How Can Client Support and Customer Care Automation Help Increase Retention?

Customer support is really the provision of support to clients prior, during, and even after a sale. The whole perception of success of these interactions depends on how staff “can adapt themselves to the client’s personality”. But the truth is that customer support has become so automated that it loses the ‘personal touch’ factor that made customer service so unique. However, there are still some effective ways to deliver personalised support which are worth considering.

Human being intervention is essential for customer support. When a problem is faced by a user, it is important that the person understands the problem and his position in the organization. This is critical because often the technical support people have been trained to give a generic response to all types of problems. This may seem trivial but it leads to poor customer satisfaction. When a person does not fully understand what is required, he cannot provide the best possible solution. So try to involve human beings in the technical support process as much as possible.

Another way to make sure that an individualized response is provided is to send the right message. The right message at the right time can make a big difference to the customer’s satisfaction. An example of this is the “happy customer” program launched by Microsoft decades ago. Here, when a person bought a Microsoft product, his representative was sent a letter of happiness by email. However, the program was later found to be ineffective because people often forgot that they had actually received an email message and many simply deleted it.

Live chat is also a great customer support tool and can be used to increase customer retention. Live chat operators are able to personalise the customer service experience for each customer according to the requirements. For instance, some companies send their representatives to train their customers on new features they have introduced. Other companies offer training materials and guides for their customers, which help them to use the particular features to their advantage, thus increasing retention.

Customer support automation is also useful for getting a better response from customers. It enables agents to handle multiple support queries and questions simultaneously with the click of a button. This is done by customising the software application for each business according to its requirements.

With proper customer service design, organizations are able to increase retention. They can use personalized customer experience tools and call centres to increase customer satisfaction, and even to ensure that new clients are motivated. Moreover, automated customer care solutions provide an effective tool for training and improving customer service.