiple channel access also lets your customer contact you in a way they most feel comfortable with, making the whole process more convenient for them.

Get Organized

Imagine calling a company to ask a simple question and being put on hold for a few hours. It isn’t very fun, is it? This is how customers feel when they don’t get a quick response online. While you can’t please everyone and you can still get an influx of customer inquiries that delay responses, organization could be the answer you need. Being better organized helps you answer inquiries as quickly as possible, helping you provide all-around better service.

Customer service software aids in your organization efforts by collecting all of your inquiries in one place. You can then send them along to the appropriate representative or write quick responses. Because you can see all of your inquiries in real-time, you can multitask easier as well. Sometimes, all that is holding you back is proper organization.

Automation Helps You Organize Even More

Having better organization can significantly help your customer service department, but automation can further improve your user experience. Customer service software includes several automation features designed to help you stay on top of even the most complicated customer complaints.

Here are the key help desk automation tools available and how they keep you organized:

• Workflow – Tickets can become automated using rules that you establish. You can automatically decide what actions need to be taken, allowing you to please the customer as quickly as possible. For example, a question on how to buy your product could automatically be sent to your sales department, while a complaint about receiving the wrong package could be sent straight to shipping. This helps reduce downtime.
• SLA and Escalation – Create rules that let more complicated customer inquiries automatically be sent to higher-ups. For example, if a customer got billed twice for a product, they may need to see a supervisor to get the second charge removed. Rather than sending them to the billing department and having them explain their situation to everyone from the initial responder to the sales rep, why not send them to the supervisor in the first place?
• Notifications – Get automatic email notifications when certain customer service tickets are made. This helps you know when work needs to be done and allows you to further expand your business hours.
• Macros – Automatically send multiple tickets to a department, prioritize tickets or change the status of tickets at once. This reduces time and helps you keep even more organized.

The more processes that you automate, the more you are able to simplify. This makes things much easier for your customer service representatives, saves you time and more importantly, money.

Better Collect Customer Data

It isn’t enough to provide good customer service when a problem arises, you need to learn from your mistakes. One of the best features of customer service software is that you have an excellent record of customer service inquiries across all channels. This makes it easier to notice trends and make improvements. For example, if you get a lot of incorrect packages being shipped, you can investigate your shipping department.

You can also notice trends and make improvements to your products or services. Customers might not make an inquiry just to tell you that they don’t like that your product is red, and would look better in blue. They might mention it to a representative through email when discussing another issue.

Software allows you to easily collect and browse customer data. You can then organize your thoughts and make better management decisions. This can help turn your business around and provide an all-around better service to your customers.

The truth is that customer service is the key to success for a modern company. By organizing and automating as much as possible, you are able to provide a better and more convenient service to your customers. That makes you more competitive and gives your customers more of a reason to buy from you again. Contact us and see just how much software can change the way you think about customer service.