Many people think that the closer the help desk is the slower the support seems. However, response times relation to distance isn’t always consistent. Internal support may not be well documented or communicated, so it may seem unclear or undefined. This can cause employees receiving support to have no expectations at all or too many expectations. Either way, it can be difficult to know what expectations they will have. When you don’t know what your user expectations are, you will have no idea how to meet them. When this happens, help desk personnel will often just go about their...
Continue readingUtilizing customer empathy in CRM processes
Companies like Uber and Square are innovative digital companies, that utilize a secret weapon in their industry – empathy. Companies like this are often called digital disrupters. They are pushed to the customer forefront by having empathy for customers dealing with bad systems and processes. Especially in CRM processes, a little bit of empathy can go a long way. According to a public report by Gartner in 2016, through 2020, businesses that reflect empathy towards their customer in some way when deploying their CRM technology, are three times more likely to fend off a digital disrupter. This requires full...
Continue reading4 things to know before choosing a help desk software
It can be tricky to determine what is the best software to serve your customers. Software Advice surveyed IT professionals to understand what people value in help desk software. They reported that Zendesk was a clear market leader in Help desk technologies. The market share is currently 68.7 percent. Customers reported that Zendesk’s great interface, extensive automation, live chat support and self-service channel-building tools make it a great customer service platform with all the right pieces. Despite this, you know what is best for your company. While Zendesk is a very recommended solution, there are a lot of options...
Continue readingWhat is CRM software?
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software allows companies to stay close to their customers by managing the relationship in all aspects. This includes the entire customer lifecycle: first contact, ongoing inquiries, lead nurturing, conversion, renewal and long-term interaction. CRM is not only about closing sales and chasing leads, it goes far beyond that. Zendesk is very smooth to integrate with CRM software packages. Ideally, organizations have total management of their sales and marketing tools in one place, integrated with their help desk. This results in better customer service, and better customer relationships. Not just a database Especially small businesses think...
Continue readingMeasure success with the right self-service analytics
It is known that self-service helps in scaling support operations, and that self-service portals keep customers happy. You might have already launched your own self-service platform and incorporated workflows to keep it useful and dynamic. You also might already see some positive impact on your organization, especially your support team. However, it is important to try understand where you are headed. One of the best ways for this, is to know where you have been. If you are in the early stages of launching your knowledge management platform and you are not sure how self-service is affecting your customer...
Continue readingBuilding a support operations team
During company growth and rapid change, it is important to keep delivering exceptional customer service. The key for doing this is very often providing operational support to your customer support team. Your agents might be great at customer service, but this doesn’t mean they can do everything. They will eventually need support, especially if your company is growing. When the time is right, you bring in support operations: a team of experts whose job is to provide agents with the tools they need to do their job. Determining the exact time to do this can be difficult. How can...
Continue readingGet more conversions with chat
According to Zendesk, adding live chat can increase website conversion rates by 29 percent. In addition, it’s possible to further optimize chat channels and increase conversions with chat conversion tracking. Conversion tracking allows you to see how many of your conversions were affected by chat and even which agent was involved. Chat analytics allows you to meet your customer needs more effectively and increase sales. Here are four things that are improved by conversion tracking. Defining and tracking goals Zendesk Chat allows for chat conversion tracking, which helps you track chats that influenced a customer and helped them complete...
Continue reading4 Tips for improving support
Solving customer problems can feel like having superpowers. Not all heroes wear capes, but it would be nice to gift capes to customer support agents. To sharpen your customer support superpowers, here are four tips to keep in mind when offering customer support. Make a good first impression Making a good first impression is always important. When your customers contact you, the way you respond could be their first or only impression of your company and brand. If the customers have a bad experience, they are likely to get a negative view of your company. Zendesk says their brand...
Continue reading3 ways to improve your self-service
Self-service is a recent trend in the customer service nation. A majority of customers would rather figure things out on their own than reach out to a customer service representative. Because of this, companies are expanding their online self-service capabilities, in order to deliver the support experience that customers demand. Better availability of online self-service allows agent’s to use their time more efficiently, as they can spend more time where it’s truly needed. Online service can be described as a win-win situation. Customers experience less friction, and companies curb costs by deflecting agent-assisted interactions. Here are three ways you...
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