A helpdesk’s main purpose is to resolve issues. In this way, when a customer or user calls for support, they may be feeling challenged or frustrated. This means that answering those calls, or emails can be a delicate task. Agents need to gather the information required to resolve an issue, whilst maintaining good customer relations. We look at the dos and don’ts of answering customer service calls and explore what makes up good customer service.
What is customer service?
Customer service is the support that you provide to customers or users of a product or service. It manifests differently depending on the industry and product or service in question. However, what all types of customer service have in common is that their aim is customer satisfaction. This means that we should understand what makes up customer satisfaction in the first place.
What does a customer want?
Really understanding customer satisfaction is key to answering customer service calls well. For a customer to be satisfied, and for your service to be successful, you must understand what that customer wants. It’s true that industry details vary, but there are also universally broad aims to remember.
Responsiveness
Speed is key in answering customer service calls. Even if an issue cannot be immediately resolved, a prompt acknowledgement will maintain customer satisfaction. This also means proactively supporting users and systems. You can achieve proactive problem solving with sustained assistance and joined-up thinking. In this way, the overall customer experience is improved.
Resolution
Ultimately, challenges or issues must be successfully resolved. It is how these issues are resolved that is most crucial to customer experience. Sometimes a lot needs to go on behind the scenes for a problem to be solved for the customer. If a problem recurs or takes time to resolve, it is down to the helpdesk to manage the resolution positively.
Support
Good customer service, certainly within the IT service industry is an ongoing activity. It is not something that is finally achieved but requires constant awareness. When answering a customer service call, understanding is key. This means understanding, not just of the problem being presented, but also of surrounding issues.
Communication
Regular updates and reporting go a long way in maintaining communication. Remember that service extends much further than simply problem-solving. Good communication within teams and departments will mean faster and better resolution. Good communication with the customer will mean an excellent perception of the service they’ve received.
Key Dos and Don’ts
When you receive customer service calls, what are the key actions to remember? And as importantly, what pitfalls should you remember to avoid?
DO:
- Listen to the problem carefully and fully, without interruption.
- Respond quickly, even if an issue cannot be resolved immediately.
- Communicate with the customer during the issue resolution, including on hold.
- Empower the customer with self-service.
- Take time to understand the issue.
- Log details fully so that the data can be used to prevent future problems.
DON’T:
- Pass the ticket to a different department without first informing the customer
- Neglect opportunities to gain feedback data.
- Forget to fully utilise resources.
- Be afraid to reach out to other specialist teams.
- Use too much technical jargon.
How can technology help?
Human interaction is crucial for answering customer service calls well. However, technology provides an excellent framework and tools to support outstanding customer service. Which areas are these tools best utilised?
Prioritisation
For a busy service or helpdesk team, the ability to prioritise is key. There may be tasks that impact other pieces of work and longer-term projects. This should all be happening in the background of customer service calls. Good service desk software can dynamically manage service requests within the context of the organisation. This ensures that immediate issues can be resolved without compromising overall change.
Specialisation
Service desk resource is likely to consist of different specialist teams. The key to streamlining customer service calls is in directing problems to the right place in the first instance. So, a help desk system should be able to immediately stream an incoming customer service call to the individual or team with appropriate knowledge and experience. In this way, the call is answered at the correct point in the organisation and does not have to be transferred around.
Information
Interactivity vastly eases the process of answering customer service calls. A comprehensive knowledge library and portals ensure that agents have access to helpful information. In addition, these resources mean that customers can be empowered to resolve minor issues quickly and proactively track their service requests.
Prevention
Of course, the happiest customer is one who does not need to make the call in the first place! Service desks are not just there to resolve immediate faults. Dynamic helpdesk software and prompt resolution prevent faults from escalating. When smaller problems are correctly and swiftly resolved, many customers are prevented from being impacted.
The Bigger Picture
Customer service calls are a great place to manage and gather feedback. This feedback data is a valuable resource for monitoring SLAs and improving performance. In this way, your call answering process can be advanced.
Data
It’s vital to include a good reporting system in your service desk. Data should be presented comprehensively. This allows your management teams to use the reporting data to further improve the customer service process if necessary.
Feedback
It’s often just a case of asking in order to understand the customer experience. However, the point of service request is unlikely to be the right time. Follow up customer service calls with a customer satisfaction survey. Service desk tools can automate this. Data collected can be used in collaboration with other KPIs to fully assess the success of the service.
Proactive change
As an organisation grows, many aspects of the process require change, and customer service is no different. In this way, the function of a service desk may pivot, including the process of answering and responding to customer service calls. Organisational change like this can be supported and eased through good service desk software.
Conclusion
Approach and technology both have roles to play in providing exceptional support when answering customer service calls. In this way, an organisation should provide both training and technology to assist customer service teams. To explore your software options, why not get in touch?