The Language of Success
Studies have shown that some words have a greater effect on people than others. Just as "free" and "sale" entice consumers to buy, there are key words and phrases that we as customer support professionals can sprinkle into our calls and online help desk responses to make customers feel as warm and cozy as they do in their Snuggies at night.
Without a Doubt
No one likes to hear wishy-washy answers to their questions. But when customers ring up the customer support call center to ask for assistance, words like "definitely" and "absolutely" are music to their ears and show them you've got the can-do positive attitude to make things happen.
Customer Support Case Study: Charles Walgreen
One of the best ways to both create a positive experience for your customers and provide them with exceptional support is to study real-world examples of business leaders who made customers their priority. There's nothing wrong with modeling your own company and customer support department after one that has seen a great deal of success. And when it comes to customer service, we here at FuseDesk think it's rare to find any business founder as diligent and successful as Mr. Charles Walgreen, founder of the national Walgreens drugstore chain.
Taking Note
According to Walgreens.com, Charles Walgreen worked at a variety of drugstores prior to opening his own, and though he may not have realized it at the time, each new job he took was an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of those before him. Walgreen was increasingly disappointed in each drugstore's lack of commitment to their customers, so he began hatching a plan for how he would improve efficiency and customer service in his own store.
Owners: Customer Support Begins with You
It can be easy to forget yourself when you're the big kahuna of the office, but no matter how big your paycheck is, you've got to set a good example for those who work for you to keep your business afloat.
Head honcho status aside, always remember that customer support begins with you, and your actions have the ability to make or break your team, which in turn can affect your business.
It’s the Little Things That Count in Customer Support
We often focus on the customers in need, those who are having a problem, the squeaky wheels. But how often are we simply reaching out with unprecedented customer support, just to check in on those who are ultimately responsible for keeping us all gainfully employed?
Sometimes a simple thank you email is the most influential thing a company can do to earn a customer's continued loyalty and support.
Infusionsoft Action Sets Now in FuseDesk!
Officially as of this morning, Infusionsoft Action Sets are fully online in all FuseDesk accounts. This powerful new feature allows you to run automation on a contact right from inside of FuseDesk and automatically attach the results of the actions to the case history.
Now, as you and your support team are providing World Class Customer Support to your customers, you can run automation to tag or untag the contact, start or stop a follow up sequence, start or stop a campaign, create an order or subscription, cancel a subscription, create an opportunity and so much more.
Customer Support and Joint Ventures
This week we gained some insight from customer support expert DeAnna Rogers in Austin, Texas. DeAnna not only provides customer support on a regular basis, but she also seeks out companies with whom she’d like to mutually benefit through joint ventures, so she’s got a unique perspective on how customer support can make or break a potentially advantageous business opportunity.
We hope you’ll find her wisdom helpful in strengthening your own interactions with customers and potential colleagues!
What’s a Joint Venture?
Joint ventures (JVs) are speaking or webinar opportunities that match people who are selling a product with a list of prospective buyers. An industry expert on lining up and organizing JVs, DeAnna travels to networking events a few times a year to look for representatives from companies who will host a webinar on her behalf – and vice versa. This is a great way to grow your business!
Mid-February 2012 Updates
We've rolled out a few important updates recently that you'll now notice in your FuseDesk Application. Specifically auto-responders are now auto-filed, pages load faster, and new cases are created better.
Auto Responders: Tired of those pesky "Out of Office", "Auto Reply" and "Verification" messages? FuseDesk now filters for the most common auto responders and automatically files these messages making the time you spend reviewing Unassigned emails all the more productive.
Fear not, the messages are never deleted. You can always find these message under the Advanced Search.
Page Loading: Did you notice that we got a bit faster as of late? It wasn't your imagination! FuseDesk now lets your browser keep a local cached copy of your templates, reps and departments so that we spend less time loading them up on every page request. This is a dramatic speed improvement, especially if your Infusionsoft application has a lot of templates.
How to Use Social Media to Deliver Stellar Customer Service (Guest Post by Ali Brown)
You're probably familiar with this scenario: You log onto Facebook, post a cool factoid of the day for your community to process during their morning coffee break. And, by 3pm, among the dozens of comments and likes your post has generated, there it is - a random comment along the lines of: "I ordered my product last week, but I haven’t received it yet!" or "I tried to order one of your products but the order won’t go through."
As business owners, we must accept the fact that our online presence opens us up to 24-hour customer service requests. They come in as emails, Facebook wall posts, Tweets, and even instant chats on Facebook and Google. And, if you’re not prepared for these requests, you could risk harming valuable customer relationships in front of your entire community—a community full of existing or potential customers. It’s critical that you and your team maintain a high standard when handling customer service issues via social media
And that’s what today’s article is all about.
Customer Support, Sealed with a K.I.S.S.
Whether it’s within your online help desk or in emails, when it comes to providing information for your customers, there’s one hard and fast rule – make it short and sweet. Or, as my mother always says, “Keep It Simple, Shapiro.”
You may have a tendency to be verbose in person – who doesn’t like to talk? – but your customers want answers, not anecdotes. Over-explaining a simple task can make your instructions lost in translation.
Example: Those little tags in your clothes that tell you how to launder them. “Wash cold with like colors” and “Dry clean only” are direct and to the point. But if I instead explained that when turning on your washing machine you should set the dial to cold and flip your shirt inside out, then pour 1 cup of detergent in with other clothes before shutting the door and switching the machine to start, it takes much more of your time and energy to find the key word – cold.
Plus, when’s the last time you sat down and read a full license agreement when downloading to the latest version of iTunes or Quicktime? Most of us don’t have that kind of time on our hands, so you’ve got to assume your customers don’t either.
Anticipating Customer Support Issues
It’s a new year and you know what that means – time to hit the gym for a couple weeks until another New Year’s
resolution bites the dust. However, when it comes to your company, it’s best not to sweep your 2012 goals under the rug. Hit the ground running and grow a loyal client base by enhancing your customer support program.
One of the best ways to ensure that you’re offering the best support possible is to anticipate customer support requests and questions before issues arise. Because take it from us, there’s only one thing worse than an angry customer – lots of angry customers!