Although all of your workers are responsible for ensuring that your clients are satisfied, you can’t run a successful business today without a dedicated customer support staff. This is the most effective way to guarantee the quality of the customer support will remain high as the company grows. However, if you want to expand your business more quickly, you will need to set up a qualified virtual customer service. Due to uncertainty caused by the pandemic, flexibility in working remotely has become a non-negotiable tactic to incorporate as the company grows. However, it should be noted that this recent focus on virtual support isn’t a new concept!
Industry leaders have recognized the power of remote support management years ago! For example, you can cut office costs drastically because the support is most often one of the largest business segments! However, to make this happen, you need a remote support management software or helpdesk that provides maximum efficiency and data safety! Additionally, the helpdesk software should enable today’s modern methods of digital communication such as live chat, AI chatbot and fantastic knowledge base. These features that all generations would appreciate!
Did you know 86% customers today will spend extra for a great service experience? Furthermore, 49% of shoppers have made transactions as a result of a tailored experience, and over two-thirds of companies still compete on customer experience. That said, you need cost-effective and software-enabled solutions that will make your support top-notch!
Let’s learn more about superb remote support management!
A. What is virtual customer support?
Your automated virtual customer service can be the first point of contact with your customers if you integrate specific helpdesk tools: AI chatbot and automated emails. However, it's critical to have a virtual customer service too; the combination of AI-enabled instant answering and automated responses, such as “thank you for your order” messages, will deliver consistent customer experiences.
Using a worldwide staff for virtual customer service has been increasingly cost-effective for businesses. They can save money on overhead, provide connections to a wider pool of candidates and offer quick assistance in various time zones.
Running a virtual customer service team, however, isn't without its difficulties. This is especially true if you’re striving to provide each customer with superior service.
If this is your goal, you need to:
• Ensure timely coordination and intelligence exchange in such a way that everyone on the team is on the same page.
• Keep track of progress to make sure workers stay motivated.
• Ensure all team members will provide a cohesive and branded customer service.
• Provide autonomy to team members, especially if their managers are in a different time zone.
• Use endpoint encryption to encrypt the customers' information.
How to build your strong and round-the-clock virtual customer support? First, you need a team that delivers consistent and spectacular customer experiences, thus you should hire employees with a customer-centric mindset.
Here are several essential characteristics to look for during your next recruitment process:
• Basic soft skills such as patience, empathy, attentiveness, listening skills, positivity and the ability to "sense" customers are all essential.
• Ability to collaborate in a virtual work environment with a track record.
• The potential to excel in a management style that is low-touch and agile.
• A customer-centric mentality that motivates them to think out of the box and makes providing exceptional customer experiences a priority.
• Technical product awareness and a basic understanding of the business.
• Self-control and time management abilities, as well as the motivation to accomplish assignments on time.
• The drive to take initiative and make choices on their own is the key trait of a successful remote worker.
B. Make Use of Communication Tools and Cloud Based Collaboration
Project management, networking, and file-sharing systems are examples of cloud-based computing tools that enable team members to communicate cost-effectively from any location with internet connection.
Meanwhile, the team will connect with customers via various platforms using a unified communications (UC) framework and contact center tools (e.g., phone, email, social media, helpdesk) To maintain a smooth virtual customer care experience, you should keep all of your contacts in one place, your own support platform.
These systems are well-integrated, allowing managers to keep track of success on a single dashboard. They often encourage workers in various time zones to catch up before beginning their shifts to reduce mistakes and delays while dealing with customers.
C. Create a searchable and centralized knowledge base
Customers expect the virtual customer service team to react instantly to their questions and concerns. In reality, 95% of customers state that a positive customer experience is a key aspect when choosing a brand and expressing loyalty. For this reason, the first touch resolution rate is a crucial measure of customer satisfaction.
When a virtual customer service team member receives a query they don’t know how to answer, they cannot go to the nearest desk to ask for assistance. Therefore, you must supply your agents with the tools they need to look for the answers independently. This independence can provide an effective internal knowlege base where the team can find all product or service details! Here, your agents should have in their disposal a comprehensive step-by-step guidance, troubleshooting techniques, and access to how-to videos.
In fact, your customers should also enjoy a tech discovery such as this one! Therefore, you should consider adding a robust and thorough knowledge base to your website. Ideally, your staff should improve your knowledge base overtime by adding details, asking more questions, and adding accurate responses. This would foster a positive work environment, improve employee participation, and keep the information base up to date and relevant.
D. Install a Customer Service Software Program
A virtual customer service interface allows you to monitor customer experiences through all touchpoints in one place, allowing every staff member to pick up where the dialog left off and have a consistent customer experience.
Omnichannel networking capabilities, a ticketing framework, live chat assistance, customer self-help platform and customer satisfaction survey tool are all important features to look for when adding customer service applications.
Supervisors may view customer experience information and metrics on a single page, eliminating the need to micro-manage team members.
Managers may see the number of calls received, problems handled, hours served, high priority issues, and duties delegated to each staff member to ensure that everyone remains active and is delivering high-quality customer service.
E. Implement a thorough onboarding procedure
Due to timezone variations, remote workers do not have direct access to their peers or superiors so they must make decisions on their own. A rigorous and well-organized onboarding procedure is crucial for keeping remote employees up to speed.
To provide consistent customer service, the representatives must be familiar with organizational systems, contact protocols, and other operating practices. This knowledge will allow them to appropriately address problems or route questions to the most relevant departments.
Your staff can also be instructed on how to best leverage networking and virtual customer service applications so that they can maximize the resources at their disposal to maintain the team's effectiveness.
Furthermore, since team members must communicate to the infrastructure and access consumer information from their network and devices, it’s critical to maximize the protection and privacy of their networks.
Data breaches are not only expensive, but they can harm the customer experience and erode confidence. To ensure that the network is stable and your customer data is protected, it's critical to have the required resources and training for your team members from the start.
F. Educate Your Employees about Your Clients
To have the most appropriate user experience, satisfy customer demands, provide product descriptions, and address product-related problems. Your staff needs a deep dive into profiling of your ideal consumers.
Create consumer avatars/buyer personas with your virtual customer service team and share them with everyone. Educate your agents regarding your target market, including demographics, desires, and what they expect from your merchandise, as well as their interests and beliefs, so that your staff can establish rapport with them and predict their needs.
Often, educate the virtual customer service team on your company's mission and priorities so that they can provide an on-brand consumer experience. You will inspire your agents to take strategic steps to impress and entertain your clients with superb service while creating remarkable customer stories and a team ethos attached to your brand name.
G. Show your colleagues how much you value them
When you recognize and appreciate your virtual customer service team’s efforts, they are much more inclined to do their best work. It's human nature to react to affirmation; we all want to know we're doing a good job.
There are many ways to express gratitude to colleagues! Below are a few ideas to help you get started:
1.Specific abilities should be praised: Take things a step further by brainstorming with the virtual customer service team on how to better use each person's unique talents. This is a surefire means of letting them know how much you love them and appreciate their unique qualities.
2. Congratulate team members for their accomplishments: There are hundreds of opportunities to recognize the team's accomplishments. You know your brand best, so do what feels right for you and your company.
3. Encourage professional advancement: Regardless of whether the virtual customer service team is vertically or horizontally placed within your company structure, you should encourage role diversity and job development. Nothing is more demoralizing than getting trapped in a dead-end career.
This is when the allure of a better career comes i and your employee retention rates decline. Instead, you can foster professional advancement with promotions or by offering more advanced tools. For instance, an efficient helpdesk software can rid your support reps of all repetitive and dull work, reduce stress, and time to deal with complex customer issues. It's critical for empowering and encouraging virtual customer service representatives to ultimately provide fantastic customer experiences.
Another way to stretch your support staff’s expertise is to loan them to other agencies. With this brilliant solution your reps not only expand their horizons, but they’ll return with fresh ideas and perspectives from their new experiences.
H. What you shouldn’t forget?
Delivering a consistent customer service is important for attracting and maintaining new clients, as well as increasing revenue and profits.
Employee loyalty and productivity will be improved by recruiting the best virtual customer support personnel while supplying them with the right resources. Your long-term support staff should express cultural skills, consumer expertise and brand passion that can transform any customer engagement into an exceptional experience.