Expectations for customer service and support have never been higher. And they’re going up faster than ever before.
Companies that aren’t skilled at how to handle customer service requests risk alienating customers and may struggle to stay competitive. However, companies that deliver exceptional service can benefit tremendously from keeping customers happy.
In fact, a recent report captures people’s perceptions of customer service and reveals just how important it is to effectively deal with customer requests. The numbers are eye-opening:
Fifty-four percent of customers say they make decisions based on their experience with customer service. Nearly 20% say it’s the most important factor.
Sixty-eight percent of customers will pay more for a product or service when it comes from a company with a reputation for delivering great customer service.
Ninety-two percent of customers will switch to a different product of service provider after three or fewer bad experiences with customer service. More than 25% will switch after one bad experience.
Nearly 60% of customers value personalization over speed when it comes to quality of service.
The average customer contacts customer service between one and five times a year. Customers use an average of three different channels to contact support. Channels used include phone, email, social media, chat, and online FAQs.
Eighty percent of customers will recommend a company after a good customer service experience.
The benefits of delivering great customer service are many, and the penalties for getting it wrong are steep. Companies looking for a solution for how to deal with customer complaints and requests often employ help desk software.
Help desk software is a set of tools that allow companies to track, prioritize, and solve customer problems. Help desks give customer service agents access to everything they need to deliver fast, personalized support in one place. These solutions work by using an interactive ticketing system to keep track of requests.
One of the most powerful things about help desk software is that it collects every interaction a customer has with support agents in one place. This makes it possible for agents to deliver the fast, personal support that customers want to quickly and easily resolve their issues.
The best help desk software delivers omnichannel support. That means it gives agents access to customer records no matter what channel they used to contact customer support. Whether a customer reached out via email, phone, in-person, live chat, or even on social media, help desks bring all these interactions together in one place.
There are six main types of help desk software available for companies wondering how to deal with customer service requests: web-based, enterprise, internal, on-premises, open source, and cloud-based. Each solution has a specific set of benefits depending on the size, complexity, and nature of a company’s unique customer service needs.
Help desk software can benefit companies of all sizes – from multinational enterprises supporting millions of customers in multiple languages, to small businesses that need an out-of-the-box solution they can manage themselves without hiring an army of support reps.
Learn more about how to handle customer service requests.
