You have been running a business or thinking about starting one. But note this, even after offering the best quality products, your business might not go as you want or might collapse at any time. Yes, because it is not just about products. Probably there are some important things like customer support you have been ignoring repeatedly.
The growth of a business does not only depend on the products or services it offers, but also on how you take care of the issues your customers face. The best part is, satisfied customers are the best way to get new customers.
If your business is online and your support portal is on WordPress, you are lucky for sure. There are plenty of WordPress plugins that can help you with customer support service. Today we will talk about what it takes to offer a great customer support experience.
Features of a great customer support channel
A great customer service portal requires to have a wide range of essential features. You have to bear one thing in mind that customers are here to fix their issues. If the support service itself requires some fixing, then you are going to end up with something worst. Let’s see the core features that make a customer support system great.
Customer flexibility
Having a support system that lets the customers access it easily should always be your top priority. You may provide a lot of features on a single support forum but if they don’t benefit the users and cause nuisance while creating support tickets, customers are not going to like it. Have your log-in and ticket posting system minimal so that it requires less time for customers to take actions.
Interactive support
The support system should notify the concerned people when a support question is created and answered. It helps the support staff take measures immediately and help customers get their issues fixed within the shortest possible time. Some support systems have email functionalities that send emails to the both parties when any of such particular actions is taken.
Set priorities
Each question asked on the support forum is not of similar importance. There should be a system to prioritize support queries so that a staff can decide on which queries to answer first. This system will make sure your support staff do not take support queries lightly once customers mark them as most important. Make sure you have a set of several layers in the system.
Categorize questions
You may have different products and each of your products may have different things to address. So if you can have a system that helps the customer assign the support query to a particular department, it will help your staff sort things out easily. People having similar kinds of problems will be able to benefit them from the previous resolved issues upon clicking the particular department/category.
Staff rating
A system for the customers to rate your support staff will make them more responsible and accurate in their ways. Staff rating system is a must have feature of any support service. Taking necessary action against any anomaly will be much easier once you get the customer rating for support staff.
Custom email template
There should be an email for each action taken on the support forum. The best quality WordPress support plugin will have the facility to customize these default email formats and send them easily to the concerned people. If there are preset variables to customize email templates, it would be a huge help for you to set things up quickly.
Captcha
Enabling captcha verification on your support forum will help you detect spam and drive off all the unwanted nuisance you may come across. Make sure your support system has this (e.g. reCAPTCHA) before choosing the platform.
Knowledgebase
You should have a dedicated knowledgebase section on the support system’s frontend. It can help a user get quick fixes to the most common issues without even posting any support query. An ideal support forum will have such knowledgebase on board. It will help you avoid a lot of unnecessary support queries on the forum.
It is very important to ensure above features and functionalities available in your support forum to smoothen the workflow. Some WordPress support plugins like WP Support Desk will provide all these features along with many other functionalities. Most importantly, you can easily customize the plugin to setup your support forum your way.
Support carries a great value. When it comes to doing a business online, a good support system will give more leads to your site and generate more sales. A satisfied customer can bring some potential new customers you have never thought of. So think about the features and functionalities before choosing your support platform.
