Whether you are just starting out or your business is already established, customer service plays a vital role in business, and having the right type of customer service software is necessary to help keep things running smoothly. Unfortunately, many customer service suites come as a one-size-fits-all type of software, which doesn’t work for many businesses. It may seem daunting to search for the right customer service software and support software, but it doesn’t have to be if you do your research and know the facts. Learn more about customer service software, including benefits and different types.
What Is Customer Service Software, Exactly?
You may be thinking that you need software to provide excellent customer service to your clients and customers, but what does customer service software generally entail? A customer support system can employ many features. Mainly, customer service software is in charge of collecting, organizing, responding, and reporting customer service requests. These goals may be executed in several different ways, such as live chat, email, self-service, messaging, and more. Support software suites are not created equally, so some may have too few of the features you want, while others may offer features that you don’t need. There is also a customer support team working with the software to still ensure that human touch when it comes to customer service communication.
Benefits of Customer Service and Support Software
Overall, using this type of software offers many benefits. You may have started out with one dedicated customer service email address but perhaps you need specialized software to handle customer support requests better. All in all, this offers better customer service and customer loyalty.
One primary benefit of this software is offering more consistent and responsive support. If a customer has an issue, they typically want it resolved as soon as possible. For a more responsive reply, look for customer service software features that include knowledge base integration, automated workflows, saved replies, and tagging, among others. More robust features allow your support team to spend more time with customers and less time using the software.
Another important part of customer service software is the ability to offer customer insights. A customer service request can alert you if there’s a problem, such as a broken link or “bug.” You can identify, collect, and organize data from customer feedback to improve your business and business model.
Analytics are also important. This is a bit different than collecting customer feedback. When you use analytics as part of your customer service suite, these built-in reporting features allow you to look at your team’s productivity, understand changes in support volume, and customer management, such as how much and how often the customer makes a purchase.
Customer service software also allows for advances in collaboration. Everyone works better together when you and your team are on the same page. A happy and organized team promises a much better customer service experience than a disorganized and frustrated team.
As your business grows, certain types of customer service software suites can offer features that allow you to manage multiple teams of customer service agents with automation features and third-party integration, among others.
If you have a team?more than several people?working the customer service or help desk, you should invest in more specialized customer service software to boost your customers’ experiences.
Different Types of Customer Service Software
It’s true that you should have some type of customer service software in place, but what type should you opt for? There are many types of support software that cater to different types of businesses and their customer service needs.
Customer relationship management (CRM) software tracks and manages your interactions with your customers. It is used primarily in sales but can have other applications. It works well because it is highly integrated with personalization. Analytics help you anticipate your customers’ needs and offer better customer service outcomes.
Knowledge base software is based on self-service, allowing you to organize, manage, store, create, and share the content with others. An external knowledge base is visible to everyone, while an internal knowledge base is private and requires access. An external knowledge base is for your customers, while an internal knowledge base is for your customer support team.
Help desk software is one of the most common types of customer service software. It is meant to improve customer interaction by providing customer support. Some help desk software can be limited. Be sure to look for software that offers the capability to handle requests from multiple areas, such as live chat, email, phone, and social media.
You might think phone support software is outdated, but many businesses haven’t moved to mobile call centers and still require good software. According to HubSpot, it’s estimated that 50 percent of customers still use the phone for customer service requests. Look for software that offers a personalized touch and handles phone interactions efficiently.
Shared inbox software is very similar to help desk software but concentrates solely on email interaction. This type of software allows multiple people on your team to respond to customer requests that come through via email. More robust shared inbox software may offer automation and organizational features.
Service desk software is also similar to the help desk but focuses mainly on information technology (IT) issues. Service desk software is also known as a ticketing system. There may not be direct customer service communication with this software, but it can still greatly improve the customer experience. Typically, a customer will report a “bug” or another type of IT problem, and a ticket is created. Then, the IT team takes care of the issue.
Live chat software allows your customers to speak in real-time to a customer service specialist via the internet. The customer may be in a hurry, or they may just want to speak to a human. The immediacy of live chat makes it a great option. According to Forrester, customers are much more satisfied with their live chat experiences than with their phone interactions. Live chat software can be standalone or it could be part of a suite.
Knowing what’s out there can help you make the right choice that fits your company’s particular needs.
Features of Customer Service Software
While knowing the different types of customer service software is important, so is knowing what features you need to choose the right software. You want to ensure that your software can collect data, organize data, allow collaboration with your team, offer a quick turnaround and response time, analyze and report, and integrate with other software systems, which is very true for CRM software.
