Chapter 4: What should I look for in a customer service solution?

Customer service solution or help desk solution: What is the difference?

A help desk app is the industry name for a customer service application. It’s a tool to organize and track incoming service requests from all your support channels, and it allows you to respond quickly and accurately. Help desk solutions, also have self-service capabilities, such as a knowledge base or community, so that customers can find answers on their own, whenever they want.

What features should I look for in a help desk solution?

As you evaluate help desk solutions, think about these six must-have features for customer service and what benefits they could have for your business. Rank them according to your team’s needs, and then use that list to test-drive potential customer service tools.
Multichannel Support: Today’s customers reach out on a variety of channels (and sometimes more than one). You need to know them wherever you meet them, and be able to help from anywhere. It's essential to have a help desk solution that brings together web, email, phone, and social into one easy-to-use agent console.
Knowledge Base: Make sure your help desk solution lets you consolidate all of your support content in one powerful knowledge base. It's best to have a knowledge base that can be changed by simply cutting and pasting content, so your service team can update solutions without a web designer or developer.
Self-Service: For small businesses, self-service is a cost-effective way to offer 24/7 support. If you're evaluating a new help desk solution, make sure that it includes an easy way to share your knowledge base information with customers and employees so they can find their own solutions.
Business Insights and Performance Monitoring: Data from your customer service solution can be a secret weapon for success. See how your agents are performing and get the data you need to optimize your support team. See CSAT (customer satisfaction) scores and customer health indicators. Or track the most requested customer features. When you look at a help desk app, make sure it’s easy to get the insights you need to make faster, smarter decisions.
Integration with Sales: When you bring sales and support together, everyone can be more effective. Sales reps know whether customers have had any problems with your products before reaching out. They can offer better cross-sell opportunities if they know more about customer needs and preferences. And support agents can make an impact on the bottom line by adapting the level of service offered to your most valuable customers or the ones with the biggest open opportunities.
Mobile SDK (software development kit):
These days, it's not just about the product or service you sell — you're competing on the overall customer experience that you offer. To make it as easy as possible for customers, you need to integrate your support with your product itself. (Think Amazon.com's SOS button.) If you're building an online product, you’ve got to include links to your support content on your web pages, as well as forms for opening tickets. And if you're offering a mobile app, you need to include support within it.
 

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Getting Started with Customer Service

Overview

What Is Customer Service?

Chapter 4

What should I look for in a customer service solution?