The goal of almost any business is to grow and scale-up and one of the best ways companies can grow is for their employees to be more productive. While the goal of almost any team is to increase productivity, being more productive is especially important for customer support teams. More productive customer support agents lead to happier and more satisfied customers which ultimately leads to more growth and revenue for the company.
In today’s digital-first world, excellent customer support has become very important. Studies say that a huge percentage of buying decisions is influenced by how the customer feels they are being treated, and with customer support being at the forefront of a company, they have the most significant effect on it.
Today, if a customer has had a bad experience with a product or a brand, they can easily voice their experience online which could end up hurting the brand. A study says that the buying decisions of most customers are affected by online reviews.
While bad customer experience can negatively affect your brand’s reputation, a good experience can also boost and help grow your business. If you want to provide excellent customer support, your customer support agents have to be on top of their game. These days, people in customer support have to juggle between troubleshooting technical issues, user engagement and so much more, while ensuring that all customers are still happy.
This can lead to unproductivity among your customer support agents, which is why in this post we have rounded-up the best tips and tricks to keep your customer support agents as productive as possible.
1. Simplify your customer support processes as much as possible
Complicated workflows have so many negative effects on companies and usually frustrates customers. By simplifying as much of your processes as possible, you will also make the interactions between the agent and the customer shorter and more efficient.
Make sure that you not only remove all the unnecessary procedures but also teach your customer support agent simpler ways to approach customers’ problems.
Usually, customer support agents start giving complicated solutions or asking too many questions, when in reality the problem the customer is facing is very basic. If you train your customer service agents to look simply at each question they get, the communication between the company and the client will be much more effective for both sides.
Proper communication etiquette helps make interactions for your customer clear, polite, and simple, which reduces the time that is necessary for solving problems. Make sure that the language and the tone that your customer support agents use is professional.
This will establish more trust in your company and your customer support agents among your customers. By communicating with the right etiquette customers will be able to more easily rely on your service and your help, which will help you earn more long-term customers.
2. Respect your employees
Sometimes, employees and their positions are viewed unequally, as more or as less important. The usual social ladders sometimes create walls between different employees and by respecting them, you can tear down those walls. While it is better not to build any walls in the first place, most of the time that is not possible.
Your company should strive to treat all their employees equally and with a maximum level of respect. If an environment of mutual respect is dominant in your office, you can be sure that your employees will be as productive as possible, which leads to more happy employees.
3. Teach your customer service agents to be more independent
Even the best training programs for customer support agents are filled with rules and how to’s which are bound to fail when you, as a business owner, do not trust your agent’s ability to make the right decision. That is why you need to trust their discretion when dealing with problems, as about 80% of the problems that most customer support agents face are repeating and known issues with solutions that are already known.
Depending on how effectively these common problems are solved at your company, you may lose or keep some of your customers. No matter the situation, new problems do not have ready-made answers, which is why it is important that your customer support agents feel empowered, competent, and confined to use their judgment, knowledge, and skills to find the solution to these new problems and present it to the customer simply and effectively.
You need to empower your customer support agents so that they become true ambassadors for your brand and get them involved in creating and spreading a good and positive image of your brand.
4. Encourage team spirit between all your employees
One of the best ways to ensure your employees are as productive as possible is to create a great atmosphere in the team and encourage your employees to build positive relationships with each other.
The more relaxed and the better the atmosphere in your team is, the easier will it be for your customer support agents to deal with customers’ problems. A supportive atmosphere and a positive attitude will for sure rub off of the customers which leads to a better experience.
5. Teach your customer support agents to do what is necessary
Most of the time the course of the interaction between the customer support agent and the customer is affected by personal matters such as the agent’s or the customer’s mood. While you cannot influence the customer, you can train your customer support agents to individually approach every customer while leaving their emotions on the side.
Many times, the quality of the care that the customer support agents provide is uneven. Some customers approach customer service positively which leads to the customer support agent to give them better care and more personal than to those customers that are disrespectful.
You need to ensure that your customer support agents provide the same level of care for all customers, regardless of their attitude. The best way to approach all customers is to treat them equally which can have a great effect when building strong relationships with clients. For the best possible customer experience, your customer support agents need to maintain the right balance between professionalism and a friendly approach.
6. Create a fun and positive environment in your team
Happy employees lead to happy customers. Whenever possible, remove the pressure from your employees. Try as hard as you can to make your employees forget their problems when they come to work.
Share jokes, tell funny stories and have fun whenever you can. Help your customer support agents have fun, as the more fun your team has, the better results will come automatically.
7. Arm your customer support agents with the right tools for the job
No matter how well trained, knowledgeable, and responsible your customer support agents are, they cannot give their best performance without using the right tools and software. In customer support, a quick response is important for the best possible customer experience.
For example, if the agents do not have quick access to the customer’s information, they will not be able to quickly assist the customer. If the customer support agent does not have the latest information about the products or services of the company or the latest issues in the company, this could lead to them providing wrong info to the customer and further frustration and dissatisfaction with the service.
The best way to prevent this is to create and maintain a knowledge base for your customer support. Companies that have implemented a knowledge base software for their customer support enjoy many benefits including improved efficiency of the agents, increased customer trust, and loyalty, and reduced resources and costs if the customers can use the self-service knowledge base to solve the problem on their own.
Conclusion
So there you have it, the best ways to make your customer support agents more productive. By following the tips and tricks laid out in this article, you will be well on your way toward building a great foundation for more productivity among your employees. Your customers will be so much happier, and this will ultimately lead to the growth and success of your company and your revenue.
To quickly sum up, here are the best ways to make your customer support agents more productive:
- Simplify your customer support processes as much as possible
- Respect your employees
- Teach your customer service agents to be more independent
- Subscribe to the industry best email newsletters and follow influencers
- Encourage team spirit between all your employees
- Teach your customer support agents to do what is necessary
- Create a fun and positive environment in your team
- Arm your customer support agents with the right tools for the job
- Get into the habit of collecting short and concise customer feedback, regularly
If you can, try out all of these tips and tricks, and you will quickly see positive effects on your employees. Just remember that it will take some time and effort from you and all your employees but it will be very worthwhile in the end.
Please let us know in the comment section below how do you keep your customer support reps productive.