Customer Service response time is a key performance indicator that many businesses have to keep track of. If you are having a hard time with your response times, then these tips below are going to help that rate skyrocket!
Software
When you first assess your response time it’s important to remember that the use of software can decrease the amount of time that you spend creating or mining for data. Not only that, but having different kinds of software will allow you to develop multiple ways of reaching out to your customers. Also there are many best free shopify apps which you can use for quick response to your customers.
Autoresponders
Auto responders are one of the best ways to respond to your customers. The amount of answers that you can have available for your customers on this type of system is endless! One of the best ways to use an autoresponder is when customers need help with more simple tasks such as canceling orders or getting answers to common questions.
Set an Average Response Time
Another way to help yourself save time, is to set an average response time that you want to have for every type of communication. There are plenty of web applications and softwares that are able to help you track that response time. However if you don’t have access to them, you can set email reminders within most email platforms.
When it comes to things like phone calls you may have to physically track the time. Online platforms such as Facebook and Instagram more often than not track the time already for you. Work on your response times over weeks rather than days in order to catch up on any backlog you may have.
Templates and Text shortcuts
A great way to help your customer service team as well as yourself is to provide a series of templates to common questions.
Introduction emails, conclusion emails, introduction scripts, and more are going to be great ways to help your employees. Text shortcuts are also very helpful because they can be copied and pasted to text platforms.
Use a Prioritization System
Every ticket that is submitted and every call that is made has a priority level. What you have to determine is what that priority level is for you and for your business.
Someone’s question or concern may be a lower priority than another person’s. When you optimize your response time this way, you’re able to get through the more difficult situations faster so that way you can quickly assist the remaining customers
Give Thorough Training
Proper intense training is perhaps one of the most underutilized ways of helping customer service teams. Having training that covers product details, the intentions of the company, the goals of the company, and the attitude of the company will help customer service teams better respond to customers.
Training should always include some form of practice as well so that way customer service representatives can have a chance to work with any new information, processes, or skills.
Have Many Types of Canned Responses
Canned responses are extremely important for text bots. Autoresponders also use canned responses to help customers with orders, quick questions, and various other needs. The more canned responses you have, the more you are going to be able to have a higher response rate to your customers.
They get the instant response from the auto responder, the canned responses that answers their questions, and if necessary they can then connect to a customer service representative via the email or by phone such as those that can be contacted through Global Messaging’s telephone answering service.
Utilize Omnichannel Support
Omnichannel support is being able to assist your customers through multiple outlets such as e-mail, Facebook, Instagram, and any other social media platform that your business is currently on.
When you have multiple ways of communicating with your customers, this means that you can respond to them at a faster rate than you would if you only had one system. This is because omnichannel support usually requires multiple people to manage each support stream. When each support stream is managed by a different person, this means that you have a higher customer response rate
Have a Knowledge Base Ready
Part of having a faster response rate is also making sure that your customers are informed. The vast majority of customers do prefer a knowledge base where they can at least start searching for the problem that they’re facing.
Once they have found the details of the problem that they are facing, this then lets them pinpoint the exact issue. Once they can pinpoint the exact issue, or close enough, then the customer can better help the customer service representative find a solution.
Conclusion
A great deal of response time revolves around helping the customer help themselves. This is through canned responses as well as knowledge bases.
Having these resources available allows the customer to remain independent as well as help customer service representatives if they still aren’t able to figure out the issue at hand. Implementing each of these different strategies are great ways to up your customer response time.
