One of the most important steps in supporting customers remotely is choosing the right tools.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money on software, but you do need to make sure that you have some kind of platform that will allow you to communicate with your customer. This can be anything from email to Slack or even Google Hangouts. The important thing is that it’s easy for both parties involved to use and doesn’t require any extra downloads or installations.
As a business owner, you want to deliver the best product or service. In order to do that, your customers need to be satisfied. Responding to questions and providing help can be the best way to ensure customer loyalty and satisfaction, but being able to provide that support is about more than just being available (although that is important). It’s also about having a solid plan in place for when trouble occurs. However, it’s also important not to over-complicate things and make it difficult for support staff to provide great service.
Follow these 4 Do’s and 2 Don’ts of remote customer support and watch your ROI grow.
To support customers remotely, follow these do’s:
1. Empathize with their Pain Points and always think about their Perspective.
With artificial intelligence, VoIP phone users can program bots to manage their calls with clients and customers. Once the AI bot receives specific information, such as if a customer requests an appointment at 2 p.m., it can automatically use that data to block off the meeting and send notifications to the appropriate employees. Over time, it’ll also start to recognize patterns, and it might suggest appointments for repeat clients in the future. This reduces the administrative workloads for receptionists and customer service representatives, making day-to-day operations more efficient.
2. Put yourself in your Customer’s Shoes
When you’re supporting customers remotely, it’s easy to forget that they’re not sitting right next to you.
You know what they need and how to help them, but they don’t have the same context or access to your knowledge base. They may not even know where the knowledge base is! And even if they do, they may not know how to use it.
That means that when you’re working with a customer remotely, it’s important to put yourself in their shoes. Don’t assume that because you know how something works and how it should be done that they’ll automatically understand those things as well. Instead, think about what information they would need and what questions they might have and try to anticipate those questions or curiosities before they come up.
3. Choose the Right Tools
4. Be Efficient with Communication
We know it can be tough to keep the lines of communication open while supporting a customer remotely. But we also know that you want to make sure your customers are getting the best service possible, and that means making sure you’re staying in touch with them. When talking with your customers, keep it short and sweet. Try not to use too many words when answering their questions you don’t want them to think they need to ask a follow-up question just because they didn’t understand what you said.
To Support Customers Remotely, Follow These Dont’s:
1. Providing Low-Quality Customer Service
The number one thing you should never do is provide low-quality customer service. This means that you need to be very attentive and make sure that the customers are satisfied with your work. You can achieve this by listening carefully to their needs, asking questions and giving them answers, and then following up on their concerns in a timely manner. If you do all of these things, then the customers will be happy and will continue using your services for a long time without any issues. However, if you provide low-quality support, this can lead to your customers looking elsewhere for solutions.
2. Communicate with Customers Reactively
Most of the time, when you’re communicating with a customer remotely, you do so because there’s an issue or problem that needs to be resolved. In these situations, you should try to avoid talking to the customer until you’ve had a chance to review their case and understand what they’re experiencing. This will help you respond more effectively and efficiently than if you jump in too quickly (and might even save some money).
When you do talk with customers face-to-face, it’s important that they feel like they can trust your advice and recommendations. It can be difficult for remote customers who are frustrated or confused by their experience with your product or service; this is why it’s important that we take the time to listen carefully before offering any advice or assistance.
3. Don't Keep Customers Waiting.
Waiting is the worst.
For customers, it’s a huge source of frustration when they feel like they’re being kept waiting on hold, or when they’re put off in any way. And for support teams, it’s a huge drain on resources—not to mention a major source of burnout.
That’s why keeping customers waiting is the number one thing you shouldn’t do while supporting customers remotely.
So how do you avoid it? You can start by making sure that your customers know what to expect when they call with their questions or concerns. Let them know how long it’s going to take for someone to pick up the phone, and how much time you’ll be able to give them for their issue before you have to move on to another customer. If possible, let them know upfront whether or not you’ll be able to solve their problem on the spot—and if not, when they should expect more information from your team via email or other means of communication.
This will give them confidence that they aren’t going to get left hanging without answers—which can help eliminate some of the frustration associated with waiting.
4. Micromanagement
Micromanagement is what you should not do while supporting customers remotely.
If you are a manager, then you are responsible for managing your team. If you want to succeed with remote work, then you need to know how to manage remote employees. One of the most important things that a manager should do is not micromanage their team members.
Micromanagement is when the manager monitors and controls all of the employee’s tasks and activities, which means that they are telling them exactly what to do and how to do it. Micromanagement leads to disengaged employees who don’t feel like they have any autonomy or freedom in their jobs. It also leads to low productivity because employees don’t feel like they have any ownership over their work or responsibility for their actions (or lack thereof).
You may think this sounds great because it means that everything gets done exactly as you want it done but this isn’t always true! In fact, when it comes down to it, this kind of management style can actually make things worse for both parties involved (the manager and employee).
The first issue is that micromanaging doesn’t give employees an opportunity for growth or development because everything is so tightly controlled by their managers; no room exists for innovation on either side.
Conclusion
No matter what you do, however, it is essential to remember that nothing replaces a live conversation with the customer. There is no replacement for the feeling of someone in front of you who is experiencing a problem and wanting your help. And even though live chat and email are useful in many scenarios, they cannot interpret tone and intent (at least not with 100% accuracy). In the end, understanding the customer is the ultimate goal of all support interactions, whether you are working remotely or face to face.
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