Defining Customer Support in 2024

Choose wisely and ensure they have the systems, strategies, and leadership in place to be successful. And each of those factors – customer happiness, engagement, loyalty, and feedback – can be influenced by support more than any other function of your business. In an era when unhappy customers can swiftly dent your reputation and have plenty of alternatives to choose from, it’s critical that you get customer service right. The goal of is to help customers use your product or service to the best of their abilities and resolve any problems they encounter along the way. It’s usually reactive, meaning that the support team responds to customer inquiries as they come in, and tries to resolve any issues as quickly and effectively as possible.

Having a team of professionals, be it customer support or service is essential. But, you need to provide your team with the right tools to make them as efficient as possible. Customer service/support needs to cover customer inquiries from multiple channels. As a result, they can poorly execute due to switching between interfaces.

Empower your customer support reps.

Insights from employees, product experts, and external partners will be key for creating help center articles and addressing common customer inquiries. They’re also helpful to agents as a reference point when they’re assisting customers. But it’s helpful to regularly review KPIs to determine where they can evolve. In the early days of support software, the number of tickets solved was a metric for support success. Customers, especially stressed customers, don’t always want to do what a support agent suggests, which means making a strong, reasonable case for why they should care.

Every customer should get the same level of help no matter who they interact with or on what channel. While the customer is speaking, it’s important to let them speak and not interrupt. However, if there are pauses, agents can express empathy with comments like I understand, I see/I know what you mean.

The keys to a successful customer support team

Some of the ways to provide effective customer service include providing a friendly and warm experience, listening, and empathizing. It’s also important for customers to feel as though their concerns and problems are valid and that they’re being accommodated. Being proactive, not taking anything personally, and following up are also some examples of good customer service. Yes, nowadays, customers prefer to search for the answers on their own before reaching out to customer support/service. As a result, your website needs to have Knowledgebase articles, such as How-to guides. Apart from being product experts and having hard skills, Customer Support representatives should also possess certain soft skills and people skills to be able to communicate with customers effectively.

The chart below displays significant differences between support and success. It’s also important to find ways to go above and beyond, when possible. It doesn’t need to be anything crazy, but leave the customer with a little bit more than what they originally reached out for. “We have some of the most technical talent in the company but are dealing with extreme emotions, which can go from 0-75 just like that,” Brummel says.

AI-powered UI (aka “Return of the Chat”)

Excellent customer support and service are at the heart of great customer experiences. Companies that invest time and effort in enhancing their customer service are better positioned to foster a customer-focused culture across the organization. According to a report by Failory, 90% of startups fail, of which 20% fail by the end of the first year and 50%, by the end of the fifth year. Market intelligence company CB Insights reports that 23% of companies fail because of the wrong team and 14% fail because they ignore their customers.

After all, customers are quick to share negative experiences with the masses online. Bad customer service is any communication or experience where a consumer feels as though they are let down. This includes negative experiences, such as long wait or hold times, not being able to speak to an agent, being transferred many times, or not being heard. This can lead customers to provide negative reviews and/or begin shopping with a competitor.

For Kale, customer support is all about building trust — which ultimately impacts everything from customer loyalty and retention, to brand and marketing. Customer support could look very different depending on your business, industry, and who your customers are. But for customer support professionals like Palazzolo, it’s ultimately about being helpful.

• Hence the shift away from hiring your average “people person,” toward hiring highly skilled, empathetic problem-solvers.
• In fact, 80% of customers say that the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services.
• Today, digital is at the centre of customer experiences across all geographies and industries.
• Customer service is an umbrella term for all interactions that enhance customer experience and help improve their relationship with the company.

Read more about Customer Support here.