Ideas for Customer Support Success

Years ago customers had no choice!

No choice

• Where to buy
• From who to buy
• Even what to buy!

The real competitive advantage?

How you treat your customers!

Probability of Selling

"It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience"

The few who complain..

• "For every customer who bothers to complain, 26 other customers remain silent."

News travels fast..

• "News of bad customer service reaches more than twice as many ears as praise for a good service experience"

Clients spend more..

• "7 in 10 Americans said they were willing to spend more with companies they believe provide excellent customer service"

The Best Level Of Support

• Make it a priority!
• Understand it is a real competitive advantage
• Train and establish team guidelines

Support Channel

• Have a single support channel where you funnel all requests
• Let your clients know that support is available and encourage them to use it!
• In WidgiLabs we use Freshdesk

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Training How To

• Small team: organize internal events and simulate taking requests in via phone and e-mail to establish guidelines
• Bigger team: Ask your existing support team to help with on-boarding new peers and bring them up to speed

Proud

• Be proud of your support service and team
• Support the growth of your collegues
• Support and maintain a positive and energetic workplace culture

Team

• Small but agile (5-8)
• Deals with every issue
• Smart but humble
• Psychology trumps skill

Great Service = Marketing

• If you provide great service people will talk about you and your business
• If you provide great service to someone it will create a lasting memory (simply because everyone else is not doing it!)

Great Service = Marketing

• Your support is your brand
• Ask for a testimonial after a successful resolution

What Support is Really About

• Learning how to understand, anticipate and consistently fulfill the deepest needs of your clients
• Overcoming Obstacles

Reporting Metrics

• While speed is certainly important, it is generally not a customer’s biggest concern
• Research makes a strong argument that spending a little more time with customers is the way to go

When Speed Kills

• "What builds a stronger tie [..] may not be whether a customer receives a sandwich in less than three minutes. Speed won't compensate for a cold, tasteless sandwich or for rude and incompetent service."

Support Profile

• People that like people
• How do they learn? Are they "readers" or "listeners"?
• How do they learn?
• Should software engineers also act as tech support?

Engineers as tech support?

• Interruption factor
• Not everyone is good at support
• Inefficient use of resources

Limited Liability

• "We're not responsible for any caused damage by the intervention of our techs"

Personal Committement

• "You have my word it will get done"
• "I will see it personally that you have this situation fixed asap"
• "I will personally take care of your account"

Andy McMillan

• Had his PayPal account locked
• Had £40,000 "freezed"
• Contacted customer support and they said "we will not be releasing any funds"

..decided to tweet about it to see if the Internet had any ideas of how to help..

..to

David Marcus, PayPal CEO at the time reached out personally to Andy!

Key Points

• Make it personal
• Solve the issue quickly
• Genuinely care!
• Take it as feedback and improve!

Book References

• Delivering Happiness
• Simple Truths of Service

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How can you go beyond what is expected?

Gracias!
@morgadin