When you are just starting your business, the more questions customers ask, the better it is for business. This is because it is an indication of growth and demand which normally reflect well on the sales. However, as time progresses and customers keep asking the same questions over and over, this can quickly spiral into an endless and dreary task that if not kept in check, could lead to the failure of your business.
For most businesses, customer support starts as a one-person show, a lovely and cost-effective concept. Nevertheless, as a business grows, it becomes clear that something has to be done to handle the huge amount of traffic and customers looking for help.
You could opt for virtual assistants to handle your customers, but research has shown that this is not a viable solution. So what do you do now? Well, successful businesses have proven that customer optimization is the best way to go. It avails more time for your employees to handle other aspects of the firm, while keeping the clients satisfied.
It is crucial to meet the expectations of customers because it is a huge factor that influence customer loyalty, which comes with many economic benefits. Not meeting these expectations is also quite costly, with an estimated 75% of online clients moving to another channel after experiencing poor customer service.
What is customer support optimization
According to studies, 45% of Americans stop their online purchases in case they fail to find an answer to a specific question. Another study also shows that a whopping 66% of clients cite time as the biggest factor a company can influence to improve customer service. It is clear, no one wants to wait, and you should, therefore, not keep them waiting.
In this ever-changing world, it is not easy to meet all of your customers’ expectations, especially when using traditional communication systems. The technological ecosystem surrounding customer support have become more complex with devices such as tablets and smartphones also making it harder to maintain a standardized service across all touchpoints. So, what do you for better customer support? Here are a few tips to get you started:
Optimize workflows in all contact centers
One of the first things any business can do for customer optimization is to optimize their contact center. Research shows that only 28% of companies optimize the effectiveness of call centers, rather preferring to focus only on online mediums. However, it is important to keep things running smoothly both online and offline. This can be done by integrating automated software with the systems already in place to ensure every customer query is dealt with effectively and on time.
Encourage customer-to-customer communication
In most businesses, once a question is answered, that is it. Well, if you are doing the same, it is time for some changes. Since some questions are really specific, they may fail to make it on the FAQ page. However, you can find a place to store all these questions and avail them to any customers who will ask the same questions. This way, when you answer one, you have taken care of all, even in future. This is a great habit to start early in the business’s lifecycle.
Personalization
The great thing about technology is that you can collect and store huge amounts of data about your customers and make customer optimization better. This data can be leveraged to offer customers with more personalized interactions with your business. In this online world, most businesses are losing the connection with customers, but this can be changed easily.
