5 Ways You Can Make Life Easier For Your Customer Service Team

Your customer service team will provide the backbone of your company’s customer experience. 

They answer questions, address concerns and complaints, and are an integral part of every business. But, too often, the time of customer service teams might be taken up by small queries or customer problems that could be addressed in an automated way.

Wouldn’t it be nice to save them some time?

In this article, I’m going to outline how you can make the lives of your customer service team easier. It’ll make for happier customers, happier employees, and a better business.

Create content that answers common customer queries

Let’s talk about content marketing. If you answer common customer questions with your website content, you can reduce the number of queries your customer service team gets and give them more resources to point your customers to. Plus, creating content that people are searching for can boost your search engine optimizations (SEO) and improve your online visibility.

Start by combing through reviews and social media commentary to see what common questions people have about your business. You can also get ideas by checking in with your customer service team to see if there’s a question they get asked a lot. Then, it’s time to conduct some keyword research. 

Answer the Public is a great tool that you can use to see what types of questions people are asking. Plug in a search term relevant to your business, and they’ll provide you with a series of questions; for instance, plugging in the term “customer service” results in questions like “can customer service increase sales” and “how customer service affects business.” These types of questions are what you can base your content on.

For inspiration, let’s browse some websites that are already doing a great job of creating content based on common customer questions. 

Take a look at how The RealFX Group, a real estate company based out of Texas, uses their content to answer customer questions. In their article on how student loans affect one’s ability to buy a home, they put viewers at ease by outlining how they can minimize the impact of this existing debt. This saves their customer service team (and their realtors) time addressing the subject. 

Similarly, My Canada Payday, a loan provider, helps their customer base by outlining when it would be appropriate for someone to declare bankruptcy. Not only does this kind of content build up the authority of My Canada Payday, but it helps their customer service team; this is the type of question someone in a financial bind might ask while they are looking for borrowing options.

Ahrefs also addresses their audience’s concerns with their guide to inbound marketing. By offering their website visitors a complete beginner’s guide to a topic they are experts in, they can address a huge number of potential questions people might have. This builds the credibility of Ahrefs and is likely to save their customer service team time.

Choose a handful of customer service channels and stick to them

There are so many different ways you can stay in touch with your customers. But, if you use too many channels without having the appropriate resources, your customer service team will be stretched too thin.

So, how can you decide which channels will work best for your business? Phone, email, live chat, and social media are all potential options, but the right choices will vary depending on your business. 

For an eCommerce business, email customer service is likely going to be used as a baseline. 91% of consumers use email every single day and, as a customer service channel, email can be used to address customer concerns that aren’t urgent. Most people today know how to use email and, if they don’t need immediate help, this might be their first choice.

You should also consider the age of your customers. Older people tend to prefer phone and email services, while younger people prefer social media and live chat. Depending on the age of your customers, you might alter your channel choice. Keep in mind that phone customer service, while popular, can be time-consuming and expensive, and you may need to adjust your budget accordingly.

Regardless of the channels you decide to use, make sure to have an FAQ page on your website so customers with common inquiries can help themselves. This is a no-brainer and a great way to save your employees time.

Create content that will help your customers make informed purchases

If customers are informed before making a purchase, they’ll be more likely to make a decision that’s right for them. This will lead to fewer returns and better reviews. Plus, it can make your customer service team’s life a little easier, as it will give them more time to help with other types of queries.

But what kinds of content can help customers to make the best purchasing decisions to suit their needs? Buying guides and comparison pieces are ideal for this. Let’s take a look at some examples for inspiration. 

For instance, SocialPilot, a social media marketing tool, helps their customers choose which Facebook publishing tool is right for them with a buying guide. They outline the prices, pros and cons, and uses of a variety of different tools, including their own. This is the type of content that helps customers make an informed decision that’s right for them.

Similarly, Best Value Schools has a series of round-ups featuring the best schools of different categories. For instance, their article on the best colleges with free tuition, which is updated regularly, outlines the benefits of these budget-friendly schools. Succinctly putting so much helpful information in one article is a great way to help your customers make a decision. There are so many schools in the United States that it can be overwhelming trying to even narrow it down; these types of articles are a great way to save both the reader and the customer service team time.

My City Plants, a New York-based plant delivery company, has a straightforward buying guide to what plants would be best for your space. This takes into account how much room you have, what kind of look you want, what you can care for, and more. Plants are a surprisingly tricky thing to take care of, and knowing what plants will live well in your space or among your pets can be tough to figure out. This comprehensive guide helps answer a variety of questions beginners might have, saving their employees time.

Automate certain elements of your customer service

Don’t be afraid of automation! If you get a lot of the same questions from your customers, you might be able to automate certain elements of your customer service. For example, you could offer a live chat service that provides links to helpful blog content you have already written, or implement auto-responses to certain social media messages. Just be sure to make it easy for your customers to get in touch with a real person if they would like; sometimes, they might just want human interaction.

Take a look at HubSpot’s guide to automated customer service channels you can implement for your business. For example, Zoho Desk can help your employees automatically sort their tickets and access previous customer conversations. TeamSupport allows your customer service team to work together on the same issues, preventing the need to “go up the chain of command.” Or, HubSpot Service Hub provides a live chat service (among other things) that lets a customer search for their own answers while they wait for help.

Keep a record of customer communications

No customer likes to start over with your business every time they have to contact customer service. Save your team time (and your customers’ sanity) by keeping track of old communications your company has had with customers. And make sure it’s easy to pass records quickly and easily between members of your team so everyone is caught up.

Keeping track of customer communications is vital to customer service and retention. It leads to fewer errors and faster response times because customers don’t need to give each team member their entire history. This is a process that will save you time and money.

As stated above, there are a lot of tools that will automatically keep track of your records for you. It’s worth investing in a digital document management system to help you keep track of tickets, service correspondence, and customer notes.

Summary

Happy employees make for a happy business. By saving your customer service team time, it makes their life easier, reduces inefficiencies, and improves the experience your customers have. The tips we outlined can help you do just that. 

Take a look at the services you currently offer. What can be automated? What can be turned into content? Should you be looking into new channels? Hopefully, this article helped answer those questions for you. Guess it’s time to get to work!

 

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Author bio & headshot:

 

Alex Ratynski is the founder of Ratynski Digital, an online marketing consultancy that focuses on helping small and medium-sized businesses achieve their goals. He set up his company after working as a local SEO director for a dental marketing agency, where he helped to turn clients’ ventures into thriving multi-million dollar businesses. He spends most hours strategizing SEO for his clients.