How efficient customer service affects your bottom line

Your customer service agents might be hard workers, but if systems are preventing them from being productive, hard work might not equate to efficient work. While it doesn’t make sense to switch software every time something new and shiny surfaces, if workflows or systems are holding your employees back it might be time to reconsider the software you use.

But what exactly does it mean to work efficiently? In an ideal world, efficient work means achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort. When it comes to maximizing customer service productivity, streamlined customer interactions and cost-effective software are your best friends. If your support agents have the right tools, they are more likely to be efficient, and in turn your customer service is bound to improve—along with your company’s bottom line.

The benefits of working smarter in customer support, not harder:

1. Reduced customer service costs

   
   When customers are unhappy they often return items and your company ends up spending a lot of time and money to make up for a disappointing experience. Investing more in your company’s customer support can actually reduce the cost of your company’s customer service in the long run. According to Harvard Business Review, Sprint reduced customer care costs by 33% after focusing on improving the customer experience. When agents have the right tools, they are able to help more customers more efficiently, saving your business from scrambling to resolve customer service fiascos. Investing in customer support can help prevent fiascos from happening in the first place.

2. Increased customer retention

   
   If your customers are happy, they’re more likely to stick around, or keep coming back. According to Harvard Business Review, a subscription-based business study showed that customers who had top experiences had a 74% chance of remaining a subscription member for at least another year. Similarly, according to a Dimensional Research survey commissioned by Zendesk, 62% of B2B and 42% of B2C customers purchased more after a good customer service experience. Yet, when customers have a bad experience they aren’t afraid to go elsewhere. 66% of B2B and 52% of B2C customers stopped buying after a bad customer service interaction. Customer service experiences can have lasting effects. Equipping support agents with the right tools can help ensure your company offers the good kind of experience—not the bad.

3. Happy customers drive sales

   
   Agent efficiency can also impact conversion rates and how much customers spend. In the same study, Harvard Business Review found that good customer experiences drives sales. Based on customer feedback and future spending by individual customers, HBR found that customers that had the best experiences spend 140% more compared to those who had the poorest experience. Whether your business is transactional or subscription-based, HBR found that customer experience drives sales as well as membership length.

When it comes to efficient customer service and good customer experiences, having the right tools is a must. In a recent study conducted by Forrester and commissioned by Zendesk, Forrester explored the potential return on investment from implementing Zendesk’s family of products in Forrester’s The Total Economic Impact^TM of Zendesk. Forrester found that Zendesk implementation led to improved average call length by 15 seconds each year, streamlined customer interactions through automated email responses, and an ROI of 390 percent.

Read more about the potential ROI of Zendesk’s family of products in Forrester’s The Total Economic Impact^TM of Zendesk

More of a listener than a reader? Check out our upcoming webinar, From Cost Center to Profit Center: the Potential ROI of Zendesk