It’s usually pretty difficult to tell when it’s time to upgrade a software system, especially when it comes to your help desk software. Even in the best cases, an outdated or small help desk system can be frustrating for everyone involved. Users are already upset that something isn’t working right on their end, and sometimes they have trouble being patient while your team searches for a solution.

If you’re under any doubt about how important customer service is, almost nine out of ten people have stopped doing business with a company due to a poor service experience. Meanwhile, 55 percent of people would willingly spend more money to guarantee superior service. With this information in mind, here are seven tips to sharpen your team's B2B customer service skills so that you deliver the kind of experience people are looking for.

There is a fundamental difference between companies who sell to businesses (B2B) and companies who sell to individual consumers (B2C). Your approach is different, your tools are different (or at least they should be), and processes are often different as well. To paraphrase our friends at the leading business software comparison site G2 Crowd, "Treating B2B and B2C like they're the same is a recipe for disappointment".

Speaking of G2 Crowd, they recently put together a fantastic B2B Marketing Guide - if you are in marketing, sales, or even customer service at a business to business organization, we highly recommend this guide. Aside from the great marketing tips, we were most interested in the vast array of similarities in B2B marketing and B2B support. We both deal with the same issues, challenges, and differences, because at the end of the day working with other businesses is, well - different. Read on to see the list of 8 ways marketing and support are different for B2B. 

Properly managing your help desk software is just as important as what solution you choose. Even if you have the best technology, if it’s not properly configured the software can create problems and hostility with its users. One of the best ways to optimize how employees utilize your help desk system is through implementing custom fields. Not only do they save time, but they also improve the communication of your team with customers and even between departments. Here are a few ways on how to set up a help desk software properly with custom fields to save time and money…

The amount of focus companies devote to customer experience and engagement has continued to increase. Especially for companies who can’t beat their competition when it comes to price, an excellent customer experience can be a key differentiator. This is especially true in the B2B industry, where companies are often willing to pay more for a better experience. One of the best ways to improve the help desk portion of the customer experience is by utilizing external help desk software.