According to a Hubspot survey, 68% of customers don't mind paying more than the market average for the products or services of a company providing a high-quality customer service experience. Thus, customer service is an inevitable part of the operation for any business, and there is no need to make it more complicated than how it can be. Nowadays, there are plenty of tools that serve to improve the quality of communication with customers and ensure a flawless client experience.
We've collected the most popular tools for progressive customer service that you can apply in your business.
#1 Website Live Chats
73% of customers consider live chats to be the most satisfactory form of communication with a business. Thus, integrating such a tool can bring numerous benefits to your company, such as increased loyalty, better retention, and higher conversion.
Why does the website need a chat? Many users want to leave feedback or ask urgent questions, and a real-life chat is the most comfortable way to reach the customer service team. Users prefer this channel of communication because it has similar features as most messaging apps which people use in their private lives. Exchanging instant messages and being able to ask a question and immediately get an answer makes it pleasurable for customers and businesses to communicate with each other.
Another significant advantage of a website chat is that users don't need to leave the page in order to contact the business.
Reliable live chat tools: Userlike and Tawk.to.
#2 Help Desk Software
At the beginning of its operation, most companies utilize emails as one of the most popular communication channels for providing customer support services. This approach goes well when you get only several incoming requests a day, but as your company grows and the number of emails grows respectively, your team is no longer able to manage the crazy flow of emails in the inbox.
That's where you start getting confronted with problems. The more incoming emails you get, the harder it becomes to keep track of them - which ones are opened or closed, which ones need further contact, and who on your team is going to be in charge of it.
Helpdesk customer support software assists you in managing all the incoming customer requests. Using it, you will be able to mark the status of a case, tag a responsible employee, and involve the general team cooperation.
Reliable help desk tools: Zendesk and Help Scout.
#3 Messaging CRM
CRM or Customer Relationship Management is a modern technology for conducting all kinds of communications with current and potential customers. The traditional option is email-based, but nowadays, messaging CRMs are gaining popularity as well.
Around 2.52 billion people use mobile messaging apps, and this number is expected to reach 3 billion in 2022. Messaging CRM software helps businesses to keep up with the trend by providing customer support via popular mobile messaging apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc.
The choice of the best messengers for customer service for your company would greatly depend on the preferences of your target audience, the type of your business as well as your goals. Regardless of the messengers chosen, the messaging CRM would help to aggregate all the customer requests in one place and effectively process them.
Best CRM solutions: Rocketbots and Callbell.
#4 Chatbots
Chatbot software has recently gained popularity, and there's some true reasoning behind it. Chatbots make the support automated, so the visitors are able to get quick assistance anytime. No wonder that according to statistics, 67% of millennium internet users in the US would purchase from a company using a chatbot.
When everything the chatbot is set up according to the norms, your team gets a chance to work on more attention-demanding tasks when a chatbot does all the boring work instead. By using advanced solutions, you can make a chatbot that is fully customized to your business needs.
Best chatbot solutions: OMQ, IBM, and Botsociety.
#5 Newsletter Software
Newsletters are awesome for staying in touch with your customers. Your newsletters can include various information about your company and products not only in text but also in a video format. By using video, you can better convey your ideas and make the content look professional.
But don't forget that for the email with the video to open correctly, the attached file should not weigh gigabytes. Use the best compressors to compress video without losing quality. And to find them, click here.
When you are settling a newsletter campaign for an audience of hundreds or thousands of recipients, it can be too much if you do it directly from your email. Newsletter software can help you simplify this process. It can divide your recipients into groups based on their preferences and the stage of their buyer's journey. By sending different newsletters to different customer groups, you can provide more value to your readers as well as increase the efficiency of your marketing efforts.
Best newsletter software: MailChimp, CampaignMonitor, and Vision6.
#6 Online Communities
Online communities can be beneficial for businesses to keep in contact with their target audience. There everyone can share their ideas, advice on tools or products.
During the pandemic, such communities used to serve as a collaborative environment for the team to discuss some working details. Recently these communities became popular to arrange communication between users as well. Community members can help each other with the questions or give each other a helping hand in case of any challenges they face connected with the product.
For businesses, it is a brilliant way to get feedback about their product and make the overall improvement of their brand. Companies can decide whether to keep those communities open or give access to them only for a small group of people.
Best ways to create online communities: Slack, LinkedIn Groups, and Facebook Groups.
Conclusion
There is a great variety of tools that can help your business work better. Some of them let you use their features for free before getting a full subscription, so it is the right time for you to try them out!
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