B2B Customer Support | 4 min read | Published June 09, 2020

Part 1: Clearing the Clutter of Your Customer Support Workflow

Support workflows often have unnecessary steps that do more harm than good. Here's why it's important to take a step back and clear out the clutter of your support workflow.

If you are a part of a B2B (business-to-business) customer support operation, you have workflows in place whether you realize it or not. They may have been written down last year or have been passed down from different eras of support leadership like an urban myth, but there is generally a method every company has for responding to customer issues and problems.

Ask yourself one question: When is the last time you’ve truly tried clearing out the clutter of your support workflow?

In this two-part blog series, we’ll run you through how to prepare to clear out the clutter and remove what you don’t need and, if required, replace it with something better.

Let’s get to work! The first part involves performing an audit on your current customer support workflow process:

It’s Workflow Audit Time!

Visualize every customer touchpoint – This doesn’t mean creating a cool looking cell phone image for “call.” Instead it means take a step back and look at every single way a customer interacts with your business. Document them all by writing each touchpoint on a whiteboard or digital document. Examples include tickets, live chat, phone, self-service, in-person meetings, and more. Every business is different and will have a different list of touchpoints.
Take these touchpoints and map out the journeys – Once you have the touchpoints defined, it’s time to go into detail for each one. The goal here isn’t to evaluate each step in the journey (yet), instead it’s just to get them documented. A customer may call in, hit your automated phone system, and then be routed to an agent depending on the prompt. These are three unique steps in the journey.
Evaluate the effectiveness of each point on the journey – When all touch points for each customer journey are mapped out, then it’s time to take a step back and look at the effectiveness of what you’re currently doing. Provide overall ratings to the impact you feel each touchpoint in the customer journey is having on the entire support experience.

The audit process may seem like a lot of work, but it’s necessary to truly remove the clutter, and it will save you time in the long run. Keep an eye out for Part 2 to learn all about clearing out the clutter in a way that will make an impact for your business.