Customer service system: 10 factors to take into account

Customer service is a multi-stage and complex process. In the modern world, a significant part of communication with customers takes place through various channels, such as email or social media. That is a huge convenience for everyone who cares about getting in touch quickly from anywhere, but it also brings new challenges, such as choosing the right system for your service department. So how do you choose the right customer service system?

Why is a good customer service system so important?

Managing several communication channels is the basis of everything today. Good work organisation in your service department has to take into account the differences between individual channels and the customer needs that go with them. Otherwise you will have to deal with difficulties such as overloaded staff, long waiting times for a reply and falling customer satisfaction.

A good customer service system will help you face all of those challenges and avoid the difficulties that come with them. It is the secret behind good work organisation, which has a positive effect on the quality of communication with customers and on the efficiency of your staff. In this article we explain which factors are worth taking into account when choosing a system for your customer service office. Read on to find out more!

Which factors should you take into account? A checklist

#1 Automation

A high level of service automation is the best friend of everyone working in a customer service office. Automatically assigning messages to an agent, or adding new contacts to the customer history, saves a lot of time and energy. When agents do not have to do all of that manually, they can devote more attention to the actual conversations with customers, and they also feel far less pressure. At Smartsupp we know very well that working in a service department is no simple task. That is why our tool comes with many features that will make your team's work easier and improve communication with users. On top of that, the tool is easy to implement, it integrates with many platforms and it speeds up the sales process.

Besides that, as part of automation you also have the option of supporting your live chat with our chatbot! The chatbot will give automatic answers, for example outside your office hours. What is more, the chatbot can also answer simple, frequently repeated questions, so your agents will have more time to handle more complicated enquiries.

#2 Comprehensiveness

A good customer service system should cover different communication channels comprehensively. Thanks to that you will not have to use several different tools or worry about integrating them. Whatever industry you work in, having many channels and centralised channel management will be a huge help.

The Smartsupp platform rises to that challenge by offering you comprehensive service on your online store's website, in email and on live chat! Besides that, you can also integrate our system with other messengers, for example Facebook Messenger, which lets you grow your brand on social media more easily and stay in touch with customers more efficiently.

#3 Easy access to data

Fast access to information is crucial for smooth communication and good work organisation in your department. A service system should take that need into account by offering easily accessible databases that every member of staff can use at any moment. When an agent does not have to search the system frantically for, say, the details of the particular order the customer is asking about, service will be much faster and smoother, and customer satisfaction much higher.

With Smartsupp you can quickly find all the information you need, which can prove priceless in conversations with customers. It is grouped and easy to search. An intuitive user dashboard, a quick view of conversation history, filters and easily accessible information about visitors (name, email address, location, browsing history and more) let you get to know your customers and your target group better.

#4 Reply templates

These are nothing other than ready-made patterns that staff can use when communicating with customers. Templates let you manage the time of a conversation better, and also stay in control of difficult situations where emotions can get the better of reason. Thanks to ready-made templates an agent will always be able to keep communication on the right track, and also finish serving a customer much faster than if they had to compose every reply themselves.

At Smartsupp such templates are called shortcuts, because they speed up communication with the user considerably. In the blink of an eye your team can create ready answers and then, by pressing a full stop, insert them into the chat window and adjust the wording if needed.

#5 Contact form

A good customer service system is one that supports customers 24/7. When your agents are offline, make sure users still have a way to contact you when they have a question about a product, a service or pricing.

Smartsupp offers a great solution that makes it possible to stay in touch even when agents are out of reach. The form collects contact details from customers who are genuinely interested in your products. Thanks to that option you will not miss a chance to increase sales, and you will answer all the questions.

#6 Feedback

The ability to collect feedback is one of the most important qualities a good customer service system should have. Knowing the level of customer satisfaction is crucial for understanding their needs, identifying difficulties in communication and finding solutions to them. Feedback can also show you which of your agents' skills are worth working on, for example during training or courses.

Collecting feedback will show your customers that you care about their opinion. In the Smartsupp system you can choose the option of rating a message with an emoji. Do you value more detailed results? You can easily find out when your customers leave better ratings and whether their rating changes depending on whether it is high season or not (for example after the holiday period).

#7 Reports

Alongside feedback, reports are another valuable source of information. Periodic reports contain specific, numerical data on how smoothly enquiries are handled in your company – for example how fast agents reply, what the average response time is, or how many messages they answered in a given month. Those numbers are an excellent starting point for measuring the efficiency of your service department and for possibly changing the way it is organised, for example increasing the number of agents at peak hours or introducing automation through a chatbot.

Thanks to reports you can also gain valuable information about the quality of your agents' work, which will perfectly complement the feedback you give them! For staff, feedback is the knowledge of "where they stand", which lets them improve their skills and adapt better to your expectations – so it is worth introducing that habit in your company.

#8 Message categorisation

The message categorisation feature is very useful, because it makes searching for valuable customer information much easier and improves the quality of your service.

In the Smartsupp system you can successfully create tags and filters of varying complexity. The list of categories is not closed, so no rigid templates limit you – Smartsupp guarantees you a lot of freedom here, so that you can match the categories to your needs as well as possible.

#9 Integrations

The possibility of external integrations is another factor worth taking into account when choosing a customer service system. Even the most comprehensive system can benefit from being connected with other tools! At Smartsupp we are aware that our customers use different programs and applications every day. We do our best to meet your needs by offering wide integration options. Among the Smartsupp integrations you will find, among others, the Facebook Messenger already mentioned, which makes communication through social media easier. Do you want to integrate Smartsupp with your company Google account or your sales platform? No problem!

#10 Mobile app

The pandemic showed us how important it is to be able to work from anywhere, using any device. Remote mode became a necessity and an everyday reality for many of us at that time, and that brought completely new challenges that a good customer service system should meet.

Thanks to a mobile app, staff in the service department can serve users freely on a business trip, at the airport, on a train, at home or anywhere else. With the Smartsupp platform you can carry out your duties working from any place where you have a stable internet connection. Thanks to our app you and your team can confidently step away from your desk and still stay in constant contact with customers.

Summary

You can see for yourself that choosing a good customer service system for your office does not have to be difficult at all! Do you want to find out more about Smartsupp? Try Smartsupp or write to us – we will be happy to talk to you and answer all your questions!