From Omosoft’s experience in
establishing and managing IT support for our customers, I know that neglecting
customer service in favor of other priorities (e.g., product/ service
marketing, customer acquisition) is a sure way for a startup to fail. On the
contrary, businesses that focus on customer retention achieve a much more
positive overall customer experience and get more lifetime customers and
sustainable revenue growth. In particular, a 5% increase in customer retention
can lead to an increase in profits of between 25 and 95%. Below, I share
some easy yet efficient customer service tips that may help your startup
succeed.
#1 Select customer communication channels
To
make sure your customers reach out to you and get help as quickly as possible,
pick the channels they will most likely use. For instance, if your customers
belong to the millennial generation, they’ll prefer a live chat or social
media over traditional channels, like email and phone. However, if your
product/service is rather sophisticated and expensive, a phone call should be
among the priority support channels. Using emails for customer service also
seems viable, if the requests are processed quickly enough (a one-hour email
response time will meet the expectations of 89% of your customers). Thus,
picking at least two communication channels your customers use actively and
responding as quickly as possible is the place to start.
#2 Define your customer service metrics
To
measure the quality of your customer care and spot the tendencies and areas for
improvement, you can leverage a number of customer service metrics. Not to
get overwhelmed with tracking too many of them, startups can focus on the
essential ones, including:
- First response time (FRT) – the time between a customer submitting a
ticket and a customer support agent providing an initial response to it.
- Interactions-to-resolution – the number of interactions between a
customer and a support agent until the issue is resolved.
- Resolution Rate (RR) – the percentage of issues resolved by
support agents against the total number of tickets they received.
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) – a measure of your customer satisfaction
estimated with a survey that a client fills out typically after the issue
resolution or a conversation with a customer service agent.
#3 Create a knowledge base as the first
resort
As stated in Software Advice’s survey, 73% of customers look for the answers online first, in case of any issue. Therefore, creating a customer portal or a knowledge base with comprehensive articles, guides, how-to manuals, and FAQ sections allows for proactive customer support. It’s especially useful for startups with few customer service agents since a lot of customers will be able to solve their issues themselves, instead of seeking an agent’s assistance.
#4 Learn
from your customers’ feedback
Getting
customer feedback after every interaction is crucial for the startup’s customer
service quality and overall success. The thing is, such feedback not only shows
what customer service agents are good at and what should be improved. It can
also be a source of insights for sales reps since it helps them detect
opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. The marketing team, in its turn,
can use customer feedback to craft marketing campaigns, optimized to match your
target audience’s expectations.
#5 Create onboarding process for your
agents
Setting
up an onboarding process for your customer service agents with thorough
guidance on your product’s/service’s characteristics and customer service
processes is the last but not the least step for a startup to make. Agents that
know your product/service inside-out and follow your customer service workflow,
resolve tickets in due time and deliver the support that keeps your clients
satisfied.
