Guest Blog: 4 Simple Tips to Making Your Real-Time Customer Support a Success
This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Nic Bryson discusses why his company started using real-time customer support and its benefits. I believe the speed with which we respond to our customers is critical. – Shep Hyken
In today’s “always-on” and connected world, where customers can interact from anywhere around the globe 24/7, the decision to introduce real-time customer support in our company came quite naturally. It helped us increase customers’ satisfaction, earn trust and reputation, and of course, extend our customer network (nothing motivates a user to share his positive experience more than an immediate and thorough resolution of his problem 
) However, its successful implementation was not an easy task to perform, and here’s a few lessons we’ve learned along the road:
1. Define your communication channels
Depending on your product and customer base, you may choose live chat or phone for real-time support In my experience, the first is more suitable for the cases where you need to provide a customer with screenshots and step-by-step instructions. And the latter works better for less technical customers as they seem to be more interested in talking the problem through over the phone. No matter what you choose, make sure you have enough resources to stay true to your real-time promise.
2. Prepare a FAQ
Most of the questions that come to our support team repeat themselves. So having a FAQ page helps a great deal. In the case of real-time support, there’s no time to go through the whole list of questions every time, so make sure your team is well acquainted with the constantly updated guide (assuming you keep it updated – which you better do!)
3. Don’t leave them hanging
Unlike regular support, real-time requires instant reaction to the customer’s request. Remember that you are there to establish trust, and if it takes you longer than a few seconds to respond, the customer is probably wondering if you forgot about them. If we are talking about social media channels then it’s important to remember the results of a recent study from The Social Habit. According to the study, among the customers who contacted a company through social media 42% expect a response within 60 minutes or less. Show respect for your customers’ time and respond fast.
4. Leverage the power of Social Media
A recent survey by customer experience advisory thinkJar showed that 60% of businesses in the US and the UK use social media for customer service. Oddly enough, another survey found that almost 60% of these companies don’t respond to customers on social media when asked a direct question. I find this statistic alarming.
We have many customers who ask support questions via Twitter. If it’s a small question or issue we try to resolve it right there. If the answer doesn’t fit in 140 characters, we revert to e-mail or even phone, depending on the customer’s preferences.
Using social media tools for support reasons has several advantages. First of all, it’s transparent: if there’s an issue, we can openly admit it and instantly let all of our customers know once it is fixed. Second, it’s a great addition to our FAQ: users can simply browse through our recent messages and maybe even find the answer to their question. And, finally, and most importantly, it brings us closer to our customers. You know how they say, be where your customer is.
When you have great real-time support, customers will talk to you more often because they have confidence that they’re going to get great service. When customers are contacting you proactively, customer success is a natural byproduct.
Do you think real-time support is already a business necessity or an unnecessary luxury? I’ll be happy to see your thoughts in the comments.
Nic Bryson is the Vice President of Customer Success at Wrike, provider of the popular task management software. Passionately leading a global customer care team, Nic drives forward Wrike’s open innovation strategy through a constant dialogue and productive co-innovation with its customers from 50+ countries.
For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com
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