How to Build a Better Customer Support Workflow?

Customer support workflow- it sounds simpler than it actually is! And trust me, it is quite lengthy starting from accepting customer queries to resolving them. 

So, what does a customer support workflow include?

Acknowledging customer support requests, segregating them on the basis of SLAs or priorities, routing them to the respective teams such as technical, sales, IT, marketing etc., marking them as resolved or open, and many more! 

Why is customer support workflow important?

Irrespective of the type of business, customer support is what reflects how your brand values the customers. And it can significantly affect the churn rate for your business! No wonder that the recent Statista report stated that the churn rate for the U.S. online retail industry is around 22% which is driven by poor customer service as well! This is just a glimpse of how customer support plays an important role for any industry.

So, what do you need to do? 

Build a better customer support workflow! 

How?

Well, we are here to guide you through that!

So, ready? 

Let’s start!

• Understand the Customer Support Process

The workflow for customer support and the related teams varies for different kinds of businesses. And so, first you need to understand the customer support process for your business. On the basis of the type of your business such as e-commerce store, e-learning platform, OTT Platform, or any other, document the customer support process and the related workflow.

This is the first step towards implementing a good customer support workflow, as it will help you in-

1. Marking the areas where you need to onboard new team members
2. Pointing out which parts can be streamlined and automated 
3. Identifying the challenges like which KPIs need improvement, which team is lacking efficiency etc.
4. Visualizing the entire workflow in order to improve it further as needed

• Have the Basic Knowledge about Different Types of Workflow

The customer support can be a single process, but it can be of different types and hence has different workflows such as the workflows for-

1. Complaint resolution
2. Products feedback
3. Issue related to customer order
4. Query related to subscription

and others.

Also, the workflow may depend on the channel of communication like-

1. Chatbot workflow
2. Email workflow
3. Phone call workflow
4. Contact us form workflow
5. Social media chat workflow

and many others. 

Sounds overwhelming? Read on, the go-to-solution comes in the next steps-

• Outline the Workflow

No, you don’t need any expensive tools, simple Excel or Google Sheets will work. Outline each step, the related resources and information while combining your own knowledge with the insights from your teams or even the customer feedback.

It will help in pointing out the weak areas of your current workflow as well. For instance, if your customer feedback conveys that their billing issues are not getting resolved on time, you need to focus on the team handling this and so on.

• Automate the Process

A customer support workflow is itself quite lengthy and complex. And managing it becomes even more hectic when the number of customers as well as the support requests are more. Opting for a customer support workflow management system is always a good idea to streamline the entire process and handle customer support requests with greater efficiency.

Also Read: Advantages of Help Desk Management Platform

• Simplify the Customer Experience 

Your customers have very little time to invest on getting their required customer support. Neither they prefer a hard-to-reach customer support team, nor will they spend hours to find out the ways to reach your support team. The answer is- simplify the customer experience. Offer specific channels to contact or submit support requests such as contact us forms, chat widgets, emails, calls, etc. Simplifying customer experience also includes providing them with the instant acknowledgements for the submitted queries. Or else, your customers will be clueless about the status of their queries or whether it reached the customer service team at all or not! It may not be possible for your support team to provide instant acknowledgement and keep track of all the submitted queries for a large customer base. And a customer support system can help with this.

• Focus on the Most Sought-after Channels

So, what do you do when you have complaints or queries related to Facebook? Most probably, you connect them through a chat window? 

And what about when you receive a faulty product on Amazon? You create a refund request or reach out over the call!

Have you noticed how the preference for communication channels keeps changing for different online platforms?

You too need to point out which channels your customers prefer more to reach out to your customer support team. It can be chat, social media, phone call or any other medium. Try to improve that medium even more by providing a simple and smooth UI. At the same time, ensure all the communication channels get proper attention for resolving the requests on time. You can add more variety to make it easier. For instance, you can incorporate forums to let your customers help each other or social media to make them reach out to your support team easily, and so on. You can opt for an omni-channel customer support system for hassle-free processes.

• Introduce Ticketing System

The customer support workflow consists of handling multiple customer queries, complaints, and requests over multiple channels. And a ticketing system works wonders in streamlining the entire flow. It helps in managing multi-channel customer support requests by converting them into the tickets with unique ticket numbers. As a result, it becomes much easier for your support team to know the status and other relevant information of the customer queries. Sounds great, no?

• Don’t Forget Prioritizing

Your online business can have thousands to billions of subscribers and there can be a lot of support requests submitted to your support team daily. How are they going to resolve those on time without making the customers impatient? By prioritizing. Always segregate the customer support requests on the basis of SLA (Service Level Agreement) to set up the right priorities. This will not only do the justice to all your customers reaching out for support, but will also help you simplify the customer support workflow.

• Have Well-Defined Workflows for Different Customer Support Requests

Do all the customer support requests belong to the same category? You must know, the answer is no. And so the workflow of your customer support should be able to resolve different support requests with equal efficiency. Simply put, well-defined workflows for different types of complaints or requests are required.

Let me give an example-

X has an e-commerce business with a customer support workflow. A is a customer who is facing issues with renewing his subscription. B is another customer who has some complaint related to the last items purchased by her. Customer C has changed his phone number and is unable to receive notifications in his new number. Now A, B, and C submit support requests for their respective issues. How are these different from one other? Let’s see-

The complaint of A can be routed to the billing department, while that of B can be sent to the sales team and C’s query can be resolved by the helpdesk executives.

Notice, each process will have a slightly different workflow from the others. And it is important to have the predefined paths for various workflows.

• Utilize the Technologies

We often forget that even the most skilled personnel need some tools to work more efficiently. So, always take feedback from your internal teams, and understand their requirements. Utilize the modern tools and technologies to improve the overall workflow and performance. For instance, if your company promises 24/7 support to the customers, then to maintain it, you can take help of a customer support system instead of hiring more personnel. It will only deliver more seamless performance.

• Review, Analyze, and Repeat

If you want your customer support workflow to be better in all terms, then do the following things on regular basis-

1. Analyze the current workflow.
2. Focus on the customer feedback and the key areas to be improved.
3. Based on the customer ratings and reviews, work on both the strong and weak areas.
4. Always aim for delivering more than your customer expectations and be consistent to exceed them.
5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 on a regular basis to ensure a quality customer support workflow.

Most importantly, no matter how skilled your support team is, always opt for a customer support software as it will help you in ways the support team never can.

Wrapping Up

Building a better customer support workflow is not a one-day-process. But once achieved, it will be an asset to your business and will aid in enhancing your brand reputation.

Muvi Tattle  lets you build your own workflow to provide enterprise-grade omnichannel customer support. Its easy-to-track ticketing system converts multi-channel conversations into tickets which can be tracked and managed easily. Take a 14-day free trial to explore Tattle!