Six Best Customer Service Tools for Businesses

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You cannot undermine the value of a sound customer support system. Following a study by HubSpot, around ninety-three percent of customers are potentially going to give repeat business to companies that offer them phenomenal customer support.

With the availability of several vast marketing technologies to pick from in the digital age, you must include certain customer service tools in your business. These tools are quintessential and aid to enable you to offer the requisite customer support.

However, in the case of a company, the good news spread faster than the bad news. We live in a digital age, wherein customer feedback matters the most. Thus, you need to ensure that there is no bigger priority for you and your business than customer satisfaction.

Best Customer Service Tools

In this article, we will discuss some customer service tools that businesses must work with to ensure that customer support is consistently delivered and businesses develop stronger relationships with their customers. Let us get started and address these tools one by one.

Ticket / Helpdesk Software

In the typical business scenario, this is likely to change, but, at present, email is one of the most widely used support platforms.

When customers contact via email, they do not have to wait in line. They will simply send across your questions or queries, and it will take the business a few minutes, hours, or days, depending on the responsiveness, for them to respond to the customer’s queries. The response is sent directly to the inbox. Moreover, for businesses’ emails are indeed the cheapest form of service. It is because the variance of emails is distributed.

So, the employees, in their idle time, can respond back to the queries. However, there is one potential downside to email support for customers – they do not get instant support, which is the primary requirement for digital platforms,’ comments Jessica, an educator who offers operating system courses online. 

Following a survey conducted in 2008, approximately forty-one percent of the customers replied that they expect an email response in a span of six hours. Unfortunately, only thirty-six percent of online platforms are able to keep up with that.

Usually, the companies commence as a typical email inbox to cater to the service requests. However, as they progress, they are faced with an umpteen number of requests via Gmail. Keep a tab on this can be pretty daunting for the business.

Hence, in this scenario, having helpdesk software or a ticketing platform can be beneficial.

Online communities

Studies show that one-fourth of the customers engage with the brand solely because they aspire to be a part of its fan community.

‘With the presence of online communities, it gets easier for the customers to engage with other customers. They can share the pros and cons of the product, the feedback, and their affinity towards the products, brands, and the service they have received so far. For businesses, it can be one of the best ways to keep a tab on the customer feedback and work towards improving it,’ comments Robert, an online reviewer who did the best composting toilet for tiny house review.

It is easy to access online communities via social media. Alternatively, certain marketing applications can help build online communities.

Phone support

‘There is no denying that as long as the businesses exist, the phone conversation still happens to be the most effective way to help a customer with their queries. Many customers find it even more effective than real-time chatting or emails. Primarily, it is because of the human touch associated with the phone conversations in the form of a human voice,’ comments Rosy, an associate with RazorHood.

Today, in phone support, newer features, such as automatic ticket creation, smart internal routing, call recordings, and access to records of their history have been added. These features make the customer service more organized and systematic.

Messaging apps

‘Today, there has been a noted surge in the popularity of messaging channels, such as Facebook Messenger, Apple Business Chat, and WhatsApp. These communication tools have revolutionized the way we get to interact with each other. This noted convenience has also made its way into the world of customer service. The biggest pro of these messaging apps is that customers have to use the same apps that they are currently using to communicate with their friends or family.

Another benefit of these apps is that the entire conversation is in one centralized location. Thus, it is easier to maintain continuity,’ comments Rabia, an online reviewer who did the review of best spinning reels under 50.

At times, businesses can follow up the message thread with a phone call to speed up the resolution process.

Live chat software

This works more or less like an instant messaging application. In this, too, the customers interact with the support representatives of the business in real-time. However, in this, there are certain predefined rules included in the software application.

One of the most prevalent rules involves people who have browsed a certain page for a stipulated time frame. So, based on these rules, the promptness of the software is decided, and your queries are resolved.

Updated features, such as creating custom forms for acquiring the customer’s information, sending canned responses, and route chats, are also included in the new and improved live chat options.

Social Media

Social media is a vital tool for all businesses, regardless of their size. However, merely having a static page of your company will not suffice. Today, to boost your business, you must engage with your customers on social media. If your social media is inactive, customers and potential customers usually perceive your business as a dead or empty store. Thus, you need to have an excellent social media team that engages with the customers and gives timely responses to your queries and questions.

A survey revealed that customers who engage with businesses on social media have a greater chance of giving the business repeat business.

So, these are six kinds of customer service tools that can simplify your business. Have more such tools to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

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