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Customer Support: Definition, Importance, and Strategies

When you show up for your customers, they’ll keep coming back for more. Try these proven strategies to help you deliver next-level customer support online, over the phone, or in the field.

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High-performing service organizations are using data and AI to generate revenue while cutting costs — without sacrificing the customer experience. Find out how in the 6th edition of the State of Service report.

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Customer Support FAQs

The key aspects of customer support include:

  • Speed and Availability: Providing 24/7 access through AI agents and self-service.
  • Personalized, Empathetic Interactions: Delivering tailored help informed by customer data.
  • Omni-Channel Accessibility: Ensuring consistent support across chat, email, phone, and more.
  • Effective Problem-Solving: Offering accurate, consistent answers powered by a unified knowledge base.
  • Proactive Assistance: Anticipating needs with data before customers have to ask.

Together, these aspects turn everyday interactions into customer support experiences that drive loyalty and long-term retention.

A customer support person is a front-line problem-solver. Their role is to help customers by answering questions, troubleshooting technical issues, providing training or installation guidance, and documenting the details of each interaction in a customer service management system.

The primary benefits of strong customer support are increased customer loyalty and trust. It also helps boost your brand's reputation, provides a clear channel for valuable customer feedback, and can become a key competitive advantage in the market.

While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, a help desk is often more narrowly focused on resolving technical incidents, especially in an IT context (ITSM). Customer support is a broader business function dedicated to assisting external customers with products and services. Many support teams use help desk software to manage their operations.

When connected to a CRM, customer service AI agents can access a customer's purchase history and past interactions. This allows the AI to provide tailored troubleshooting steps, suggest relevant complementary products, and create a personalized experience that shows you understand the customer's unique needs.