As we reach the last post in our series, “Maximizing Online Outcomes,” it’s time to switch gears from using your website to increase revenue to the concept of using your website to save money. It’s not a surprise that the payroll for customer support often accounts for a large portion of a company’s personnel budget. Yet, customer support is not somewhere you can afford to cut corners – after all, a bad customer service experience can frustrate or even alienate customers. Moreover, the proliferation of social media sites means that when one person has a bad experience, they’re probably sharing it with 200 others. Given this balancing act of trying to keep customer support payroll under control while providing excellent customer service, your company may be considering strategies to make the website the hub of customer support. The challenges associated with making a website a customer support resource include:
1. Organizing large amounts of information. Your customer support materials likely include a FAQ section, a Help area, internal search and even a knowledge database or live chat. This vast amount of data must be stored online in such a way that it is easy to search so people seeking customer support can find what they are looking for…and quickly. 2. Making the customer experience personal. Oftentimes, in an effort to bring customer support online, the web-based services feel impersonal and remote. It’s hard for customers to have the confidence that their questions will be resolved when the support consists of impersonal emails from customersupport@yourcompanyname.com. 3. Handling the unpredictable nature of customer service. As anyone who has ever held a customer service position will attest, people can be fickle. From bizarre situations to irate customers, an online support portal must be flexible enough to accommodate unusual situations and direct customers to the proper resource, if their situation is escalating. 4. Providing a positive experience. It’s difficult to overemphasize how important good customer service is in terms of your client satisfaction and retention rates. Online customer support, at times, has received a bad reputation for being confusing, impersonal or inconsistent – all of which contribute to a poor customer experience.
One strategy you might want to consider is making the customer experience more personalized and positive by utilizing a CodeBaby Conversation. With the ability to tie multiple applications together into our Conversation platform, the visitor will have access to various customer service resources such as knowledge bases, FAQs, live chat, etc. Rather than the online customer service experience feeling impersonal or lacking cohesion, the CodeBaby Conversation can react to a visitor’s interactions, searches, inquiries, etc. and then direct the visitor to the proper resource.
Consider the case of the City of Colorado Springs and Officer Smith. Created by CodeBaby, Officer Smith guides the viewing experience of website visitors that need to file non-emergency police reports. Rather than read a lot of fine print or sift through a rather bulky form, Officer Smith takes visitors through the form and provides guidance, FAQ support, etc. along the way. The Colorado Springs Police Department has been able to place more officers in the field because they need to spend less time on paperwork and administrative tasks – a fantastic outcome due to Officer Smith and CodeBaby!
In this same manner, you can transform your online customer support and services by utilizing a digital character. Not only are your customer support materials organized and integrated in a manner that is easily searchable, but also your customer service liaison can be a lifelike, memorable and customized character. In this manner, we’ve created a customer service experience that is positive and saves you money and resources – that’s a maximized outcome.
