The traditional customer service department mainly handles email or telephone inquiries and complaints from customers. Therefore, the characteristics of conventional account and CS managers hired by companies are people with quick response times, high organizational skills, strong communication skills, patience, and empathy.
As customers vary in temperament and personalities, the account manager must know how to deal with each customer based on past experiences in handling complaints and provide a consistent customer service experience to everyone.
The title of “Customer Success Manager” (CSM) was unheard of ten years ago. However, a study in 2019 stated that among 109 high-tech company employees interviewed, more than 40% said they have CSM. The LinkedIn survey also indicated that CSM is the second most promising sales job in 2019, second only to the Enterprise Account Executive.
Unlike traditional customer experience, CSM does not only handle complaints but also provides customers with information, transaction services, business acceptance, and suggestions, and also needs to conduct market research and marketing duties.
Customer service is like an engine that affects the production chain and is closely linked with marketing, technical operation, and brand reputation. It is by no means trivial. Therefore, Customer Service Managers need to have a good understanding of the company’s product functions, use processes, and manufacturing processes.
So, how can companies make use of technology to improve customer service quality? SleekFlow is going to show you four popular customer service skills and demonstrate how to integrate with software and tools to maximize marketing effectiveness:
E-commerce is nothing new, and social commerce is now and the future. With more and more social media platforms, consumers and merchants have grown accustomed to using Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as the medium of transaction services and products. That’s why Facebook created a marketplace, and Instagram created a shop tab.
Credit: Instagram
Traditional e-commerce focuses on the value of the product itself. In contrast, social e-commerce uses the characteristics of social media to increase the interaction and trust between consumers and brands naturally. More importantly, to build a rapport with consumers. That’s absolutely the goal of customer service, right?
Our marketing or customer service team should not ignore these customer touchpoints. Social media interaction through word-of-mouth communication, celebrity influence, and promote sales with “Comment, Like, Share.” can be way more effective than you can imagine.
Instant messaging software – another set of must-have tools that are critical for the success of the customer service team. Research shows that over 56% of the global messaging users used the messaging platform to ask businesses for more information. Instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Wechat and Line, can be used as a channel for customers to approach commerce for business inquiries, or vice versa, for businesses to send customers their products information.
Every business starts with a conversation. Have you ever connected with some companies using WhatsApp, like booking a salon treatment or inquiring about prices?
Communicating on an instant messaging platform is every customers’ daily routine. Understanding your customers and complying with their habits will narrow the gap between you and your customers. Customers will hence feel valued and more willing to spend on your brand.
Again, that’s customer service!
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, many companies have adopted a remote office. Remote work requires efficient internal communication software to virtually connect multiple departments and individuals.
(If you don’t believe the significance of it, check how the stock prices of communication software go during pandemics.)
Combining the most popular social messaging platforms, SleekFlow allows companies to manage customers’ conversations together. Managerial levels can also assign conversations to different teammates to enhance team collaborations.
In addition, employees can also communicate with each other using internal notes to one, work strategically and improve the coordination and efficiency of the customer service team while maintaining the consistency of the customer experience.
“Almost 100% of our customers contact us via WhatsApp. Some might come from Instagram or Facebook. That’s why we need an all-in-one platform to combine all the social channels into one place. SleekFlow also allows our team members to transfer customer’s chats internally, which enhances the collaboration.”- Cheuk Ying Wong, Founder of Weirdo Beauty/ SleekFlow user.
Check out how the beauty salon Weirdo Beauty quadruples its business despite pandemics: Weirdo Beauty’s 24/7 virtual concierge
There are several Add-Ons that you may, or frankly speaking, you SHOULD use in your social messaging app:
Other than copy and paste, there is an easier way to deal with those repeatedly asked questions. Like in the SleekFlow platform, you can set a list of quick replies/FAQs. Those repeatedly asked questions can be settled with 1 click in less than a second.
Chatbot that helps you to reply to your customers automatically. Here is a guide about the quickest reply you can get. WhatsApp Chatbot Autoreply.
Live Chat allows you to provide immediate customer support on your eCommerce website. Aside from their functionality, they can be more efficient and reliable than humans to assure your customer a perfect purchasing experience. It can also connect to your social messaging channels!
The foremost action that your team should take to transform “customer service” to “customer success” is to consolidate teamwork within your business.
A knowledge base generated from the whole team can consist of useful materials such as previous conversations of both happy clients and unhappy clients. The chat history of CS staff is valuable to the company. It can be used for training purposes. You might have archived your email history, and many corporates would record the phone recording between the CS and customers. What about the social messages? You should also keep a record of that!
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