One of the largest challenges for any business as we continue into the digital age, is how to best support your customers: this is such a broad topic!
To help narrow down some of the ways you can help yourself in the digital world, let’s cover some strategies that you can use to improve your customer service in the digital age.
Utilize Chat Systems
One of the best ways to connect with your audience in the digital world is to use a chat system. This type of system can be easily accessed by most people.
More often than not this type of system is used on home pages for ease of access. If you have ever been on a website and a chat bubble pops up, that business is using a chat system.
Chat Bots
You can use chat systems that are posted on your website and run by your own customer service team, or you can utilize services that are automated. Whichever you choose, both are a great way to increase your customer service response rate.
Automated systems are usually more labor-intensive, however they can decrease expenses. Chat boxes require you to have greetings, questions, explanations, and general information about the business ready for an AI program to pull from.
Texting Systems
Another type of chat system that you can use is a texting system. This is where your client either has access to you, or to your customer service team on a regular basis.
Unfortunately or fortunately, this does mean that someone has to be available at all times during business hours in order to answer the text messages as promptly as possible.
Use Virtual Assistants
Another way to increase your customer service response in the digital world is to use virtual assistants.
Virtual assistants are people who have been trained on the specifics of your business so that they can best answer questions from clients. On top of that, they can also help redirect customers and help find potential solutions to their problems.
One of the best ways to do this is to utilize a company called Global Messaging. At Global Messaging, they provide all of the services of a full-time assistant at a fraction of the cost. They also specialize in handling difficult situations and ensure that your customers receive the best experience possible.
Have a Fleshed Out FAQ Page
Modern problems require modern solutions. If your business is or has a presence online, then you will need a fleshed out FAQs page that helps your customer base try to find the answer to the problem before having to reach out to customer service.
With a generation or two that have been raised in and on technology, it’s important to remember that users want to be able to find their solutions easily. If you provide enough information for your customers, they will be able to find a solution to their problem.
Quickly Respond to Emails
Something else to consider when you are working online with customers, is to be prepared to respond quickly to emails. If customers are sending in emails, then consider emails to be help tickets. Also there are many best shopify apps which help to manage your customer emails and reduce the email response time which can build a good impact on the customer mind.
With an email system and a help ticket system it’ll be easier to respond to your customers in an orderly manner that addresses the severity of their concerns.
One of the other issues with emails is that they are often sent at all times of the day: it’s not possible to respond to all of the emails that are sent when your customer service team is not able to address them. When this happens, it’s best to have a type of confirmation email that tells your customer what number their ticket is, how soon they can expect a response, and a phone number should they need any additional help.
Have a Social Media Presence
In this digital world, it’s important to remember how influential social media is. From being able to advertise your own work, to connecting with customers, social media is a vital artery to the world of customer service.
The biggest problem with social media is having to respond to customers on multiple accounts. This can be managed by either turning off messaging or directly linking your customers to your website from your social media bio.
While this can help mediate some of the problems, sometimes the best idea is to turn off in app messaging. If that’s not the brand for your business, then make sure you have customer service representatives that can cover social media accounts quickly and easily.
Conclusion
No matter how you decide to up your customer service response time in the digital world, it’s important to remember that you have to have the staff and the training to ensure that customer service is even across the board.
There are always new ways to respond to your customer base and there will always be new ways to reach out to your customers as well. Keep in mind though, the strategies discussed here are some of the newest and best ways to communicate with your customers.