What is Case Management Software?

Customer service is now omnichannel. While some customers might prefer to resolve customer service issues either over the phone or in person, others want a company who will meet them across every avenue, including online.

The stakes for online service are high: Most customers want brands to respond to issues on social media within 24 hours . In the early days of social media, this was a challenge for many brands because companies were being called out — positively and negatively — on public platforms for all to see. And in addition to general comments and reviews, more and more customers were reaching out on these public networks to get answers to questions and resolution for issues.

In response to this, many companies started directing customer service efforts to online channels. As the statistic above shows, we have now come to a time when the majority of consumers are now actively seeking customer service on social media. This means that there are a lot of potential customer service interactions in any given day, and it can be difficult for customer service representatives to keep on top of each social network and respond in a timely, satisfactory manner. This is where case management software comes in.

Case management software refers to applications that help businesses and nonprofits with managing their customer interactions across social media and other digital channels such as email and contact forms. Using case management software, businesses can automatically collect and organize customer interactions into one easy place, allowing for convenient access and a comprehensive view of each customer.

Most of these kinds of customer support platforms are cloud-based, allowing for instant, out-of-the-box use. This is advantageous for agents:

• Agents can log into their accounts and immediately view their cases at a glance.
• Cases are sorted by priority, all in one place.
• Agents can categorize cases and send them to the best department or person to resolve them.

This makes the agent’s job easier, and ensures that each customer gets a quicker resolution to their issue.

This kind of quick resolution is essential, and could give a real boost to any business. To not provide good service is to seriously risk customer retention. According to PwC research, even when customers love a company or product, 59% will walk away after several bad experiences .

The best customer support software goes beyond simple case management. This is a big aspect of choosing a cloud platform, and it should be viewed as a minimum requirement, rather than the main feature. Here are key features that you should look for when choosing a cloud-based customer service platform.

As mentioned, case management software is very important, and the best case management software has the following capabilities:

• Automatically track and categorize customer interactions, from every channel.
• Ability to add filters for identifying high priority cases.
• Features for adding notes to cases for easy communication within teams, and assigning to other teams or experts where necessary.
• Customer fields for your business to create unique labels, such as purchases or customer ID.

Your solution should have the ability to integrate with your other data systems, using flexible APIs that will allow you to create real-time, bidirectional communication between the platform and relevant applications and networks.

When asked, 91%of customers said that they would use an online knowledge base, if it were available and tailored to their needs. Clearly there is a large demand from customers for companies that provide self service portals for customers, enabling them to answer questions without extra help from a company representative.

Your solution should also provide comprehensive reporting and analysis. Unlike traditional one-dimensional reports, predictive intelligence analytics empower you to turn your insight into action faster. You should be able to connect and query multiple data sources with a robust analytics engine, which gives you new ways to visualize your data and KPIs. This all means that you are able to anticipate needs and make adjustments accordingly.

The ideal platform needs to ensure that outdated technology is never a problem. Regularly upgraded servers, new features and functionality should all be taken care of by the host, benefitting their customers. And, the system should be adaptable enough to allow for future growth and add-ons, as well as enabling businesses to estimate and predict future costs.

The right customer service platform for you should also aid productivity through automation, categorization, and the ability to bulk update and close multiple cases at once.

Support for a wide range of devices is important, both for employees and customers. This allows for 24-hour mobile management of customer support, and more convenient self service options for on-the-go customers.