Your customers are integral to keep your business afloat. Hence, it is imperative always to do our best to provide customer satisfaction. This includes the customer support channels we provide.
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Here’s the thing: Not everyone is comfortable picking up the phone. Meanwhile, some find social media less professional.
Thus, you have to be versatile with your options.
If you are unsure what customer support channels to use, we have listed the 12 crowd favorites below:
Live Chat
Live chats are extremely popular among younger clients. In fact, the 18-34 age group has used this a lot of times, with the main reason they prefer to use this over the phone is the decreased hold times.
Live chats also let agents build strong customer relationships sans the inconvenience of sticking the phone to your ears. Moreover, it can also serve as a 24/7 contact channel where customers can get assistance anytime and anywhere.
It can also provide you with insights into your customers’ journey. And depending on the platform you use, you can take the conversations into video or voice calls with just a few clicks.
Email Support
While live and phone support make it easier to carry on conversations in real-time back and forth, email is a more delayed means of communication.
Therefore, there is a long period needed before issues can be fully resolved. Still, many companies consider it as something vital in their support offerings. That’s because of the universal reach that email can provide.
Moreover, email support can be an ideal option for people who do not have the time to stay on the phone for hours while on hold. Although it does not provide an instant resolution, it can still get the job done conveniently. You can use tools like Klaviyo, an automation platform that automates SMS and email marketing to acquire more leads, and gain more customers. Check out the best klaviyo flows.
When providing your customers with email support, take note that most of your customers prefer a more casual tone. Communicating to them terrible news can be an exception since it is more appropriate to adopt a more formal tone.
Social Media
These days, many brands are discovered on social media. Thus, making it an excellent platform to engage with new or existing customers early on in the customer journey.
Apart from being an effective contact channel, you can also use it as a marketing tool.
Many companies and brands use social media to their advantage.
On Twitter, for example, many companies make sure that they communicate using their brand “voice.” This helps engage with customer conversations to improve the way users perceive their company.
Depending on your business and current customer base, it can also be helpful if you create accounts meant for support inquiries only. This prevents social media admins or marketers who lack technical support skills or are not well-equipped to respond to questions.
Chatbots
Automated chatbots are also on the rise as customer contact channels are growing. These provide a great alternative to human-powered live chats.
It allows you to deal with multiple inquiries, available 24/7, and offer customers an immediate response.
But despite the advancement in technology, chatbots are not still up to par with fostering human connections. Sure, they can respond to basic FAQs and use cases, their capabilities are still limited. So much so that some clients would recognize that they are talking to a robot.
That said, one way to maximize your chatbot feature is to use them as a contact channel together with a human-powered live chat.
You can let a chatbot deal with basic inquiries and then hand it over to a customer service agent if the problems are complex.
Messaging Apps
Great examples of messaging apps are Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. They are quick to install and allow you to send multimedia content (i.e., images, videos, and voice messages).
They can also be great platforms in providing insight on how your messages will be delivered and read.
Furthermore, messaging apps can be excellent platforms when you want to talk about offers or promotions.
This is especially true about WhatsApp. With over 1.2 billion active users, messages on these channels are regularly checked over emails.
Phone Support
Phone support is the epitome of a human connection between businesses and their customers. It allows clients to talk with someone while preventing miscommunication.
Plus, this kind of client support is ideal for non-techy customers. Think of your mom and pop and grandparents. They may have qualms with technology and would definitely want to talk with a person rather than a bot.
PRO TIP: Consider incorporating a callback feature. That way, your customer support agents can call the client back if the phone call got disconnected.
Video Call
Video calls are also a helpful customer contact channel and are preferred by the younger demographic.
The primary use of video calls is to provide face-to-face customer support without meeting in person. This is common with international businesses that have an offshore team.
It is not all the time a client can travel to have an issue resolved. And often, SMS or email exchange can fall through the cracks. Hence, the best option is a video call.
The cool part? You can demonstrate how things are done through screen sharing.
In-Person
Of course, nothing can beat speaking to your customers in person.
This makes it easier for your customers to feel comfortable and relaxed to work with your company. Hence, you get to establish your reputation and authority.
However, note that in-person support may not always be the most efficient method for handling customer requests. Sometimes, it can be a tad inconvenient on the part of the customer.
Therefore, you must still recommend other means of customer contact channels that are more convenient to them.
Knowledge Base
Sometimes, your customers may want to seek help on their own.
That’s why many websites have a FAQ page wherein your customers can access the most common questions they have.
Similarly, you can also satisfy your customers by making your knowledge base interactive. It can be a troubleshooting demo, or you can prompt a client to send an email or have a live chat with customer support.
Online Community
An online forum or community fosters collaboration. Nonetheless, this is ideal for people who like to do things on their own.
You can build a good community approach by creating a space where your customers can ask, share their problems and concerns.
On-page Support Widget
Similarly, you can turn your site into a support channel via on-page support widgets.
When browsing through your site, customers can ask you a question and then submit this request via email.
Some widgets allow you to incorporate knowledge base articles directly. That way, customers can have access to answers right away.
Support Ticket
The platform will receive a request from the user with ticketing, usually through email or online form.
Similarly, you can integrate this with chat as well. After the submission, the request will then be turned into a ticket, which can be tracked and then resolved through email.
Conclusion
Customer support can say so much about your business. It also gives you the chance to showcase how you handle a situation.
As such, it would help if you have multiple customer support channels. And you can start by using some of the 12 channels listed above.