Software Company Customer Support – Tips and Tricks for Efficiency
The software industry is always evolving and changing. When looking at the latest software company customer support tactics, it’s not easy to find information that’s specific and actionable. Phrases such as “make the customer happy” are great but they aren’t helpful because they don’t tell you how to go about achieving this happiness in such a complex industry.
So what are some real ways software companies can not only increase customer satisfaction but be efficient in doing so? Here are some tips and tricks…
- Collaborate – You wouldn’t have a programmer code in a language they’re not good at, so why would have a support person attempt to answer questions they don't know how to resolve? While having people address their specialties is good, having people work together and learn from each other is even better. This is where collaborative customer support software shines as it simplifies the process of getting the correct information from team members. In addition, any employee can have access to the support software and contribute to tickets as much or as little as needed.
- Track products and versions – Offering a solution to a customer that isn’t applicable because they don’t have a certain software product or the right version is awful support. With the right customer support software solution, it’s easy to track what products and software versions customers have so you can make sure the solutions you are providing are correct and relevant. In addition, having this information easily accessible and on hand saves time as you don’t have to go back and forth with the customer in hopes that they provide the right information for you to accurately address their issue.
- Organize information – Speaking of products and versions, did you know that with certain help desk ticketing systems you can have tickets automatically route to the correct agents based on this information? You can also have tickets be sent directly to specific agents based on a seemingly limitless additional set of criteria through ticket automation. Another way to organize tickets is to tag and group them effectively when they are received. This allows agents to spot issues if tags are being used frequently so they can inform the team of a larger concern.
- Implement self-service – More and more support teams, especially in the B2B industry, are beginning to implement self-service into their customer support strategy. While it’s not a traditional support channel and it may take some time to create the necessary content to be successful, the main benefit of self-service truly lies in its ability to reduce the total number of tickets submitted. By giving customers a 24/7 place to answer their own questions, they no longer need to reach out to support with simple questions that distract agents and increase the ticket response times for more critical and complicated issues.
- *BONUS TIP* ScreenView™ Technology – Why spend a lot of time going back and forth with customers in tickets trying to explain issues when they can just record the issues on their screen? With B2B customer support software this is possible as customers can record their screen and share it with an agents. In addition, agents can also record the correct response to the ticket and send it back to the customer. All of the video content is embedded directly into the ticket, making this an ideal solution to save time for both customers and agents in the software industry.
In conclusion, customer support software can help software companies in multiple ways. Not only will it enable support agents to work together better with the greater team, but it will also give customers a better impression of your company as you are more organized and can address their issues faster. In the future, expect solutions such as self-service to continue to become more commonplace in the software industry as the demands for more complex and timely support solutions continue to increase in the coming years.
