October 23, 2018
by Sawaram Suthar / October 23, 2018
Running a business without tangible results is a waste of scarce resources.
Employees are hired in the workplace to drive productivity. However, it takes the collective efforts of both employers and employees to attain desired success.
Productivity in customer service and support can be measured by the impact of your service on customers. In a study conducted by Bain & Company, 80 percent of companies are confident that their customer service is superior.
However, the majority of customers have a different opinion, as only 8 percent of them agree. It is either these companies are unaware of the realities or feigning ignorance.
A NewVoiceMedia research states that companies in the U.S. lost an estimated $62 billion to poor customer service in 2016. Such a huge loss can be prevented by building an efficient support team.
Here are 5 Ways to Keep Your Customer Support Team Productive:
Research conducted at Stanford University shows that multitasking kills the human brain by lowering IQ. It creates an illusion of increased productivity and time management. You think that engaging in multiple activities at the same time gives better results, as opposed to engaging in just one.
A multitasking report published by the American Psychological Association debunks that assertion, revealing that multitasking is counterproductive. Switching tasks sends mixed signals to the brain, slowing down its speed.
For example, when you are talking on the phone and typing on your computer at the same time, your typing speed reduces, as you try to separate what you are typing from what you are saying. You might end up mixing things up.
Prioritize activities: When faced with multiple tasks, there is the pressure to get everything done at once. All tasks may be important, but on different levels. Learn how to prioritize by creating a priority list, and stick to it.
Set boundaries: Focusing is easier said than done, especially when there are many distractions. Research shows that emails, social media and the internet are major distractions in the workplace. Employees are regularly checking things online at the detriment of the work they are paid to do.
Finish before starting: Leaving work halfway done and moving on to other tasks litters your desk. Abandoned projects slow workflow. Support agents can reduce the number of customers on the queue by completing one order before taking up another. For more resources on avoiding multitasking, learn how to work smarter, not harder in the workplace.
Smart work makes hard work easier. Using the right customer service software enables support team personnel to render optimal services.
According to a NetCall study, one in 10 customers look elsewhere if businesses do not respond to their complaints the first time. Digital technology fine-tunes work processes. It is more productive to use a digital knowledge base of support issues to provide a solution to customer inquiries than flipping through bulky sheets of paper.
In an Employee Recognition: Low Cost, High Impact report, only one in three workers in the U.S strongly agree that they are recognized for their good work at the workplace.
Support agents and customers enjoy mutually stimulating interactions when there is emotional convergence via employee engagement strategies. These agents drive the conversation and are able to engage customers on that level when they are motivated.
A problem can only be completely solved when the person in charge is empowered. About 32 percent of customer agents say they do not have sufficient knowledge about customer inquiries. It makes one wonder what exactly they are doing in their positions. Plus, with the growing power of customer voice, there is so much at stake with an incompetent team.
Having support representatives that are not empowered to offer solutions to customers is as good as having none. The longer the steps to a resolution are, the more ineffective your services become.
In a Workplace Accountability Study, 85 percent of respondents state that they do not clearly understand the top three-to-four key results of their organization.
Everyone likes the idea of success, but just a few have the enthusiasm to do the work. Humans, by nature, prefer to take the easy route.
When you give your support team agents the freehand to work at their convenience and own terms, you create room for procrastination. They will choose the easiest tasks and shy away from the more difficult ones – thereby, stalling the workflow.
Holding them accountable for their actions spurs them to be productive.
Sustainable growth is hardly accidental. It’s a product of thoughtful thinking and planning. Building a product support team entails putting the seemingly little things in perspective. When there are no loopholes, every drop counts for something.
Channeling efforts toward becoming customer-centric fastens the process. Measure performance through feedback. And remember, support agents are motivated to work harder knowing that their contributions are yielding positive results.
Sawaram Suthar is head of marketing at Acquire and a founder of Jagat Media. As a digital marketing consultant, he has experience in things including branding, promotions, and page optimization, along with research and strategy. He has an MBA from the University of Pune.
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Chatbots are reshaping what customer support is supposed to be.
It’s no longer a secret that remote employees work more productively than office-based workers.