Delivering exceptional customer service has never been more critical for businesses as customers have more alternatives than ever. In fact, 9 in 10 Americans use service to gauge whether or not they will do business with a company and 89% of consumers have shifted doing business with a competitor after experiencing poor customer service. Companies that are responsive to customer questions, complaints, and other needs clearly have a competitive edge — and information technology services can help you gain that advantage.
#1. Resolve customers’ issues faster via CRM with case management functionality
Given today’s fast-paced lifestyle, consumers now have a lot less patience and expect great customer service with immediate resolutions to their issues. By implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) system with case management functionality, IT departments can help companies speed up their customer service.
CRMs enable you to create organized, centralized databases that let you quickly access customer data such as contact information, customer history, previous correspondence, and billing information. This gives you a better understanding of your customers so that you can swiftly and efficiently meet their demands and requirements.
With CRM, you can also assign specific issues to specialists who have the expertise to resolve them quickly and properly. Availability of staff can also be factored into the distribution of trouble tickets to ensure efficiency in the system.
Not only that, some CRMs also allow staff to work together in real time, from any device to help customers. They can even create and share documents across the team and flag issues according to priority. This allows anyone on your team to jump in to hasten the process.
#2. Deliver the same quality of customer service through several channels
An Aberdeen Group study shows that companies that provide consistent service across multiple channels retain 89% of their customers. IT departments can help companies achieve this with omnichannel CRM.
An omnichannel CRM integrates multiple channels such as text, social media, email, and instant messaging to deliver a unified, seamless brand experience that allows customers to switch between different channels and yet still receive the same top-notch service. It provides your staff with a single view of all customer services and interactions across all channels, so customers can contact the company in any way they want without having to start over when they switch to a different medium.
#3. Empower customers to conduct self-service via a knowledge base
Delivering good customer service goes beyond human interaction since customers today would rather find answers on their own rather than contact a support agent. IT departments can help customers become self-reliant by providing them with a knowledge base, which is a centralized online database of frequently asked questions, how-to articles, video tutorials, podcasts, glossaries, case studies, and other useful information that will help customers understand and use your products or services.
Not only will this help customers solve their own problems, it will also save you time from repeatedly answering the same basic questions over and over again.
#4. Provide 24/7 customer service by using chatbots
Customers expect you to be always available, but 24/7 human-operated customer service channels aren’t possible for most businesses. Good thing your IT department can leverage real-time chatbots. This is perfect since live chat has the highest consumer satisfaction rate at 92%, and 79% of consumers prefer live chats because they offer instant responses.
Because chatbots can learn from a knowledge base or history of customer interactions, customers can instantly get answers to their questions without having to wait for business hours. The best chatbots can even make customers feel like they are talking to a live operator.
Does your Los Angeles company need help with implementing any of these customer service technologies? Frontline is your reliable IT partner that can custom-tailor your technologies to meet your company’s customer service goals. Contact Us to give you a clearer picture of what we can do for you.