Customer support is the most important aspect of your business, and neglecting it is the biggest mistake a company can do. But sadly a lot of companies make these mistakes and are literally driving paying clients away.
Here’s the list of things you should never do if you want to keep your customers happy.
Use no-reply email
By using the “no-reply” email, you are practically saying to your clients: “we don’t want to hear from you”. It’s a forced one-way communication, but as a company are not in the position to do that.
Hide your customer support email
A lot of companies these days hide their customer support email and instead force users to use complicated forms. That’s a foolish thing to do. A direct email is still easiest and most used mean of communication, so you should not abandon it.
Force users to fill contact forms
One thing that people hate is filling forms, and if you force your customers to do it, you deserve to burn in hell. And for every field, there is, you deserve an extra century to suffer. Why do you even want people to fill those forms?
Use customer support emails that are case-specific
Picture this. You forced a client to fill the painful form, but now after you replied him he knows your customer support email and next time can write directly to it. How to fix this? Let’s create case-specific emails, that will stop working when the case is solved. Just tell me: Why are you working so hard to make the life of your clients difficult?
Hide all your customer support detail
Somehow some companies (especially the big ones) think that they can survive by not doing customer support at all, as strange as it sounds.
Make your clients handle customer support
I know that in business it’s all about saving money, but somewhere there’s a line. And by making your clients work for you for free, you are crossing that line. It’s also insulting.
Force clients to wait for days for a reply
Customers waiting patiently for days until you have time to help them. Where did you hear such fairy-tale? This will never happen. They will be gone to your competitor before you even notice.
Closing customer support at night or weekends
If you think that people use your services only on office hours, you are terribly mistaking!
BONUS: How to do customer support more effectively?
Get rid of phone support
Phone support is so last century and is inferior to its main rival chat support. Biggest advantages of chat support compared to phone support are:
- It’s free for the client (no phone bills).
- A customer support agent can simultaneously help several clients.
- There are no difficulties with understanding spoken word or doing abominations, such as dictating one’s email address.
- Modern people are just not comfortable on the phone, especially the young.
- Typing is easier than talking (especially when you do it all day long); therefore, your customer support agents will not get tired so fast.
Use AI, but be careful
AI is an effective way to handle customer support faster without human interference. However, remember to give your clients an option to switch to human support, in case AI is unable to help them.
Outsource
This is very basic, but if you are paying your customer support agents more than $1000 per month, you are doing it wrong. Customer support should be outsourced to 3rd world countries for better efficiency.
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