Running a successful business isn’t a walk in the park. It begins by identifying a market gap that should be filled. You then source the capital to set up your venture. Everything doesn’t stop the moment you start selling your service or product. Next, you should work towards winning and retaining your customers. It’s here that the concept of customer support comes in. Happy customers translate to a successful business venture.
What does a good customer experience entail? It begins with how the customers feel when still looking for the product, when buying it, and the after-sale services they receive. A customer should feel valued by the business throughout the buying process.
Happy customers become loyal and even recommend your products to their friends and relatives. So, how do you structure your customer service department to ensure you drive your venture to the next level? Here’re the practical strategies to apply.
Specify the Goal of Your Team
Before you decide whether to go for customer service outsourcing, you should specify what you want your business to be known for. Some companies get it wrong because they create a customer support team without goals. If you want to succeed in customer support, you should have an objective.
For example, your goal as a software company should be to offer prompt responses to clients who need answers on how your digital products work.
Build a Competent Team
Your company is as good as the qualification of its customer service team. With a team that understands its roles, it’s easy to steer your firm to the next level. As the manager, you should specify what you expect from your team right from the beginning. The team members should have qualities such as:
- Empathy for customers’ needs
- Ability to share the company’s growth vision
- Strong communication skills
- Ability to use technology in customer support
Make Everyone Understand Their Roles
As you build customer service, a critical step is to ensure that all the players understand the gap they should fill in the hierarchy. Begin by identifying most customers’ questions about the product or service. If they are technical inquiries, ensure the people who the clients contact first have enough knowledge of the product. That way, the individuals can offer the exact answers clients are looking for.
Besides, you require other professionals to complete the customer support team structure. For instance, a team leader is a crucial part of this structure. The role of team leaders is to oversee the performance of the support agents and assess if the agents are performing optimally.
In addition to performing their managerial duties, the team answers the most complex questions customers ask from time to time. Above the team leaders, you can have the supervisors. They can act as a connection between the company’s top management and customers. You should also have trainers to help equip your agents with the requisite skills for the job.
Communicate with Customers Using Different Channels
Customers aren’t the same. While some would prefer live chat for communication, others would send emails or make phone calls. Regardless of what your clients choose, they all deserve a great experience.
Thus, while working on your customer service structure, ensure that customers can receive assistance regardless of their chosen channel. That means you should have staff across these popular channels. For example, you can have more agents handling the most popular channel.
Assess Performance and Give Feedback
A robust customer service department structure will not offer the best results if assessments aren’t done. You should review the performance of your team regularly. To do this, measure the performance against the goal. If there are things the team is doing well, encourage them to continue.
You can offer tips on how to improve the areas of weakness. The aim is to ensure the mistakes in a given review aren’t repeated in the next. With such an improvement mentality, the customer support team can become better and steer the business to success.
Singing Off
Customers are the most crucial part of a business venture. It’s the purchases they make that determine the revenue and the profit the business generates. So, it’s critical to understand how to structure a customer service department.
Begin by specifying the goal you want the team to achieve. Then allocate roles to competent people who know what to do in the team. Also, use different communication channels to offer support. Most importantly, assess the team’s performance and make the necessary changes.
Also read: 9 Tips for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
