“In the old world, you devoted 30% of your time to building a great service and 70% of your time to shouting about it. In the new world, that inverts” – Jeff Bezos
The very backbone and cornerstone of a company are customers and the kind of customer service they are provided will determine whether your company has customers or loses them to competition. When a company is small or just starts out, the customer support is more informal – emails, phone calls and even text messages or other standard productivity methods. The team that works within the company shares responsibility of ensuring the customer is contacted and provided a certain level of service. However, as businesses grow and customer base expands it becomes vital to streamline your operations and investing in customer service software seems indispensable. This software helps a company to have a centralized point of service through which customers can be connected with through many different communication channels. Customer service software not only assists in keeping customers engaged, they also help in collecting and collating the myriad requests and demands from customers. This software helps companies to prioritize and resolve these requests and issues in an orderly, efficient and swift manner which would not be possible to do manually.
In the absence of customer service software it would be impossible for the service teams to manage these needs and requests. This leads to inefficiency and low productivity which results in customers getting frustrated and eventually leaving the company. How can customer service function if the needs and expectations of the customers are not even known, let aside being met? Companies that are dedicated to and have a customer focus would realize that customer service software is absolutely critical in providing stellar customer service that would lead to customers being loyal and more profitable. There are huge paybacks for any business that invests in customer service software.
– Ever increasing levels of customer satisfaction as all the information required by the service representatives would be available to them at the click of a button. This saves time and effort for the customer as they would not need to provide the same information repeatedly.
– Adding a personal touch would be possible since the representatives would know the details for the customer and thus be able to call the customer by name, get right to resolving the issue and build and sustain a relationship with each customer.
– Each agent would have access to a standard knowledge base leading to consistency. Irrespective of which agent the customer speaks to, the kind of personalized service would remain the same.
– It results in increased proficiency and a significant cost reduction for companies as the teams will be completely focused on resolving the issues rather than formulating tables and pages of customer information manually. It allows them to do more on the customer service end rather than being caught up in trying to understand how to get the vast amount of information sorted. Improved efficiency also leads to happier employees with boosted morale leading to even better service to customers.
The fact is that you cannot expect the customer service teams to function in any scenario without providing them with the right tools as that would not just be inefficient, it would also be highly detrimental and damaging. It would be like asking a car mechanic to repair a car with plastic tools from a kid’s play set! Investing in customer service software would provide the power and empowerment the service teams need to do their jobs excellently. In everyday life too, anyone’s efficiency and performance improves dramatically if they are provided the right tools and environment.
Despite all the benefits some companies desist from investing in customer service software stating several reasons. They consider it to be superfluous, complicated and most oft stated – expensive. Really!? Let’s look at why investing in customer service software is not just a good idea from the customer’s point of view but also hugely advantageous for companies too.
– Customers now have a mind-boggling number of options and as many demands. They are therefore more emboldened and powerful than before and can make decisions in a split second. Companies that can manage these demands and provide better options are the ones that will survive. Also companies now have to be more attuned to comments, feedback and even complaints from customers and deal with this surge of information a lot more seriously. One negative comment or word gets spread in an instant via the extremely visible social media sites – and customers seem to be more attracted to this kind of information sharing if they don’t get what they want. Companies cannot afford this kind of negative publicity and hence investing in customer service software would seem like a great idea. A research indicated that at least 70% customers would be happy to recommend a company that had quick, effective and courteous responses over social media. It would be foolish to think that a company could check comments they receive over these sites every second – good or bad. Customer service software helps by sending automated notifications to alert you that your brand is the subject of ‘conversation’ over these sites.
– When a customer connects with a company a second time, it would be extremely pleasing to the customer if their information was already available with the agent they make contact with. Wouldn’t you love it if you are addressed by name and a pleasant greeting followed – it would make you feel wanted and special! Customers love doing business with people who like them and whom they can like in return.
– Another research reveals an astounding fact – almost 79% of customers prefer to call a customer service talk line to speak to a human. Being able to service these calls through pertinent customer information would make the experience more memorable and gratifying for the customers.
– Customer service software allows swift assigning of service requests based on their urgency. No requests go undetected, queued up or ignored – a continuous flow of work is made possible as the distribution of work is fair and equal. For customers it spells great service as research has found that – 86% customers do not mind spending a little more if they are receiving great customer service, 65% demand that their issues are resolved in the first instant, 50% will allow only a week to a company to respond and resolve their problem post which they will take their business elsewhere and 53% believe that 3 minutes is sufficient time for a response. With such startlingly high percentages, is it any wonder that companies that don’t invest in customer service software are losing out and will continue to lose out on business.
The investment in customer service software is a one-time process but the benefits are long lasting and will impact your company positively. No manual labour – just instant data that can be used instantly and result in consistently improving customer service and many more benefits.
Of course every company with customers would like to provide better customer service but without proper tools and being adequately equipped, it would be extremely costly.
– With an increasing customer base, a company would need to invest heavily in a larger number of customer service personnel. Hiring, training and retaining costs would grow with time and even then human error and lapses cannot be ruled out. Employees who are not taken care of well tend to become bitter, have lowered morale and eventually leave putting your company in another loop of hiring and training. Added to this are the overheads of office space, work stations, chairs, office utilities – the works. Each employee would need a computer with computer software, printers, servers and all connected with this portion. The company would need to also have a large number of personnel to manage the computer systems and resolve issues that arise. There would be replacement of equipment and upgrades on the software. All this put together translates to heavy costs with not as much increase in productivity.
– Manually entering customer data is bound to be rife with errors since it is a rather monotonous and arduous task. Incorrect data leads to faulty knowledge of what customers need leading to customer frustration and attrition.
The amount of work put in to acquiring a new customer would go to waste if you are unable to retain them in the lowest possible cost. It pays off only when customers remain with you for a long time and continue to be profitable. Compared to the investment you make in getting and retaining new customers through out-dated processes, customer service software is relatively cheaper as it raises the team’s performance, has a positive impact on the customer’s view of your company and at the end results in sustained profits and growth for you and your customer. Are you still waiting to invest in customer service software?
