Beyond Tickets: Future of Effective Customer Support

Customer support has, is, and will always be relevant. Gone are the days when investing in customer support teams was considered an afterthought or business cost. Traditional ticketing has morphed into support engines driving business revenue. Customer support, particularly online, is focused on creating value for a customer and providing quick and personalized support while effectively scaling agent time.

Customer experiences can change customer perspectives about any business, building brand loyalty or instantly destroying it. With so many channels of communication, there is an expectation for companies to leverage email, social media, live chat, and phone, as well as any new, emerging channel (Threads, anyone?) to assist their customer base. While the customer service industry has continued to adopt helpdesk software tools, the recent rise in Artificial Intelligence and AI-powered automation has people questioning: "What does the future of effective customer support hold?".

Here on the Deskpro Blog, we discuss everything around customer support, the changing landscape, and how businesses like yours can set themselves up for success by providing end-users with a great customer experience.

So, whether you are curious about the future of customer support and emerging trends or figuring out strategies to deliver consistent, excellent customer service, you have come to the right place.

In this article, we will take a deep dive into the evolving landscape of customer support, the role of customer support software in shaping the future of customer support, and how it helps build lasting customer relationships that drive success across many aspects of a business.

The Evolution of Customer Support

The customer support industry continues evolving rapidly, with customer expectations also rising. End-users are no longer content with waiting days or weeks for a response on a ticket, only to be told there is no record of their issue, and, "Can they email support@terriblesupport.com again, please."

As support has adapted from face-to-face to phones, to email, and beyond, the expectation of receiving quick, personalized, and empathetic help has increased.

Overview of traditional vs. modern customer support models

Customer support has evolved from traditional ticket-based models to modern customer-centric models. If someone talks about Traditional Customer Support, they are probably referring to a largely reactive approach, resolving customer issues as they arise. Customers would send support tickets or make calls, frequently dealing with long wait times and cold interactions.
Over the past few years, and with the over-reliance on tools such as helpdesk software, the customer service approach now covers a broader reach of interactions, which includes the rise of more proactive interactions through customer success.

The shift from reactive to proactive support strategies

Knowing your customers’ needs before they even mention them is critical to delivering excellent customer support. Customers always prefer proactive support because they love convenience, and businesses highly benefit from proactive strategies, a win-win. A proactive customer support strategy is when an organization helps the customer before they contact them for assistance. It means having the foresight to identify potential issues and fix them as soon as they arise before they can impact customers.
There are enormous benefits to delivering proactive support. Businesses can increase customer retention rates via this strategy, which helps reduce support calls and customer turnovers, build brand loyalty, and improve customer experience (CX). Therefore, customer support leaders consider proactive customer support a priority.

Building stronger customer relationships through personalized interactions

With a traditional call center model, one human can talk on the phone to one person at any one time. This level of personal interaction is great for building a lasting customer relationship, but the model is flawed.

1. It doesn't scale.
2. What happens when end-users want to communicate over other channels?

The role of personalization across communication channels that are more scalable than phone calls, such as email, live chat, or social media customer service, is a big part of being able to build and maintain relationships.

Using variables, canned responses, or running multi-step workflows using macros can drastically help agent efficiency in customer interactions while maintaining personalization for the end-user. While something as simple as using a customer's first name across conversations can have instant gratification, the ability for teams to create effective templates can make scalable solutions possible. The main goal of customer support is to help provide a resolution to your end-user as quickly as possible. At these potential crunch points, you must take advantage of the opportunity to 'wow' your customer and improve their brand loyalty.

AI and the Future of Customer Support

Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing customer support. With so many technological advancements, AI is helping customer service teams by providing them with the best applicable practices, analyzing the sentiment for further automation, and creating delightful customer interactions. As AI continues to creep into the forefront of technological solutions, businesses that leverage this technology will be more prepared to meet the rising demands of customers and stay ahead in the competition for customer support.

Let’s look at AI’s role in the future of customer support.

AI’s role in sentiment analysis for understanding customer emotions

Using AI in customer support helps support teams gather consumer insights and understand their language. Sentimental analysis is like an emotional barometer that involves using algorithms to study and interpret language, intent, and sentiment within the conversation.

Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), the analysis determines whether a consumer is satisfied or frustrated, suggests the relevant response, and helps the customer service agents resolve issues faster.

Virtual agents and AI-powered chatbots for advanced issue resolution

Automated AI-powered chatbots and virtual agents also lead the charge in excellent customer support.

A staggering 80% of routine customer support questions can be handled by chatbots (Source: IBM), reducing the strain on human agents as it frees them up to deal with more complex or one-off issues. The flexibility granted by chatbots, such as working hours, time zones, and more, can reduce customer support fees by 30% (Source: IBM).

These digital assistants respond promptly to customer queries, handle issues, and offer advice to help customers make the best decisions without relying on human intervention.

The potential of AI in streamlining backend support processes

AI magic doesn’t end there. Behind the scenes, AI streamlines the process by identifying client issues, categorizing them based on complexity, and routing them to the right agent. By automating repetitive processes, AI lightens your team’s load so they can focus on more value-added tasks. Additionally, AI technology provides real-time insights and suggestions to support agents during customer interactions, which speed up resolution times and boost productivity.

Embracing Multi-channel Support

Whether marketing, sales, or customer service, businesses must be present wherever their customers are. However, is it achievable to support customers on all platforms? Plus, with the growing expectation of multi-language and multi-channel support, how can businesses provide support at scale?

Exploring diverse communication channels for customer engagement.

In the era of modern customer support, your customers should have a variety of communication channels to contact your business with their questions or concerns. You must employ multi-channel support to effectively engage with your customers when and where they need assistance.

Back in the 2010s, when X (previously known as Twitter) started becoming a way for disgruntled customers to vent their frustrations publicly, many support resolutions were bottle-necked by social media managers.

People often choose channels based on the complexity of their problems and how quickly they need a response. The ability to handle issues via email, phone, live chat, messaging, and social media (like X/Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger) gives customers the choice of how they want to contact your business.

Achieving omnichannel integration for seamless customer experiences

When Multichannel support evolves into omnichannel support, it becomes truly effective for providing seamless customer experiences. Around 70% of customers prefer organizations that deliver an omnichannel experience. Not only that. 67% of consumers utilize at least two to three different channels to engage with brands, and 87% of customers expect a consistent experience across all channels. Therefore, high-performing brands have adopted omnichannel integration.

An omnichannel customer support strategy provides customers with a unified experience from the first touchpoint to the closure of the issue. For example, if the customer starts a conversation on your live chat and continues it over email or social media, they shouldn’t have to repeat the complaint or details. With Deskpro’s customer support software, businesses can offer exceptional support. The powerful omnichannel helpdesk allows users to connect with brands on any channel.

Leveraging AI and chatbots to manage inquiries efficiently.

Businesses are leveraging AI technology to provide consistent 24/7 support to customers. AI and chatbots are transforming customer support by managing customer queries effectively across diverse channels and automating responses politely. By embracing these technological changes, marked improvements across consumer engagement, increased brand awareness, and customer loyalty can be seen, with a much smaller investment.

The Human Touch in Tech-Savvy Support

According to a study in 2019, 86% of consumers preferred to interact with a human, rather than an AI chatbot. However, since 2019 there have been huge leaps in AI technology as well as adoption across many applications and industries. ChatGPT is the most obvious one, that even your elderly relative has heard about.

The future of humans and automation in customer support is all about balancing what is right for the end-user. Ultimately, what do we all want when we ask a question? A quick answer to solve our problem, that we can trust is correct.

Achieving a balance between automation and human interactions.

While AI and automation have highly improved productivity and response times, it’s worth remembering that human interactions still matter. Automation can handle routine inquiries and tasks, freeing your customer service agents to focus on complex issues.

However, it’s crucial to understand that customers demand a human touch, especially when empathy, emotional intelligence, decision-making, and understanding come into play. Striking the right balance between automation and human customer interactions can create a well-rounded customer experience.

Importance of empathy and emotional intelligence in support.

Let's be frank. How often do you get in touch with customer support, unprompted to tell them they are doing a great job? Probably close to zero. Often when customers get in touch with support, it is because something has gone wrong, needs to be fixed, or generally giving feedback (that something isn't quite right).

We have to remember, that whilst we may be sitting behind a customer service software tool providing support to our own brand, we are also on the other side of the fence as a customer. The key to providing great customer support is how the customer feels before, during, and after their interaction with your team.

Empathy and emotional intelligence are at the forefront of understanding a customer's problem and communicating with them how you can help. Helpdesk software tools like Deskpro, provide agents with the full context of customer history, open tickets, and general requirements. By leveraging tools, customer support teams can scale those relationships between a customer and the business, as agents can respond effectively and emotionally to support a client, with the benefit of relationship history during the interaction.

Empowering agents with technology for more effective assistance.

For most customer support roles, technical skills are as necessary as soft skills. Whilst the level of specialization required to work with helpdesk software, differs depending on the level and exact role, being able to work productively is crucial.

Tools like Deskpro, offer a wealth of automation tools, that can help support staff to boost their effectiveness and efficiency.

Technical skills are as necessary as soft skills. Technical support requires a level of specialization in products and services, which may result in repetitive work over time. So, it is crucial to empower support agents with the right technology and tools to do their job well. It includes giving them access to real-time analytics, consumer data, and a unified workspace. This empowerment and technology can help support agents provide more effective assistance by having instant access to relevant information.

In addition, technology enables them to focus on engaging parts of jobs, such as customer’s needs and emotions, and providing personalized support that combines the best of human and technological expertise.

Deskpro, for example, offers a wealth of automation tools that help support staff boost their support capabilities and succeed in their jobs.

Measuring Customer Support Success Regularly

Regularly evaluating customer support metrics allows businesses to keep an insightful eye on their customer experience, preventing it from declining. Tracking key metrics provides the correct benchmarks to ensure you are meeting customers’ expectations and delivering excellent customer service.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) for assessing support effectiveness.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are crucial tools for measuring customer support effectiveness. What you decide to track or focus on is completely down to your own desired outputs. All support metrics can be useful, but the most successful teams focus on just a few core KPIs that help to move the needle and boost customer satisfaction levels.

By tracking KPIs, you can measure your support team’s impact, whether that is responsiveness or resolution time, building your own customer support health score across your helpdesk.

Monitoring metrics like CSAT, NPS, First Response Time (FRT), etc.

Some reliable and top KPIs for assessing customer support performance are CSAT, NPS, FRT, and churn rates. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score shows customers’ satisfaction with the support they receive. It is measured by sending customer satisfaction surveys.

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Additionally, Net Promoter Score (NPS) evaluates customer loyalty and their willingness to recommend the brand. First Response Time (FRT) First Response Time (FRT) captures how quickly support agents respond to requests or tickets. Monitoring these metrics gives a real-time view of customer satisfaction and support team efficiency.

Deskpro CRM helpdesk software enables you to track team progress and analyze customer support metrics.

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Collecting and analyzing customer feedback for continuous improvement.

Collecting customer feedback is the best way to measure customer support success and improve the service. Actively collecting and analyzing feedback through social media comments, surveys, Google reviews, and post-interaction emails allows businesses to learn more about customers’ perspectives.

The feedback analysis helps uncover areas of excellence and areas for improvement. The powerful method of measuring success and expanding it is through continuous improvement based on customer feedback, which also elevates the support experience.

Empowering Agents for Excellence

Empowerment of customer support agents for excellence is important for businesses to go the extra mile in customer support experience. The secret to delivering top-notch support is to empower your support teams and agents.

Businesses that adopt team empowerment strategies can better engage customers and increase their satisfaction. Increased satisfaction affects brand credibility, the company’s revenue, and customer retention rates. Here are the ways to empower your support agents to deliver great customer service:

Developing comprehensive training programs for support agents.

Empowering agents begins with conducting comprehensive training programs. The training program should cover adequate product knowledge, technical skills, communication skills, interpersonal skills, perseverance at the workplace, and problem-solving skills. As technology has improved, the type of training required has also evolved. Think of the legendary London Taxi (Black Cab) test 'The Knowledge' that takes about 3 - 4 years to pass. Previously seen as the pinnacle and required test to be a taxi driver in London. Then came SatNavs, and then came the likes of Google Maps. Whilst an Uber driver may not have to revise for 3 years to pass a test if anything they are under the microscope even more. With every ride forming part of a review system, providing a great service is paramount.

Equipping agents with the right tools and resources.

Support agents need the right customer service tools to excel in their jobs. They include live chat software, email helpdesk software such as Deskpro, CRM systems, automation tools, survey tools, AI-powered chatbots, and webcams.

Using these customer support tools helps employees deliver better service and encourages customers to interact with your brand more positively.

Fostering a problem-solving culture to enhance support quality.

Here at Deskpro, we focus on collaboration when it comes to problem-solving. Every team member, especially our customer support team, is empowered to be 'Curious Proactive Problem Solvers.'

By providing agents with the responsibility and trust to solve customer issues, team education increases faster as well as the speed to resolution for a customer, without the need to double and triple check issues every time.

Customer support teams should be encouraged to collaborate, share knowledge, contribute ideas with others, make decisions, and learn from other’s experiences.

When agents feel empowered to make decisions and contribute to a brand’s success, they are more involved in providing high-quality support.

Building Long-term Customer Relationships

Ultimately, everything that a customer support or customer success team is aiming to do, should lead to building long-term customer relationships.

There will always be bumps in the road. If there weren't, then there would be no need for customer support teams and no need for customer support software.

The businesses that will continue to thrive, irrespective of the economic climate, are those with a heavy focus on improving genuine customer satisfaction and loyalty which in turn will result in higher retention of clients and higher profitability.

Transforming support interactions into relationship-building opportunities.

Any interaction that you have with your customers, is an opportunity to build on a long-term customer relationship. Customer support agents should view every interaction with a customer as a chance to engage, connect, and understand them, as well as gather information.

Service reps can create positive emotional experiences that leave lasting impressions by actively listening, making customers feel special, delivering real-time support, and providing personalized solutions. As a result of these interactions, customers are more likely to return and engage with the brand over time.

Leveraging customer feedback to improve products and services.

Customer feedback is a valuable resource to help facilitate building strong relationships with your customers. It can also provide invaluable information on how your consumers feel about your brand or products. You can collect this data through reviews, surveys, comments, or social listening.

Analyze this information to make more innovative and customer-centric decisions for your business. They include improving products and services and simplifying processes that impact customer experience.

Positive and negative customer feedback highlight your business strengths and areas where you need to improve. Implementing this feedback will show consumers that you value their opinions.

Linking exceptional support to increased customer loyalty.

When you provide exceptional support by thoroughly understanding your customer needs, you boost the customer satisfaction levels. Highly satisfied customers become loyal customers and loyal brand advocates.

Loyal customers increase your customer base through word-of-mouth marketing and make repeat purchases. This loyalty is built on trust and excellent experiences, which are the essence of long-term customer relationships.

Where is the future of effective customer support leading us?

As we have discovered, customer support is about adaptability and the ability of a business to use technology to help with providing a human-centered customer service experience at scale, for every customer. So whether you're looking for a new or just an improved software solution for your customer support department, keep in mind the following key points:

1. Multi-channel
2. Help Center / Knowledgebase
3. Customization
4. Productivity & AI
5. Data Security

Building your new helpdesk software around those 5 key points will enable you to get to inbox zero, answer any customer FAQ more easily, provide a personalized service, and prioritize a collaborative approach to delight customers and resolve their problems. And, by standing out with a mixture of human empathy and productivity tools, your support team will stand out with a reputation that you help your customers with incredible support.

Looking for the best customer support software? Deskpro can help you deliver exceptional customer support, whether you are a small, growing, or large team!