Is overpaying for customer support killing your business?

“Do you know that nine out of ten consumers would not come to your company again because of poor customer service means if they find that the support service is not effective or professional?”

World class support service comes with a huge price tag. As per the Worldwide Industry Benchmark Report, 2015, ‘the average cost per inbound customer service call is $1.30.’ It’s for the average support service, but the moment you add something more into it, the overall service cost will go up exponentially.

 

 

But it does not mean that you will give up the urge of providing exceptional assistance to your customers. Here are some great ideas that will help you to reduce the overall customer service cost without compromising on the quality.

1.  Add live chat software to serve more customers at a time

 

Compared to other traditional support channels like email or phone calls, the cost per interaction is much lesser with live chat software. As its real –time, each of the support agent can respond instantly. So because of this, they spend less time per interaction which on the other way saves on the human resource expenses.

‘Live chat solution helps businesses to save big and makes the support agents more efficient.’ 

2. Hire the right people

Hire the ‘Right’ people to manage your customer service department, otherwise you are in big trouble.

By ‘Right’ I mean the few essential qualities that the support agent needs to have which include:

a. Patience

b. Strong communication skill

c. Ability to handle irritated customers

d. Helpful nature

e. Quick decision making capability

f. Cognitive skill to understand customers’ problems

3. Use Social Media as a multi-channel communication tool

 

Social media channels like Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter are no longer exclusively aimed for social networking only, as nowadays some of the most famous brands are using it to promote their businesses and keep touch with their target audience.

Social media helps you to create brand loyalty and improve the quality of customer service. Live chat software like REVE Chat, can be easily integrated with your Facebook company page which offers an additional way to reach to your potential clients who visit your Facebook company page.

‘So if used smartly, social media is a great cost effective way to make your customers happy and satisfied.’ 

4. Invest to train your support team

 The efficiency and quality of support service depend on the level of training your agents are getting. So, never skimp on training. Apart from that, to increase their productivity, start using good customer support solutions that also will reduce the overall expenses.

 There are plenty of customer support software available in the market specially designed to facilitate the support job, so make sure you choose the right one. Apart from improving on the poor customer service, this will considerably reduce the work pressure of your support team without compromising on the quality.  

5.  Consider remote work for your support agents

With the latest technology available today, now you don’t need to have all of your customer support personnel under the one roof. Now it’s easy to build your own support team where agents can work from home located anywhere in the world at much lower cost than transporting your whole team in your office, paying rent, electric bills and other assorted overheads at any permanent commercial property.

‘To make your support service smooth and efficient, invest in useful support tools.’

REVE Chat, a live chat software, for example, enables agents to live chat with the website visitors and manage the whole activity through an easy to manage web based dashboard. Through its  ‘Reporting and Analytics’ feature, you will be able to understand the team’s overall performance and the quality of your support service.  

6. Use self-service programs

For providing excellent customer support, self-service program is a good option. Basically self-service programs are some sort of guidance system designed to help website visitors find solutions to their queries or provide support while installing any program.

‘WalkMe‘ is one such a self-service program that guides visitors to take action within the website. As a cloud based enterprise class guidance and engagement platform, it understands customer needs and provides assistance whenever they need. Highly functional, and very easy to apply, WalkMe is a great investment for those companies who want to reduce the cost of service associated with customer support without lowering its quality.

Over to you!

So these are my thoughts on saving big with your support service.  What strategies you are following for reducing the overall cost of service without compromising on the quality? What are the smart tricks you are following? Tell us in the comment section!