According to a study conducted by Microsoft, 90% of the US population consider the customer support department of a company an important factor in deciding whether they should do business with them or not. Clearly, this is quite a huge number, and it goes to show that a robust customer service team is an integral part of any brand. Building a support team requires brainstorming and proper planning. The fact of the matter is that your support team essentially helps in retaining the customers and generating the cash flow.
If you are establishing your business or planning to make some substantial changes, then keep reading this article because we are going to enlighten you with some tips to build your customer support team from the ground up.
- Train the Agents to Pay Attention to the Customers
Sounds pretty obvious, right? But you would be amazed to know that even some of the bigshot companies fail to recognize how significant it is to pay complete attention to the customers. Making the clients repeat themselves multiple times can result in you losing them. According to HubSpot research, this type of poor service frustrates 33% of the customers. As a result, your company ends up gaining a bad reputation in the market.
For this, you can take a few pointers from some of the top companies in the United States like Cox Communications. This telecom company is countrywide known for its impressive customer satisfaction rate and top-notch services. It trains its agents to cater to the needs of all the subscribers and even offers inclusivity to non-native speakers. A person of Hispanic descent can easily contact the 24/7 available customer support team of Cox Communications en Español and get assistance immediately, and that too in their native language. This is truly an amazing example of what a robust customer support team should look like.
- Customer Support Team Should Reflect Company Values
Your customer service reflects what your company stands for on your behalf. You cannot interact with every client and consumer, but the agents do. And if they give an impression of being rude, judgmental, or act in any way that goes against what your company stands for, then it can end up tarnishing the image of your business in the market.
Therefore, while hiring a customer support representative, teach them to always deliver on the company values. If you market your brand as one that prioritizes integrity and cares for its customers, then you must set up the entire support team to offer exactly that.
- Respect the Time of the Customer
As we mentioned earlier, Hubspot research states that 33% of customers get frustrated when the company makes them wait on hold. Keeping this in view, let’s talk about something that is increasingly becoming normal. People these days don’t particularly have much time on their hands to call customer service. The only time they make a call is when something goes wrong with the product they purchased from you.
Under such circumstances, it is a duty of a customer support agent to be vigilant while attending to the customers and remove any barriers that can cause them to wait on hold. A consumer who is already agitated over a poor product is likely going to get angrier if you make them wait long in line.
For this, increase the number of your staff member, and then train them to respect the valuable time of the customers.
- Identify Who is Suitable for Customer Service
Not everyone can be a customer support agent. It is a skill that is not found in every candidate that comes for an interview. During the hiring process, it is your job to carefully identify who should be suitable for this position. Evaluate the skillset and the product knowledge the candidate in question has and how good they are at communicating.
An agent has to interact with all types of clients in a day. Some might contact you only with simple queries, while some could be extremely angry and might pass rude remarks. The agents must be able to listen to each one of them with patience and understand where they are coming from. They must know how to maintain professionalism during the interaction.
- Encourage the Employees
Happy employees lead to happy customers. If you don’t treat your employees respectfully, then how can you expect them to paint a positive image of your company in the market? An employee who is already working in a toxic environment is likely to take out their frustration on the customers they come across. So, if you plan to retain the customers, then start by retaining the employees by providing a positive and encouraging environment to boost their morale.
In order to do this, you can arrange multiple team-building activities outside the office. Let your employees have a break from the constant grind and allow them to build a healthy relationship with the company. You can also offer promotions or awards based on how well they perform.
- Make Yourself Available on Different Channels
The world is rapidly changing and adapting to digital ways of getting work done. Not everyone is a fan of contacting the support team via call. In fact, according to Comm100, millennials generally prefer live chat over any other channel.
Give your customers more than one option to contact your customer service department. In this age, consumers prefer advanced technology such as emails or chatbots over meeting the agents in person or calling them. You can also invest in developing a mobile app for your company. It can help immensely in providing timely support to the customers.
Closing Thoughts
Customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal of every business, and a robust support team plays the most important role in achieving said goal. So, while building your customer service department from the scratch, don’t forget to focus on developing the skills of your employees and train them in offering excellent services to the clients. And keep under consideration the points we have mentioned in this article.
