The job description of customer Support team members says that these people need to help customers who have a problem with a particular product or service. The entire department is responsible with providing the necessary information to people and answering their questions. All of these may create the idea that coordinating a customer support team is a relatively simple task.

However, there is a great difference between a team that fulfills its duties and one that follows certain work rules and understands the business values of the company they are working for. The latter one does more than just execute tasks mechanically. It focuses on doing a great job, creating great experiences for customers and bringing successful results.

Why is customer support so important?

Customer support plays an important role in the growth process and success of a business. The direct interaction people from this department have with customers can have a great impact on the direction of the company. Here are a few numbers that show why customer support is so important.

• Unpleasant customer experiences have made 85% of customers to not want to work with a company
• According to a ClickFox survey, 47% of customers expect an answer within 24 hours, 22% expect it immediately and 19% expect it in 1 hour

These numbers illustrate that people want to work with professionals, who can provide them useful solutions for their problems. If the customer support services do not manage to reach people’s expectations, they may not want to work with that company anymore and can choose a competitor from the market.

6 tips for growing your customer support team

In order to obtain great results and have a customer support department that works like a team, following common rules, business values and objectives, it is essential to concentrate on a few elements that can help you grow your team. Here are 6 tips for building and growing a great customer support team.

1.  Give insights to your customer support team

Your customer support team is working on delivering great services that satisfy customers and bring great results. However, it is difficult to fulfill the tasks properly and satisfy people when they are lacking important information such as new channels of communication that people prefer. For example, if customers feel more comfortable to talk with customer support through a mobile application rather than via emails, team members should be informed about this aspect. In this way, they can adapt to new requirements and offer great experiences to customers.

These details are essential for customer support team members to adapt to the needs of people and to improve the quality of their services. For instance, if they are notified that the customer retention rate is decreasing, they can work on strategies that will help solve this problem.

2.  Offer training and development possibilities

Investing in your people represents an important step for the development of your business. You can present them different training opportunities or organize special training sessions for them. In this way, they can learn new strategies to deal with customers, learn from others’ experiences and avoid doing certain mistakes.

In addition, you can organize team buildings in which you focus on building a stronger and more unified group. Although it may seem more a form of entertainment than a way of helping your business, it is a technique that can improve office team work.

3. Keep count of the important elements

There are several elements that you can measure in the customer support department. The number of customers that call during a day, the duration of the calls and customer retention rate are just a few examples. However, it is important to concentrate on the aspects that can help you improve your services.

Let’s take the following two aspects: the duration of the calls and customer retention rate. Measuring the first one can offer valuable information. If the call duration is too long, it can illustrate that customer support team is not prepared enough to deal with certain problems. For this reason, it takes a relatively long time for them to provide a proper answer to people’s questions. Furthermore, it shows that you may have a problem within your company. It can be related to a software you are using or a product or service you are providing.

Customer support can influence customer retention. When people call with an issue and they receive immediate help, useful pieces of advice, they feel appreciated and satisfied with the services they received. Thus, they have an incentive to return and work with your company again.

4. Do not put all the pressure on your customer support team

It is important to develop additional ways that can help customers find a solution to their problem. We are referring to self-service. In other words, instead of offering people just the option of contacting your customer support team, think about providing them:

• a library with useful materials and different categories of articles
• access to a customer community that they can speak with regarding their problems
• a how-to section for different products
• a FAQ page

5. Always offer feedback

Whether it is negative or positive, it is crucial to give feedback to your team. An opinion coming from the exterior can help them understand what they are doing wrong or if they lack certain elements. Also, you can encourage team members to give feedback to each other.

6. Reward your customer support team

This is probably one of the most important aspects. It can have a great impact not only on people’s moods, but also on how they see themselves in the company. The reward can be represented by warm “Thank you” letter, access to local events and festivals or gift cards. They all show the same message: that you care about your people and they are important for you and your business. This can make them appreciate their job even more and provide great services.

Growing a good customer support team involves great work in order to understand people, their needs and requirements. You need to concentrate both on the professional and ‘human’ aspects. In this way, you can build a strong team that offers high-quality services that satisfy your customers.

What other tips would you include in order to grow your customer support team?

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