Just like how you wouldn’t want to invest in a clothing line where everything is one size fits all, you’d probably not want to invest in software that operates on a one-size-fits-all model. Therefore, you must ensure you find a proper fit for your customer support team because, with a plethora of business models, services, and products in a market, the reality remains that one-size-fits-alls don’t work. In addition, it can become a mammoth task to provide an extraordinary service if your customer support routine includes responding to emails via Outlook or keeping records of “sent mail” on Excel spreadsheets and post-it notes.
Luckily, one way to overcome this challenge is to use customer service software.
Customer Service Software allows businesses to manage, respond and organize all their service requests. It helps them track all customer service requests using one-click reports to understand their response times, get urgent alerts for emails from VIP customers, and notifications for unanswered emails that need to be answered.
That being said, ensure you are employing most segments and aspects for optimum customer service before employing software to enable efficient customer support. Only then will your numerous customer service agents be able to work together within the same tool.
Types of Customer Service Software
Help Desk Software
A Help Desk Software is one of the first tools that your customer support teams can invest in. It enables you to centralize all your customer interactions that are service related, and, depending on the tool you use, it can maneuver support requests from multiple channels like live chat, social media, email, and phone calls. Fundamentally talking, help desk software lets you streamline and manage customer conversations and enables better agents and customer experience.
Phone Support Software
In the current tech scenario, the phone support approach may seem like a relic of the past. But it may be surprising that over 50% of customers still prefer to use phones to contact a company for help. Moreover, this preference spans multiple sorts of demographics. People of every gender, age, and background opt for phone support. Therefore, it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. In addition, you most likely have customers who would like to make a phone call to contact you. Phone support and contact center software can make your phone support a modern structure and let you handle those phone-based interactions far better.
Shared Inbox Software
A Shared Inbox Software is an email tool that allows several people to respond and access messages sent to a particular email address. Generally, organizational and automation features are also included to help constructively manage customer conversations.
Knowledge-Base Software
Knowledge Base Software is a system that allows companies to manage, organize, store, create, and share self-service content with an audience. Elements like Video Tutorials, FAQ pages, and how-to articles are common forms of content housed in a Knowledge Base Software.
Broadly, there are two main types of Knowledge Bases: external and internal.
The content is public and accessible to anyone with an external Knowledge Base, whereas an internal knowledge base asks the user to log in to access the information. In other words, the content is private with it. Most tools focus more on singular use cases, but this software can manage both well. For example, it may be accommodating to think of an External Knowledge Base that is geared toward your customers, and an Internal Knowledge Base that is customized toward your employees.
Live Chat Support Software
Customers who want to converse with a live person are usually those who either cannot find what they need in your online help documentation or want to talk through a problem in real-time rather than explaining the issue in tedious emails. In such instances, live chat is a great option. It offers a feeling of nearness and immediacy of phone support while needing less resource intensity. As a result, live chat support has a much higher customer satisfaction rating than the phone, that is, 38% more. Like the tools mentioned earlier in this list, live chat software can be a standalone product and a sub-part of a Help Desk’s more extensive suite of tools.
Messaging Tools
Messaging tools is an umbrella term that refers to software that allows you to provide proactive support. It could be Proactive Messaging Software, Chatbot Software, or some combination of the two. Whatever the case, a messaging tool’s core goal is to minimize friction in one way or another for the customer.
CRM Software
Tired of managing all customer-related info manually? Customer relationship management (CRM) software can manage and track customer interactions. This software tool is most commonly linked with sales but has some successful customer service applications. The primary way it can achieve customer success is via personalization. With the data that a typical CRM software collects, you can anticipate their needs and formulate a specific experience for each customer based on where they’re at in their customer journey.
Social Monitoring Software
In the old days, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms were simply digital hubs where people just posted pictures of food they’d eaten or vacations they had taken. Indeed, these are still significant uses for social media. But it has now become a partly important platform for people to seek support. It is commonly advised that a company should meet their customers where they already are. Although it is a good suggestion, taking on many channels in a realistic context is challenging as every team has limited time and resources. Every new channel requires either adding new resources to manage it or time and energy away from an already established channel. Social monitoring software can be extremely useful in companies with a high social support volume, so check your number before investing.
Popular Customer Service Software Platforms
Since there are various approaches and channels for customer service that you can leverage, for example, all-in-one solutions, niche services, or in-app support, kickstart your customer support, go through the following names and find the most appropriate support tools-
1. Help Scout
It is an all-in-one customer support software that focuses on agents’ and customers’ experiences. You can manage mail, centralize live chat and support queues, create databases of canned responses, employ collision detection, get metrics for busiest days, most common support requests, average response times, and which channels are most popular among customers.
2. HelpDocs
It is a standalone knowledge-based customer support software. It’s a self-service tool that lets you find answers independently, allowing faster resolution time and fewer tickets for your team.
3. Olark
Another standalone live chat customer support software using which you can leverage intelligent automation, robust analytics, and team management.
4. Aircall
A call center supports software offering several different plans for teams of all sizes. These plans include IVR, the option to set custom business hours, and call queuing.
5. Zendesk
It is a customer support software for bigger teams allowing a ticketing system that lets you manage customer conversations. You can manage Twitter, chats, email, and Facebook interactions with relative complexity.
Other popular names in the customer service software sector are Freshdesk, Text-Em-All, Helpshift, HubSpot Service Hub, Salesforce Service Cloud, LiveAgent, ServiceNow, and Zoho Desk.
“Excellent customer service is the number one job in any company! It is the personality of the company and the reason customers come back. Without customers, there is no company!”
-Connie Edler
Final Thought
Ascertaining what software is the best fit for your company and your support team can be a daunting task. A wise thing to do in such a case is to choose a tool that meets your current need and is limber enough to cover your future needs while staying on budget. But don’t forget, it is ultimately your customer service that matters the most. In order to fix your brand name among clients quicker you can also choose to hire a professional for online reputation management of your brand that can help you combat negative reviews faster and more strategically
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