Customer Support Center
Every company has its personal customer support center which gives the unique benefits to company. These benefits cannot be copied. It proves its specialty in its own way. The concept of Customer Support Center is still evolving as it’s not the same as the Customer services.
Definition: Customer support center is also called a contact center. This is known to be a type of call center which handles all the calls which can be large in number from a single facility. We define modern customer support as the act of providing timely, empathetic help that keeps customers’ needs at the forefront of every interaction.
Customer Support teams are assumed to be face of the company that interacts with different customers uniquely. They perform a vital role for company and mouth to mouth marketing while selling. This team also have specific seat for the discussion of company.
What is the history of customer support?
Before call centers and social media, local business owners had great relations with their customers. And while local businesses often knew their customers closely, customer service during that time was not as efficient as it is duty. Customers had limited options for purchase and support. Unfortunately, there were very few ways to educate themselves and solve their own issues, and scant resources for avoiding businesses with subpar products and poor service.
There have occurred some dramatic changes in customer services since that time, starting with telephone-based business and the advent of call centers in the 1960s. Suddenly, companies were able to resolve customer issues (or at least nominally offer service), if somewhat impersonally, on a larger, more efficient scale.
That trend surged dramatically in tandem with enhanced competition and pricing pressures, and by the 1980s, many companies were offloading any service extras that couldn’t be directly tied to their bottom lines.
But more widespread access to the internet changed things again. Between social media, online forums, and review websites, today’s customers have a wealth of resources for learning more about the businesses they’re considering and the products they offer, and dissatisfied customers can reach many more people with their support horror stories.
That has created a new era of customer support, one where there is a much greater need for companies to stand out by providing great service.Today, the companies that are coming out on top are those that understand the ROI of great support and treat exceptional customer support as a feature instead of an inescapable cost.
What are the Tips for the Great Customer Support?
No doubt that there are many approaches and procedures used to delight your customers but we have discussed here some of the best tips and approaches for you to delight your customer.
1: The tool should be Right
Dedicated Customer Service Software is assumed to be the best approach for your team to deliver the excellent support. The tools which are used for the customer support services offer features like shared inboxes, build in help centers, saved replies, automated workflow and customer relation data.
2: Hire for Key Support Skills
The team should be willing to know everything about the product as in the need of providing everything to the customers.
3: Give Authority to your Team for using their Skills
Having to check with management to solve all but the most basic requests will disempower even the most competent agents. Furthermore, they must also be empowered to solve requests on their own for skilled enough to answer complex questions.
4: Foster Effective Problem Solving
Customers do understand that more tough queries take more time to be solved. Your team should be encouraged so that they will respond to the customer in a quick fashion.
5: Customers should be Easy to Get Support
You should not let your customers turn to Google for the help of getting in touch with your support team. Show your contact information on logical places in your website which will be easy for them to approach your support team.
Stereotypical Customer Services
This is known to be a cost center. In this, Customers call during the specific business hours otherwise they will have to wait. Call centers are outsourced to other countries. This is just limited to managerial position with respect to career.
The New Customer Support Services
This is viewed as a front face for the business and a vital performer in the mouth to mouth marketing. It requires skilled and empowered agents. They Work side-by-side with product teams and has a seat at the table in company decision-making. Unlimited opportunities for growth and development is available.
The new Customer support also consider some principles of Customer Services but also in addition it roles other functions like part sales, part tech supports and part customer success.
Here we have discussed some types of Customer Support Center;
1: Call Center
A call center could be any centralized office used for receiving or transmitting calls for sake of sale of products or giving specific services.
2: Email Support
Email support is also very beneficial for customers as they can easily send mails and the company responds to that quickly.
3: Personal customer support
In this support, the customer is treated in a very friendly manner. That customer is personalized and not treated like the other customers in number.
Furthermore, a good customer support must have these tips to be known;
- Be guaranteed that your team has the right tools
- Must provide self-service support options
- Do not bound your team to limited work but to explore their skills
- Must have Foster effective problem solving
- Support should be user friendly
- Never make personalized support dependent over automation.
“If the support team isn’t 100% embedded in the product you’re trying to market, support suffers,” says Help Scout support lead Justin Seymour. That alignment with product lets us focus on helping customers get the most out of Help Scout’s features, versus being bogged down with revenue expectations.