In the space of days, offices all over the world have been dismantled and are reappearing in miniature versions in our living rooms, bedrooms and studies. Our teammates and managers are no longer just a quick chair roll away to help clarify or solve an immediate question.
At the same time, disruptions to supply chains and production systems mean a sudden spike in customer requests for information and clarity, as well as increased cancellations and demands for refunds.
Maintaining high-quality customer service under these conditions is not easy. Yet, during these uncertain times – when customers are likely to be overwhelmed, afraid and worried – it is more important than ever to provide a reliable and efficient service.
To manage these new challenges, many businesses are now fast-forwarding their digitalization strategies and turning to digital customer engagement solutions. At a time when social distancing must be enforced and home offices are the norm, businesses are adopting digital ways to remotely deliver the same quality service to their customers.
Digital tools such as live chat and virtual customer service centers can help you make sure your customers always have a touchpoint – regardless of where they are and when they want to contact.
Such digital tools will also help you provide consistent and timely responses and updates, in an organized and systematic way – even though your teams and operations are now scattered in various locations.
Ticketing and automation – make sure you respond to ALL your customers quickly
When an anxious customer reaches out to you, it’s important that they feel acknowledged and know you are there for them.
If your regular ways of communicating with and servicing your customers have been disrupted, (for example your store is no longer open, or a colleague that customers normally deal with is temporarily unavailable due to poor health), customers are likely to choose from a number of alternative ways to make contact, such as SMS, email, social media, chat, etc.
When customer service requests start to come from various channels, it can become difficult to keep up with all of them. Especially, the inboxes of your absent colleagues. But it is important to make sure every customer is reassured and gets the answers they are looking for.
SuperOffice Service can help you manage your customer inquiries and respond in a fast and timely manner by collecting all your customer requests in one place. Whether your customers prefer to contact you via chat, web forms, SMS, emails or a phone call – SuperOffice Service will gather these all in one central place – making sure no customer slips through the cracks or is left unattended.
Every request is automatically assigned a unique reference number that puts it into a queuing system and tracks all communication related to it – giving your team access to all the information they need to help that customer quickly and efficiently, at any time and from anywhere.
You can also set up automatic routing and escalation so that requests are automatically directed to the right category and the right person. Simply set up mail accounts or keyword filters. If a request has been unanswered for a set amount of time, the system will automatically escalate it.
More about handling customer requests with SuperOffice Service
Customer Center – let customers help themselves at a central information touchpoint
When customers are stressed, they want answers fast. They don’t want to call or email, and then be on hold or wait indefinitely for a response. They need a place where they can find relevant information quickly and solve their problem themselves.
The SuperOffice Customer Center – a standalone portal that can be integrated into your existing website – allows you to create a customer information point that offers answers to the most common and frequently asked questions.
Use the page to share information that will help your customers stay up-to-date and make more informed decisions on what they need to do.
For example, let your customers know: has the COVID-19 situation resulted in delays to any of your products or services? How long is that delay expected to last and have you organized any alternative arrangements? Also, you can share status updates on any new policies you have implemented due to these exceptional circumstances, such as refunds or cancellations – right in the Customer Center!
This way you can help your customers help themselves and reduce your traffic of incoming inquiries at the same time.
SuperOffice CRM has an out-of-the-box, ready to use, Customer Center, which you can set up in minutes.
How to create self-service resources in SuperOffice Service
Live Chat – offer quick, convenient and personal responses to multiple customers
Like you, most of your customers’ regular routines have gone out the window. Juggling work, kids, and home duties simultaneously from one place means flexible working hours have a whole new meaning. Many will not be working a 9 am to 5 pm day or even a Monday to Friday week.
With online chat services, your customers can contact you when it's most convenient for them.
You too can avoid “office hours only” availability and provide a more flexible option that will get them the answers they need and offer a better customer experience.
Through SuperOffice Live Chat, you can respond to several customers at the same time and be more accessible to those that need your help. Live chats provide the personal element, as well as the immediacy and efficiency of a call. But since they do not require a one-to-one response, you can help more of your customers at once.
SuperOffice Chat is available for all our customers.
Learn more about SuperOffice Chat
Forms – collect valuable insights to service your customers even better
In these challenging times, it is important to keep the conversation going. As you adapt your business to the new situation, it is important to give customers a say and maintain the relationship – after all, the changes you introduce are meant to benefit them.
Forms are a great way to do this. Use forms to ask customers for feedback or ask them what you can do to help them. A simple “What can we do to help you?” question will let you gather valuable insights and help your business understand what it should be doing next.
You can create and embed forms in any SuperOffice mailing campaign, in the Customer Center, or on any customer-facing website. All new information entered in a form is automatically registered in SuperOffice CRM and a notification can be set up to alert the right person in your organization who is responsible for taking a follow-up action.
How to create a web form and add it to a web page
We are here to help. If you would like to learn more about how to better service your customers with SuperOffice Service, please contact us.