In today’s business structure, customer experience is everything. The capacity to provide immediate assistance is the determining factor of a business’s success; thus, providing impeccable customer service is crucial now more than ever.
Let’s face it: Regardless of the available channel that they can use, most customers reach out to you not because they want to, but they need to. Indeed, most businesses agree that providing a multi-channel approach is one of the most effective ways to provide remarkable customer services. However, in order to make the most of it, you need to identify a suitable communication channel that will adeptly address concerns raised by your target demographic. You need to offer the right customer service channels to ensure that you are able to stay aligned with your clientele’s demands, expectations, and standards.
Are you having a hard time deciding what channels to employ to augment your customer service? Then you are in the right place! In this blog, you will learn about different channels that you can tap into to provide the best customer service. To start off, let’s have a quick refresher on customer service channel definition.
What Are Customer Support Channels?
Customer support channels aid businesses in carrying out interactions with their clients. It provides two-way communication between the business and its customers through different communication tools such as phone, email, website, social media, IM, and live chat. For the most part, these channels assist customers in their purchasing journey. These channels prove instrumental specifically in providing after-sales assistance. A fully-optimized omnichannel communication approach is key to highlighting user convenience, boosting service efficiency, improving credibility, and ultimately, strengthening overall B2C relations.
Maximizing Customer Support Channels to Improve Your CS and CX
Using a single channel is a thing of the past. Today’s market population shows that your customer connection depends on how well you maximize every single communication channel that you have at your disposal. In this light, here are six customer support channels that you can integrate to provide top-notch customer service.
1. Email
Email has been an invaluable communication tool for businesses because it gives tons of advantages. Sending emails highlights asynchronous communication. It does not require you to put your customers on hold or fall in queues to get a response from your help desk.
Emails are perfect for busy people. Since they can write all their concerns specifically in one email, it becomes easier for the customer service team to come up with more systematic solutions, especially because it gives them ample background of the root cause of the problem. In addition, emails can be integrated and make it accessible to view when a customer uses live chat and other communication channels.
2. Live Chat
The main difference between chat and email is that live chat allows support agents to provide assistance right away. Integrating a live chat widget into your website enables your support team to address customer pain points more efficiently. Since the communication process takes place in real-time, it allows agents to become proactive when addressing user concerns that effectively diminish the chances of having repeat transactions.
Using triggers, live chat can be used as a self-service help desk assistant when visitors open a certain page on your website (pricing, services, etc.). In addition, with live chat, customers can easily send their queries even after business hours through forms. The alternative option is very convenient for both parties.
3. Social Media
Studies show that aside from using live web chat, social media is one of the most preferred communication channels when it comes to customer services. Why? Customers are sure that they get prompt and real-time responses to their queries.
With the convenience and accessibility that social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provide to their users, it becomes easier for brands to interact and provide assistance. In addition, social media enables you to reach a broader group of target demographics compared to using traditional tools for communication.
4. Phone Support
Some may say that customer support via phone is obsolete. Little do they know that most customers, particularly those who are not that well-versed at using modern communication tools still use it. In fact, 43% of users still contact customer service using voice support channels.
Albeit not a contemporary communication tool, the phone is easy, fast, and convenient to use. Whenever customers encounter some issues regarding your products and services, they can pick up their phones and call your help desk straight away.
5. Self-Service
Providing self-service on your website or page allows you to stay active 24/7 even when you’re working with a handful of support agents. Also, laying out a comprehensive FAQs page is an effective way to cut costs significantly.
That doesn’t mean that you should focus on providing self-service assistance alone. The best course of action is to use it in conjunction with your other communication channels.
6. Forms
With forms, you can easily gather information about your customers or visitors. They can provide their requests and queries in a more specific manner. Also, forms are great tools to gather other information such as feedback and comments that are highly instrumental in devising ways to improve your products and services. Communication through forms establishes a more convenient way for your customers to reach out to your help desk.
This Begs the Question
Which is the best channel for customer service? No matter how you scale it, there’s no way to come up with a definite answer other than to say, “It depends on your business needs and customer demands.”
To make the most out of your communication channels, you need to take time to learn about their distinct attributes. Some channels are more useful in specific scenarios while some are more effective in conjunction with the other types of communication channels. At the same time, providing assistance in channels where your customers are most comfortable goes a long way in establishing a loyal user base.
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