Technical support, a key driver of customer satisfaction
What is technical support in customer relations, and how can it significantly increase user satisfaction?
Why do customer support solutions need to put collaboration at the heart of their business to reap the many benefits, such as the creation of engaged communities and shared knowledge?
Customer support and technical support in particular can help achieve customer satisfaction objectives while benefiting the vendor. Let's find out how.
Technical support: definition
Technical support covers all the methods, tools and processes needed to ensure that users get the best possible use out of the service they have purchased.
Technical support must therefore enable :
- rapid fault diagnosis and resolution,
- efficient management of the support team's knowledge,
- a focus on user usage.
In addition to customer service (external relations), technical support solutions can also be used internally, by an IT department for example.
Why implement technical support?
Most companies that install technical support software do so for several reasons:
- they are selling a service that requires support;
- they want to control customer calls (freeing up call centers);
- they need to create a bond with their customers.
However, there is a real commercial interest in implementing this type of software. This interest, often misunderstood by users, relates to the company's competitiveness, whether in terms of :
- saving time spent processing requests,
- renewing customer subscriptions,
- or increasing the perceived value of its services,
there are many reasons to take the plunge.
We also know that since 2010, the trend has been towards automated customer relations and collaborative working.
Support solutions have clearly improved in this respect, making it much easier and more affordable than ever before to set them up and build up knowledge.
Technical support challenges and tools
Customer relations and technical support tools are evolving rapidly, in terms of both functionality and usage. Here are the main challenges, illustrated by concrete examples.
1) Contextualize and centralize omnichannel conversations
Managing e-mails is time-consuming for technical teams, because they are out of context when they arrive. The technical agent must therefore systematically gather information on a request before taking action.
To gain in efficiency, it is necessary to use dedicated software.
💡 A few examples:
- 👉 From the easiware platform, all known information around a customer automatically goes up in a 360° customer record. This includes their contact details, latest orders, loyalty profile and even their history of conversations with your brand, whatever contact channel they've used (email, web form, chat, WhatsApp, social networks...).
In this way, your support teams have the necessary context for a personalized exchange. They save time when dealing with requests, and can concentrate on providing a rapid solution. In this way, you guarantee an optimal customer experience, both in terms of exchange quality and processing speed. - 👉 FreshDesk offers a single view of all your exchanges for better follow-up and easier collaboration with your teammates, around the customer's problem, whatever the door of entry.
- 👉 Jamespot contextualizes requests and replaces isolated emails with conversations. What's more, the customer can engage with you via multiple communication channels: by email, but also by phone, chat, social media or messaging apps.
- 👉 Salesforce's Service Cloud omnichannel customer service software provides you with a 360° view of all customer interactions via a simplified dashboard. So, as soon as a customer contacts you via the channel of their choice, you have all the information you need to quickly provide them with the most appropriate solution. What's more, an AI will support you in your next customer interactions.
2) Streamline and automate claims processing
Streamlining claims processing means lowering management costs.
To optimize costs, you need to assess your current situation and set new targets.
That's why you need to be able to evaluate the time it takes to process requests, from the moment a ticket is opened to the moment it is closed.
This is where the KPI tracking dash board comes into its own: far from being useful only for managers, it enables agents to understand where the real difficulties lie in their daily tasks.
Dashboards are designed to generate concrete actions based on real data.
FreshDesk also facilitates bandwidth management by automating repetitive tasks using scripted triggers, configured according to timing, event or keyword.
Salesforce Service Cloud automates your entire approval process by setting up intelligent workflows. In this way, you become more responsive and relevant to the customer's request.
3) Offer customers self-service technical support
If users have access to a clear, comprehensive and ergonomic help center, they are less inclined to write to customer support.
A self-access support platform should enable 90% of redundant requests to be resolved, thus relieving the burden on agents.
Intelligent self-service is all the rage: allow customers to find answers for themselves by offering a knowledge base, dynamic FAQ or chatbot.
Don't create an inoperable online help system with content you can't find. A customer service tool must be partly self-managing (thanks to artificial intelligence) and, above all, propose content related to the technical issues to be resolved.
In this way, the technician can focus on his or her expertise by enriching online assistance with official procedures, troubleshooting guides, direct telephone contacts to take charge of the resolution, and so on.
💪 Users who sense a real dynamism (speed and number of resolutions on the forum) in the community quickly become active contributors to those who need help.
Jamespot Technical Support's Question/Answer module, for example, enables you to set up a self-help function between your customers. This saves a significant amount of time and helps to engage and unite your customers.
4) Create value beyond the simple contact form
The quality of technical support has a huge influence on how customers perceive a service or product. Many of us are prepared to overlook a few flaws when the team producing it has our full trust. Here are a few tips:
- Let your customers call you on a toll-free number. Also offer a free callback. This conveys an image of seriousness and a willingness to help quickly.
- For a given incident: the customer should only make one request, and it should be dealt with quickly. A repeated request strongly reinforces frustration and dissatisfaction.
- Customers should not have to provide information they have already supplied. Identity verification should be the only area of doubt.
- Accessing a reseller or purchasing an additional service should be easy for the customer! Even if he contacts the technical department, the latter must be able to direct him very quickly to the right person. This means that the software must contain customer data (contacts, event history, etc.).
- Any agent must be able to provide a rapid response to a problem. Technical support software must therefore include a technical knowledge management module.
As far as interpersonal skills are concerned:
- Even by e-mail or telephone: smile!
- Never forget to say hello and thank you.
- Assume that if there's a problem, it's never the user's fault but yours.
- Explain the situation to the customer and what you're going to do in simple words. This involves them in the solution, and makes them more patient and understanding.
easiware has perfectly understood this need to create value. Its platform has been designed not only to improve the productivity of your support team, but also to make it easier to monitor customer satisfaction. For example, it enables you to deploy "NPS and satisfaction" campaigns, as well as monitor your results using customized dashboards and reports. The objective? Ensure that your technical support is effective, and that your services are well received by customers.
5) Liberate the internal organization of customer service
Top-down bureaucratic organizations have reached their limits. IT and technical departments need to be able to self-organize.
That's why Jamespot makes it easy to model its Technical Support software with small applications and business rules. What's more, knowledge is capitalized on and shared within teams, and everyone can follow their team's news in the dedicated feed.
💡 Choose a scalable solution that enables, for example, best practices to be propagated from the technical department to the rest of the company.
Improve your competitiveness by putting the customer at the center
If, as in many service sectors, competition on price or product isn't enough, effective customer support can help you win market share by increasing customer loyalty and creating value in their eyes.
Track your KPIs on the dashboard and take concrete action to make your customer support a key factor in your competitiveness!
Article translated from French