Over the years businesses have realized the importance of customer services. The business in recent times have been upping their game, for instance, CenturyLink customer service offering ‘Where’s my Tech’ support, where the users can appoint a tech appointment where they can visit their homes and receive the assistance.
Companies need to consistently come up with innovative ideas to assist and satisfy their customers even after the sale has been made.
Customer services have come a long way and businesses now offer various ways that the customers can reach out to their service providers whenever they have any queries or require any assistance.
What is Customer Service?
Customer service is the act of assisting and advocating for customers in their product or service discovery, use, optimization, and troubleshooting. It’s also the practices that enable teams to provide excellent customer service. The purpose of customer service is to build long-term connections with customers.
Just a few decades ago customer service was not considered a very important aspect of the business. Now many customer service channels are being offered to the customers.
Let’s discuss that what are the different types of customer services today.
Live Chats
Live chat is one method that is rapidly growing in popularity among business owners and clients.When comparing the various customer support methods, live chat provides customers with the fastest response times. Customers can converse with an agent while continuing to perform their daily chores.
You can also provide proactive customer service in addition to this. You can send proactive chat messages to customers who have things in their shopping cart but haven’t made a purchase yet, gently asking if they need any help.
Email Support
Out of all the options available for customer services, customers consider email support to be the most professional and trustworthy channel. From the first email ever that was sent in 1971, it has come a long way.
The foremost thing about email customer service is that it is inexpensive. Your agents will have more time to reply, and they will be able to use premade responses or email templates to respond more quickly.
One of the biggest problems with email customer support is that it gets tough to keep track of every single email after a while. In this situation, client email management software can be used to transform emails into tickets, ensuring that they never fall through the cracks.
Walk-In Services
Many of us grew up thinking of customer service as a department within our businesses. People would wait up to swap defective goods, initiate a refund, or file a complaint at these physically visible business units, which advertised “customer care” boards in large lettering.
Only a few companies; mainly the consumer goods industry, still have in-house customer support departments. However, it is now a relic of the brick-and-mortar enterprises that have shifted fast to digital platforms in recent years.
If your company sells online and wants to provide excellent customer service, don’t bother about setting up a customer service department within its four walls. By investing less in staffing a customer support team that can handle all customer problems electronically, you can save a lot of time and money.
Self-Service Channels
Now, the concept of self-service is quite intriguing. Customers today want to feel empowered and be able to solve their basic problems on their own. For clients who want to get relevant advice with minimal effort, self-service has emerged as a ray of hope.
To make it work for your company, though, you’ll need to concentrate on the UX and SEO of your support pages. Customers’ experiences are impeded if they have to search for useful information.
Social Media Customer Support
Customer expectations in respect to social media customer service are increasing.
Social media is no longer just a tool for social connections between friends and family. Today, every company must have a strong social media strategy because a single tweet can ruin a company’s reputation.
This makes meeting such high expectations all the more difficult for your company. You may reach customers before it’s too late by keeping a close eye on messages, postings, comments, and group discussions. By giving prompt assistance, you may demonstrate to potential clients how concerned you are about their needs.
Interactive Voice Response
The interactive voice response technology, also known as IVR allows the customers to communicate through voice or just a mobile keypad. The IVR responds according to the inputs you provide through your mobile keypad. The IVR systems then understand their query and guide them accordingly. It is an easy method of customer service.
Where a thoughtful VR can enhance the customer experience, a poor one at that can also ruin it for the user. Therefore, you need to be excessively careful with IVRs.
Phone Support
Phone support is one of the most commonly used methods for customer service. Every person has at least once in their life communicated a company through the phone. It has been the dominant mode of customer service for decades now.
While many client conversations begin on digital platforms like live chat or social media, the majority of them must be escalated to a phone call to receive appropriate help. Furthermore, when it comes to building a solid rapport with a consumer, an attentive human voice can make all the difference.
Conclusion
The aforementioned are the most commonly used types of customer services. They are reliable and trusted worldwide as they have proved competency from time to time.
