There are lots of tools that you can use to help you provide great service to your customers, including Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, service desk tools, and social media tools. But there is very little guidance on the aspect of customer service tools – what to look for. Using tried and tested tools and techniques for employees and customers can help you to attract and retain customers and staff. Your customer service tools for employees might not be the same as your tools and techniques that are directly used to support your customers, but they will have many similarities. In this article, I will share with you some tools and techniques for employees and clients that have proved invaluable to other organizations in how they provide excellent service to their customers.
Keep the Customer Informed
Some organizations that otherwise have great customer service tools for employees can forget about this important technique when applied to customers. Customer service tools for employees that are used to provide support nearly always have the facility to keep the employee informed of progress. But unless the customer is also kept informed about the status of their query or issue, they can feel dissatisfied with the level of service provided. Email is an obvious choice for tools for employees and customers, as it can provide easy updates. Automation can be used to send an email confirming receipt, but also at regular intervals to let a customer know that they haven’t been forgotten, so they will feel that they are receiving great service.
Customer Service Tools to Remember People’s Names and Information
Do you get annoyed when a customer support representative asks you for information that you previously provided, such as your name and email address? Guess what – all customers feel that way, so holding key information about customers is another one of the critical customer service tools and techniques. If you are looking to buy a tool for support, then this is important to look for. Basic information includes name, contact details, delivery, and payment information. Good tools and techniques for employees should also have the capability to store data and information. The experience in customer service will be enhanced if your tool can recall this based on very few inputs, such as the email address. Enhanced tools and techniques for employees and customers allow them to use a self-service facility to update their information.
Make the Customer or Employee Feel Special
Customer service tools and techniques for employees and customers can be used to make the individuals feel special and give the impression that the organization cares about them. If you capture birthday data as part of the initial engagement with a customer or employee, then you can use that to create and send a birthday greeting. For example, your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system could generate an alert five days before a birthday, giving time to create a personalized birthday card and mail it to them.
Customer Service Tools: Use live chat
Not everybody likes to use a telephone call to get access to support. Some people are more comfortable behind a computer screen, so give them the option to communicate with you in this format. That applies to your customer service tools for employees and customers. Using live chat can provide you with an excellent source of data and information on what are the most common queries and how they have been dealt with, which can be used to improve the FAQs that can be accessed by both employees and customers.
Using all of these tips should help to address the challenge of what to look for in a customer service tool.
Summary:
Customer Service Tools
There are lots of tools that you can use to help you provide great service to your customers, including Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, service desk tools, and social media tools. Use tools to keep the customer informed. A CRM is helpful to track people’s names and their history with your company. All customers should be treated like they are a regular with the company. Tools to make the customer feel special are important. Live chat and chatbots help with communication. Using all of these tips should help to address the challenge of what to look for in a customer service tool.
