Customers are the #1 priority for every company in today’s competitive world. If you want your customers to keep coming back for life, you need to deliver remarkable customer experience and satisfy them at every touch point. Businesses must truly value their customers as often it is customer service that can make or break a company.
As startups are still struggling to establish themselves, providing effective customer service is critical for them to fight with competitors and eventually step above others. Customer support is not just meant for helping customers when they face an issue. In fact, it can help new businesses to gain meaningful insights about their product, customer behaviour and engagement, conceptualize business strategy and gradually build their brand.
If startups are not able to deliver support as per customer expectations, it can soon lead to their failure as customers today are spoiled with choices and are willing to pay extra to the competitors for better experience.
Why do you need to set up multichannel customer service system?
Customer service is no longer a “one size fits all” solution. It has become more complex and it can be difficult to meet the ever-shifting expectations of customers. As technology has introduced new communication channels, different customers have started preferring different channels of support. There are indisputable benefits of delivering multichannel support. Customers can easily switch from one channel to other when communicating with a company. For example- if a customer has raised his issue via voice call, he can use email for further discussions. But for this, the company needs to have a seamless multichannel system in place, thus delivering superior customer service and meeting customer expectations.
Multichannel services
- Drive positive experience by offering customers choice of channel
- Share customer information across all channels so that customers don’t have to repeat the whole situation again and again across different channels
- Initiate self-service
- Use proactive service and reach customers by identifying their behaviour
- Create personalized experiences
- Minimize the time it takes for a customer to reach you
Components of Multichannel Support
Phone
Telephone is still the most used and preferred mode of communication. The customer service agents have to be knowledgeable enough to understand and resolve customer issues in a single call without transferring the call or postponing the activity for future, thereby creating positive impression on customers.
Many customers prefer email as it can be sent anytime of the day. However, customers expect prompt response and if they don’t get a response till a particular time, they may pick up the phone and call.
It is estimated that 16% of customer support agents don’t respond at all to emails, which is one reason to lose a customer.
Live Chat
It is the most loved channel when it comes to serving your customers online. Customers can immediately contact the company by initiating a chat and get their answers promptly. For an ecommerce firm, a live chat agent can increase the value of sale by suggesting products that might interest the customer. Agents can also offer immediate help to customers who are having difficulty browsing the website or finding the desired product.
Social Media
With the advent of smartphones and tablets, social media has become the most desired channel of communication with brands. Customers can use it to find reviews about a particular product and ask others opinions. They can also vent out their anger and frustration about a company or its products by simply putting a message on Twitter or Facebook, which can immediately damage the brand’s reputation. Companies should thus carefully listen to what customers are saying about them and take prompt measure to rectify any complaint.
FAQs
Offer customers with support articles and write posts on how to implement a specific function and task on your product. In fact, make a list of questions that customers frequently ask via customer service channels and create FAQs to lower the burden on your customer support agents. This will also enable customers to help themselves without needing to call or email the company.
How does a multichannel system helps in driving business growth?
Enables Better Customer Interactions
Multichannel service enhances customer interaction level to a considerable degree. It becomes much easier for a customer if he can connect with a brand via his preferred channel of communication.
Builds your Brand
Providing effective and immediate resolution to customer queries is really significant in building a brand, especially for ecommerce firms. Higher the rate of customer satisfaction, higher is your reputation in the marketplace. If you want to increase customer loyalty then make them happy and satisfied at every point of interaction.
Increases Customer Retention
A lower turnaround time leads to better customer retention and builds long-term customer relationships. Multichannel support allows a customer to reach a company faster and from anywhere, anytime. Organizations can also connect with more customers simultaneously and put forward the resolutions in a swifter manner.
Conclusion
As multichannel support can help you increase customer experience and satisfaction, it will lead to positive word of mouth which has the ability to bring more customers and get bigger as a brand.
According to Aberdeen reports, companies with an effective multichannel support are bound to retain and get more customers and have seen an year-to-year growth in customers in comparison to companies with single or non-synchronized multichannel support.
A powerful and effective customer support system aids in increasing customer engagement rates as well as revenues and profitability.
So, multichannel customer service is critical for every company including startups which are in their initial phase and looking forward to build their brand.