3 Important Factors to Provide Efficient Product Support

In the era of the internet and advanced technologies, customer expectations are higher than ever before. Providing efficient customer support services is very much crucial for any organization.

Not only does it help in generating new customers, but it also helps companies build a reputation as excellent customer service providers which is one of the bigger demands in the market today.

According to statistics, more than 65% of customers in this millennial generation are willing to be associated with companies that provide efficient customer support services. Similar statistics have also suggested that more than 80% of customers provide references to these companies by sharing their experiences.

To sum it up, adequate customer support services go a long way in determining how successful your organization is or can be. With outsourcing becoming a norm in this domain, it is important for you to choose the right company.

While you set out to choose the ideal IT support company, here are 3 crucial factors you need to consider.

Empathy

Empathy is something that is required at almost every stage of a business process be it product development, sales, and marketing, or customer support. Building a great product demands you to have a detailed insight into what qualities a consumer is looking for and why they are important to him.

Similarly, a good support team must be able to understand the frustration of the customer when he or she raises an issue. It is pivotal for product support agents to show the customers that they care and be empathetic.

It will make the customer feel valued which is very important for customer retention.

How Support Agents Can Build Empathy?

Here are a few tips that will help support teams build empathy towards the customer:

Do Not Have an Opinion:

In most cases, customers are seldom rude, loud, or address the agents in an unkind manner. Their primary concern is the issue that is bothering them, and they are merely reacting accordingly. The first thing a support team can do is put themselves in the customer’s place.

Acknowledge His or Her Perspective:

Support agents must make a conscious effort to understand the customer’s point of view. Even if the customer is not completely right or the agent finds it hard to agree with him or her, it can be handled by simply acknowledging the perspective and offering an apology.

Keeping in Check:

It is very important that a support agent does not get into an argument with the customer for any reason. Irrespective of how the customer is venting out his or her frustration, the support team must be calm.

Product Knowledge

This is almost a no-brainer. If the support team receiving tickets for issues raised by the customer does not know about the product, the entire process will go haywire.

This is why it is critical for all members of a support team to have a good understanding of the product. It is easier to help the customer and provide them satisfactory service when the support team knows the dynamics.

Here are a few more reasons why Product Knowledge is important:

• It propagates faster troubleshooting
• Recommends smarter products.
• The support team can handle the issues without any help.

How to Get Product Knowledge?

Here is how support teams can gather product knowledge:

Adequate and Consistent Training:

The entire support team must be given proper training of the same type so that every individual agent operates with the same knowledge base.

Carrying out a Demo:

It is very much beneficial for support organizations if they hold demonstrations where the support team can create a customer-agent interaction situation to avail new information about the product.

Active Listening

One of the key rules of providing efficient product support services is listening to what the customers are saying. The most common problem that has echoed over the years is that support representatives listen to reply rather than listening to understand.

This is a big deal because it can become difficult for support teams to resolve unprecedented issues if they do not listen attentively.

Support agents can improve their listening skills by:

Making a Summary:

Summarizing everything support says can go a long way in helping support teams understand what the problem is. Once they do that, it is easier to find a resolution.

Clarify By Asking Questions:

When support agents do not understand a customer even after listening to it with intent, they need to ask questions that can help them reach the bottom of the issue.