Nurture marketing strategy for customer support

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in this guide we'll tell you the whole story of online customer service well maybe not the whole story but enough to give you a rough idea about what you can do to provide your customers with great service we'll cover the subject from our perspective at live chat and reveal some of our highly guarded secrets in the process you'll know everything about nailing your customer service in the future and we also got some Trends to watch out for right at the end let's do this so what is online customer service basically it's the process of answering queries from your customers online and there are various ways a customer can reach out to you like through email phone live chat social media texts video calls and many more think of online customer service as the connection you form with a consumer the connection is built up by what you say and do through branding Marketing sales and support think about it this way no matter how good your product or service is you will need to stand out and you can do that with superb customer service usually this is the point where you build trust in relationships with customers here's the thing customer service can work both logically and emotionally and reaching the brain's emotional Center means reaching the source of each decision the customers make of course they interpret isolated parts of customer service logically we've got prices advertising individual features customer support and more but when you combine all the elements it makes your customers or potential customers feel a certain way and that's where the connection between the brand so you and your customers bill this leads your customers to choose you over a competitor who let's say has a lower price but can compete with your level of online customer service so why is online customer service more important than ever well I guess we have to say it most of the world went remote and well everything and therefore we all had to get used to a different lifestyle than before and with that online customer service also changed and became more important than ever with all that happened in 2020 many businesses switched to work remotely of course in the beginning companies weren't ready to switch to remote so keeping everything intact wasn't easy and running an entire support team remotely must have been chaotic especially with the brutal fact that this was exactly when customers needed smooth customer service the most so yes companies needed to adapt to work remotely very very fast customer expectations were high and they are high with 93 of customer service teams saying that customer expectations are higher than ever before while 50 of consumers said that the pandemic caused them to rethink their purpose and priorities when it comes to brats this put customer support teams under a lot more pressure with 53 percent of support teams seeing an increase in support queries since the start of the pandemic and most likely it will not change in the post-covet world because well let's face it the expectations were already set okay we talked a lot about online customer service why it's important and how it's changed so what should you do in customer service we'll have to create a strategy your customer service strategy is a thorough plan including the channels and the way you talk with your clients and a part of it should be a clear idea of how you're going to speak to your customers handle the response rates common questions and issues having a clearly constructed strategy makes it easier for both your employees and clients people inside your company will get a guide on how to approach your customers and your clients will get astonishing service each and every time but in order to prepare such a strategy there are a few things you need to do first and the first thing I'm going to mention here might sound easy however it isn't you have to know who your customers are which channels are they using do they like email or do they prefer using live chat you need to figure out which customer service channels your customers prefer and you can do that in various ways like adding a question at the end of your convo with a customer or sending your surveys by email if you're already using multiple channels to provide online customer service then revise them take a look at those analytics to see which is the most popular you don't need to be everywhere but you need to be everywhere your customers are having an FAQ page you don't want to be answering the same questions over and over especially in detail unless you're using live chat then it's a lot easier but either way you should most likely provide an FAQ page for your customers with the most common questions like product info delivery and returns warranties opening hours payment options subscription renewals and so on I advise asking your customer service team what the most commonly asked questions are that way you'll save them a lot of time and you'll know what to put on your FAQ page provide various channels of communication so I know this might seem over exaggerated but it does happen and it is quite common companies spend all their time on the newest features but when it comes to putting together a contact us page it gets done once and it's never updated having a few options for your customers to contact you is essential right now most people will try to message you through social media email or sometimes even call you so an ancient contact form will not suffice in modern day customer service there's also the option of having a chat icon appear in the corner of the screen and I might be biased but this seems like the easiest way to talk to your customers speed matters we're in the 21st century when talking to a company you shouldn't feel like you're waiting for that package of foreign candy from your foreign friend from the other side of the world anymore anyways nearly everything is available in nearly everyone and even though your side of the world might be sleeping the other side of the world isn't and if your customers are currently looking at a certain product on the other side of the world clicking on that chat icon and asking a question about sizes then they are expecting a reply and they might not be willing to wait until your side of the world wakes up of course determining the target response times should be a part of your strategy and this can depend on various factors like how many customer service Representatives you have you know resources and budget you have to be aware of how important response times can be to customers and also to you as a brand it's your reputation we're talking about here personalization matters as well personalization is another key factor to good customer service now you don't have to go to the extent of knowing what your customer had for lunch today to personalize your communication it's more about talking to them as you would with a friend referring to them by name and remembering their previous purchases to recommend new products or services to them personalization is like expressing care just like giving a handmade card to your friend compared to buying one from a store don't over promise I know that many businesses want to sell the dream experience however you don't want to promise a glass slipper when you know you only have plastic ones available only promise what you know you can deliver if you over promise and then under deliver you could end up in a storm of bad comments but there's also a good sign you can try to exceed expectations especially on the customer service level maybe don't promise a class slipper but let them know that if they leave you an email you'll let them know when the glass slippers are back in stock going the extra mile here will be beneficial trust me train your customer service team our service team represents your brand so it's not surprising that there's a lot of training involved and that there are many key skills to look for when hiring a customer service team we will actually have a video on that topic soon so make sure to subscribe so you're notified when the video comes out but for now let me just mention a few skills that your customer service team should Master patience is key when a customer reaches out to your team the customer might be frustrated and being able to patiently listen to what the customer is referring to can be the key to resolving the issue following what I said they also need to have the skill of attentiveness with this comes a whole load of active listening where your team needs to pick up on what the customer is actually saying without them mentioning it your team needs to know how to dig up the key points that the customer is actually going on about and of course clear communication without clear communication skills there will be more and more misunderstandings okay so we talked about what you should do in customer service but what things should you avoid there's a lot so let's get on with it not listening to what your customers are actually saying let's be honest there's a difference between listening and activism just listening customers is sometimes not enough you or your customer service representative should be actively responding and reflecting on what the customers say make the customer feel like they matter you know perhaps instead of saying I understand yes yes go with I understand your point and I want to help resolve this issue as fast as possible therefore please take me through what happened there is a difference isn't there underestimating the power of Word of Mouth Marco many businesses tend to forget where marketing actually start Word of Mouth marketing was one of the biggest factors in the construction of marketing back in the day businesses partially relied on a customer recommending their product or service so it's almost absurd to think that businesses started to underestimate one of the stems of marketing word-of-mouth marketing can be organic however it can also be achieved through specifically designed marketing campaigns let's not forget about the fact that organic word of mouth is free and all you've got to do from your side is make sure you provide good customer service and a good customer experience because if if your customers have a good experience talking to you they will tell others and the last of the deadly sins of customer service is drumroll please not investing in your customer service to provide good customer service and maintain it you will need to invest in equipment software and perhaps even a customer service team that doesn't have to be much but you have to be aware that it's impossible to do it well for free it is an investment but think of it as a way to gain loyal customers and bring in new customers that eventually will pay the bills it's essential to have that in mind when you are preparing your customer service strategy we talked about what to do and what to avoid in customer service and now we have to talk about the trends we have two big ones for you to follow the first one is Omni chat with the growing expectations of customers it can be said that omnichannel customer service won't only be a trend in the near future but might actually be an expectation can you recall an interaction with a brand that was so good that even though you use different channels on different occasions your experience was always seamless when switching through communication channels your customers won't even have to introduce themselves and the reason they're calling over and over again by providing omnichannel customer service you'll have consistent interactions with customers regardless of the communication Channel they use you know whether it's phone email live chat social media or messaging apps omnichannel communication connects them all for improved customer experience Now by doing this you're basically removing the friction that might have caused potential customers not converting to actual clients congratulations the second trend is video for Live customer service video isn't just for marketing strategies currently many companies are turning to video support for a higher level of personalized customer service there are many benefits to live video chat support like bringing the in-store experience to your customers online and providing quality remote support video recordings can also be used for Learning and Development purposes businesses can revise the video recordings and see what could be improved find faster solutions to issues and improve communication and also receive feedback on their products or Services you can gain customer trust and answer their questions live who doesn't want that that was a lot of info for one video but I hope you're not better prepared for what to add or change in your customer service strategy you're now ready to start nailing your customer service create your strategy absorb what you've learned and comment Down Below on what other topics you'd like us to cover 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