Online customer service software isn’t new, but it’s sure getting a lot more attention these days, with SaaS constructs and cloud computing gaining steam. Everything is making the shift from a client side design over a LAN to a centralized computing powerhouse using the already existing backbone of the internet and the natural cross-platform and power-independent nature of remote online computing.

Given how important customer service is, and how terrible it tends to be even with the best companies around, it’s no surprise that these new advents in technology are seeing nearly immediate application in customer service. People, be they customers or companies, are desperate for ways to make this field more efficient and less horrible. So, what can online customer service software do for you, and how can you use it to your optimal benefit? Beyond just being more efficient in the software sense, how is this actually improving customer service on the whole? Is it in fact improving things?

Well, we certainly think it has the capacity to, and we certainly see a few ways to get the most out of these improvements too. Allow us to talk for a minute about a few of the powerful benefits this concept brings in, and how they may be employed to help customer service improve drastically.

Let’s start simple. With this cloud-oriented software concept, you have instant freedom from platform constrictions, which means that any device imaginable that’s web smart can use the software. This means that even little tablets and handheld devices such as mobiles can more than capably operate the software, if a connection is available. Now, this is great from a technical standpoint, but how can this help customer service directly?

Consider a new age where a vast staff of customer service people can be available outside the office. They can work from home and on the go, their system not mattering as long as they have at least 755kbps internet speeds to load websites and interfaces. This means that an expanded, always-available dynamic staff of tech support and customer service people can for the first time be built. Larger staff that is omnipresent would mean much faster response times and much more affordable customer service.

Second, the centralization means that any given customer support person can access everything the others can, and collaboratively. This means that you, if you set permissions correctly, can now access everything, in tandem with other personnel in other departments with almost no wait time. This removes a lot of redirecting, hold times and other mucking about that are problems in modern customer support.

Finally let’s talk about something a bit different, in the sense of the self service concept. With online onboard software, self service can make a lot of customer service issues automatic and unobtrusive. This allows the customer service people to be free to address the more severe problems that do require their intervention, and doesn’t waste the time of the customers who have simple problems. Now how does it do this?

These on-board systems are made of web components cleverly programmed (without the need for code). They were mostly designed as live, interactive tutorial systems, and filling this role is part of how they obviously help. But, they can do much more, accounting for mistakes users may make with online services you provide, or in company websites where they go for support. Following this, these systems are content aware and capable of interacting with the pages that host them and so can spot problems and report them, or dynamically deduce the problem a user has, and solve it for them.

They tend to look pretty slick, too and aesthetics and presentation matter when a customer sees it. They’re also great for training customer service personnel on other online services they will be using to serve customers!

So, how can online customer service software help you? The question is really how can it not?

Use WalkMe.com to encourage self service