Businesses need to do more than just provide wonderful products. They also need to provide service their customers can rely on.
Apps can help you build up your company's reputation through improved customer service. Here's how.
1. Apps help you focus on your customers' needs
Customer service representatives know that delivering superior service requires a focus on your clients' needs and an understanding of how to best help those clients.
In customer service, the worst feeling is failing your client.
Rather than putting clients through busy phone lines or giving delayed responses through emails, apps such as Zendesk (which handles tickets in the app) help customer service representatives communicate with clients promptly and effectively.
2. Apps help you understand individual issues in the wider context of company goals
Customer service is as much about individual issues as it is about understanding the context of larger company goals and priorities.
Apps such as Smarter Tools display tickets, emails, knowledge-base comments, and more in one integrated system, allowing you to see the bigger picture. Apps allow teams to handle each issue effectively as it arises and collect analytics to better understand which customer service problems are worth looking at in terms of the company approach to customer service as a whole.
For example, say you receive complaints about a certain product feature or response time to tech issues. The issues may be isolated and answered by separate reps if the company doesn't have an app. However, when you use an app to address customer service needs, you can group issues and identify those issues that are repeating or that are a high priority.
3. Apps ensure no customer slips out of sight
Customer service representatives don't want to disappoint their customers... but sometimes, a ticket can get overlooked in the queue or representatives don't have the right answer or permissions when needed.
Moreover, customer service representatives can experience misunderstandings or data-entry mistakes that can be detrimental to their service.
By integrating customer service information and current and past tasks in one system, representatives can ensure all customer complaints are taken care of promptly.
4. Apps automate tasks, leading to improved efficiency
The best approach to customer service is personal attention to each request. Automated forms can ensure that the right complaints get to the departments best prepared to handle them, reducing time chasing down answers and transferring calls or tickets.
Automation also helps customer service reps flag tickets in terms of priority and follow-up time.
5. Apps allow you to respond no matter where you are
Quick follow-ups are crucial to customer service.
Mobile customer service apps, such as Parature, keep representatives, wherever they are, in the loop of the status of important tickets. Parature also is an example of an app connected to social media, which increases transparency and demonstrates your attention to your customers' complaints.
Apps such as ClickDesk help you connect with customers through Skype, Google Talk, and other platforms, so your customers never feel disconnected and can receive in-person help when they need it most.
6. Apps help teams communicate better together
Customer service apps make communication among teams fluid and seamless, so members can keep each other up to date. No aspect of business can thrive if employees aren't on the same page. Using apps to keep communication threads in one system ensures everyone has the right data and client information when they need it.
Systems such as Asana make tracking tasks intuitive by allowing teams to easily create, edit, and set due dates on apps. That way, everyone in the office—even people who don't work directly in customer service—can stay on top of their work. In business, everything affects the service the customer receives, whether it is properly tracking inventory or staying on top of marketing efforts.
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Customer service reps and companies as a whole can benefit by using great apps that provide task follow-ups, integrated communication tools, calendar scheduling, and more.
