It’s that time of the year again, everybody. The holidays have come and gone, the retail and consumer flux has leveled back to a nice flexible sine wave, and the last grips of winter have subsided. Green is returning to our world, and with any luck, green shall return to our pockets as well. Because it’s time to look once more at some great customer service ideas once more.
We talk a lot about this, and we make a lot of suggestions. There’s a reason for this – we want people to use this information, and we want to keep presenting ways of hybridizing and optimizing of various channels so that we may inspire more companies to adopt these models as they appeal to them.
We present these ideas not as a way to listen to ourselves talk and sound smart. On the contrary, we beg of you, the readers, to take to heart this information. Make note of the pitfalls of the current customer service infrastructure. Know the need to fix these things, and hear us present some choices for where to possibly start. The road is of course yours and ultimately you walk it alone.
So, let’s look at five more great customer service ideas that’re right in front of you, and within your reach instantly. We’ve talked about some of these before, but this is something that just needs to be said now and then, to make sure new readers are likely to get this information as well.
#1 – Increase Email Support
This is actually a new idea, and while we’ve talked about the use of email before, now it’s looking like it may be a useful and high traffic channel for customer service in the future. Email isn’t going away like some thought it would, and with the integration of it into everything, it’s instant and present to us.
This means email is a convenient passive way to handle customer support problems, and offload call center nonsense.
#2 – Branch out to Social Media
We’ve talked about this one before quite a bit, but it bears mentioning once more. Things like Twitter are excellent for casual, instant communication between customers and CS, in an impersonal way that a lot of people appreciate.
#3 – Incentivize Positive Feedback
Here’s another new idea, incentivizing positive feedback. When you go to correct negative feedback, you may inadvertently cripple something in a product or service that people like. You just didn’t know they did. Feedback on things they like is therefore useful, so you know what to aim for when making improvements.
#4 – Engage Freelance Agents
We’ve mentioned this in passing before. Freelance customer service agents work from their home, their laptop or their mobile phone and handle calls, help tickets, email or Twitter – any customer service communications and resolutions.
Hiring to these professionals on a per-use basis is a good way to expand your customer support team in a cost effective but not ethically questionable manner.
#5 – Adopt some Self Service
A lot of the work load on customer service is routine things the customers ought to be able to do themselves. This is where adopting self service comes in handy, because it allows controlled access by a user to their account, but with higher privileges than could otherwise be safe to grant.
This reduces the grinding of customer and tech support, freeing them up for more important things.
These are just a few great customer service ideas, some tried and true, some new and mildly untested. Take these to heart, and use this knowledge.
Use WalkMe to encourage Self Service Adoption. Get your Free WalkMe Account Here –http://www.walkme.com
