Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

Customer support isn’t what it once used to be. Today, customers would rather troubleshoot their problems by reading solution articles, than by writing an elaborate email about it, or waiting to speak to a support agent over the phone. With the increased dependence on self-service over traditional channels of communication, it has become necessary for companies to implement a customer portal where they can collate all the information the end-user requires.

No matter how skilled and experienced your customer support team, none of your agents can resolve every customer issue by themselves. For some tickets, they might need assistance from a developer. For others, they might need information from your warehouse or suppliers. And in some cases, they might just want to speed up the process by asking another agent who’s handled a similar issue for advice.

In the world of customer service, there’s nothing more stressful than a rising ticket backlog and overworked, stressed out agents. If your agents are inundated with emails, calls, and inquiries––something needs to change. If your agents are constantly switching between channels and unable to communicate and collaborate in real time, there are serious consequences—think low CSAT, low ASAT, and a general lack of support efficiency.

When today’s consumers run into issues or have questions, they expect solutions fast. Though tools like live chat have drastically decreased the time it takes to find a resolution, most channels still require you to wait for a support agent. But online self-service portals have changed that.

As we add more technology to our lives to meet our business needs, the customer support software system has become increasingly essential. It’s now much more than just a ticketing system! It’s evolved into a vital supply of customer data and information. As you evaluate your own customer-centric systems and processes, here are 11 must have features to look for in a customer support software system…

Good customer support is all about being able to deal with requests quickly. On social media, for example, customers expect responses to their support questions within 24 hours. Every retail support team out there eventually hits a point where the volume of support tickets it receives becomes too much. If your team hasn’t yet, it will in the future. And when that happens, you might not be able to respond as quickly as your customers expect you to.

Providing great customer service is one of the best ways for a company to achieve success and ultimately, grow. But with that growth comes the challenge of maintaining it without sacrificing the very things that made you successful in the first place. And since having a bigger team doesn’t automatically mean you’ll perform better, companies that scale well learn to strategically organize their support team in a way that increases efficiency and reduces costs.

As a support agent, there aren’t many things as serious as hearing there’s downtime. If the very word made you sit upright, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Happy customers are key to business success, whether you are a small company or a large enterprise. Though the end goal is the same, how SMBs achieve customer satisfaction differs from their enterprise counterparts. Small and medium business can’t afford to provide the same comprehensive customer services enterprises do, so SMBS must maximize their customer service investments.