| Nurtured customer
relationships result in increased business, industry
recognition, and happier clients. Providing
excellent customer support to your clients is not
difficult, it simply takes planning and tools.
Below are some tips to ensure happier clients.
Tip 1 - Make Support
Quickly Accessible
Clients deserve the ability to quickly contact your
team with questions and issues. A good
approach is to offer your clients access to a
web-based support ticket system that allows them to
quickly and easily contact your team.
The support system should also provide a searchable
knowledge base and an 800 phone number that is used
if they need to speak to a support representative.
Tip 2 - Respond to Support
Issues Quickly
Once a client support ticket is opened, respond to
the client within an hour during regular business
hours. If you can not fully answer the
question or address the issue with an hour, let the
client know this so that they do not feel they are
not being communicated with.
Tip 3 - Follow up with
Clients upon implementing fixes
Some support issues can not be resolved immediately,
as they may need to be fixed in upcoming releases of
your software. When this happens, explain that to
your client. Once the fix is implemented, send
an email to your client letting them know the fix is
complete and have them provide feedback on the
resolution.
Tip 4 - Allow checking of
status via the web
Once a client has submitted a support ticket,
provide them with a website they can use to check
the status of the ticket. This eliminates the
need for the client to call multiple times asking
for status.
Tip 5 - Be Truthful with
your Client
Clients appreciate honesty and integrity. If
your client asks about an issue, be truthful with
the client. If you are unsure what is causing
the issue, tell them, but continue working towards a
resolution.
Tip 6 - Measure Your
Support Effectiveness
Upon completion of a support ticket, send a survey
to your clients to solicit honest feedback.
Have them rank how well your support team is doing
and how well they like the product. Ask them
to rank it based on how happy they are (0% to 100%)
so that you can objectively determine how you are
doing overall. Expect some harsh criticism and
some great feedback.
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