Consumer interests change day by day. Evolving sales technologies and a growing array of marketing tools are shifting business norms and raising expectations. These changes often force companies to turn their attention away from product development and focus primarily on customer satisfaction. However, making this transition could require taking specific steps. Businesses should consider following a set of customer service management strategies to preserve brand loyalty.
Five Customer Service Management Strategies
Businesses might consider the following five customer service management strategies to boost customer satisfaction through a new and improved support platform:
1. Define Customer Service Employee Responsibilities
Customer service management is complex. It includes everything from email responses to product upselling and cross-selling. Customer service managers have many moving parts to consider. Identifying those moving parts, determining how to address them, and assigning team member duties accordingly are key.
These duties include responding to customer inquiries via email, social media, live chat, and phone. Many businesses view timely and thoughtful responses as a primary focus—but the customer journey does not stop there.
Once the queue is empty, customer service teams move on to an additional set of responsibilities, including the following:
- Identifying common requests to develop thoughtful responses
- Creating customer self-help (FAQ) portals
- Anticipating customer questions and offering help before they ask
- Following up on customers who request specific features or post reviews (good or bad)
- Documenting complex issues and transferring them to the appropriate departments
- Conducting product demos
2. Break Down Customer Service Silos
Communication is often the first major roadblock in the customer service process. Standard management strategies are helpful occasionally but can also build walls between product developers, customer service representatives, and customers. These barriers impede lines of communication and reduce transparency for customers.
Businesses should consider centralizing all customer, stakeholder, and ticket information in a ServiceNow management solution. This data consolidation can enhance information flow between customers and product developers.
Customers then receive updates on communicated issues, evolving best practices, and ticket status from customer service teams. All relevant parties remain apprised of the situation, allowing teams to work effectively and manage case ownership.
3. Give Customer Service Agents the Data They Need
Customer service management tools also enhance customer experience via knowledge bases that locate and attach information to the relevant customer.
When a customer submits a ticket, the system requests specific data from that knowledge base that can aid service teams in resolving issues more quickly.
If the knowledge base does not contain data to address that problem, the service team can either update existing support information or create new data immediately searchable by customers.
4. Automate Customer Service Workflows
Automation is a critical component of customer service management platforms and is often crucial for generating faster and more efficient workflows.
Businesses should provide customers with a ServiceNow support portal that automates repetitive tasks or immediately requests help from a specialist to minimize escalation. In other words, prevention is often key, and companies might employ automation to detect minor issues before they become serious problems.
Customer service management teams should not wait for technical issues to arise. Instead, they should use tools that monitor the service to anticipate and get ahead of problems before the consumer faces them.
5. Establish Customer Service Key Performance Indicators
Once an organization has employed the right talent, identified and assigned employee duties, and automated as many processes as possible, it should monitor its customer service performance.
An effective way to track performance is by establishing appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs are numeric measurements that provide management with insights into company progress towards predefined goals.
KPIs that companies might use to measure customer service success include the following:
- Average issue resolution time
- Average first response time
- Knowledge base articles generated
- Number of demos performed and their corresponding conversion rate
- Overall customer satisfaction rate
Most of these KPIs are easily calculated but especially useful in gauging customer service management.
Our ServiceNow Platforms Enhance Customer Service
A ServiceNow customer service management approach can minimize bottlenecks and time sinks negatively affecting customer service. These platforms offer integrated solutions that break down communication silos, automate processes, promote transparency, and provide customers with the tools to solve problems independently.
Request a quote today and discover how our ServiceNow solutions can help you design and execute a set of customer service management strategies that encourage brand loyalty.
