Clients ought to at all times come first, however that may be simpler stated than finished. Once you’re a assist supervisor or staff lead at a startup, you’re keenly conscious that assets are finite and time is restricted.
In the event you’ve made it right here, you’re in all probability questioning: What sorts of buyer communication instruments can be found? How can they make it easier to save time and streamline workflows? And the way do you determine which choices are proper on your particular area of interest and consumers?
On this publish, we’ve compiled seven options to take a look at. These buyer communication instruments are scalable, easy-to-use, budget-conscious, and canopy quite a lot of floor for rising companies.
1. A Helpdesk Constructed for Small Companies
Telephone calls, emails, social media inquiries — your corporation in all probability offers with many alternative channels. Maintaining all of them organized could be a trouble, and stop you from providing top-quality customer support.
Are you able to view every part in an organized place? Do you might have a streamlined workflow? Or does your staff have to leap between platforms and lose effectivity in consequence?
Helpdesk software is among the most indispensable buyer communication instruments. Consumers count on individualized communication and a fantastic expertise, and an easy-to-use helpdesk can function the spine for connecting your corporation and prospects.
A helpdesk directs communication from a number of assist channels right into a shared, multi-user inbox:
The time period “ticketing system” is usually used interchangeably with “helpdesk,” as each funnel customer support requests into one place as “tickets” or “instances”. Nevertheless, ticketing methods are sometimes extra restrictive, whereas helpdesks present every part your assist staff wants to speak with each other and with prospects.
After all, many well-liked helpdesk instruments aren’t properly suited to smaller companies. They are often troublesome to arrange and be taught, over-complicated with pointless bells and whistles, or poorly supported (until you pay for premium service).
That’s why we constructed Groove! Our helpdesk is an easy-to-use yet powerful solution for buyer communication. With it, you may handle, delegate, and arrange conversations utilizing:
- Simple workflows
- Automation choices
- Customizable guidelines
- Templates and canned responses
- Inner notes
- Ticket historical past and buyer knowledge
On the finish of the day, the purpose of your corporation’ assist staff is to promptly tackle buyer considerations and inquiries. Groove offers vital options to facilitate that work, however nonetheless feels acquainted in case you’re used to an email client like Gmail or Outlook.
Groove can be a scalable platform, so it grows along with your firm. Plus, it integrates with quite a lot of well-liked buyer communication instruments, together with lots of the ones mentioned beneath. Meaning it serves because the hub for a complete customer support technique.
2. Scheduling Software program
In terms of assist, some prospects nonetheless desire a human contact. And plenty of companies profit from offering voice/video chat choices, particularly in case you provide demos or encounter quite a lot of advanced points which might be laborious to handle by way of textual content.
Typically the best perception can come from talking on to shoppers face-to-face (or screen-to-screen) as an alternative of over electronic mail. An off-the-cuff setting is a perfect panorama for honesty and open communication.
Moderately than play cellphone tag or waste time on back-and-forth emails, scheduling software program helps consumers and shoppers simply choose occasions to talk with you. For instance, Calendly permits you to ship prospects a hyperlink to allow them to choose obtainable occasions at their comfort:
Reminders and notifications are handled routinely. Plus, the UX is intuitive, so it’s straightforward to get arrange. Zoom assembly hyperlinks, reference materials, and cellphone numbers might be included through the scheduling course of:
With free and low-cost choices, Calendly is a strong alternative in case you want a schedule planner that’s versatile and streamlined. It additionally helps a number of cost gateways (in case you provide paid consulting classes, for instance), and integrates with other customer communication tools like Groove.
3. Social Media Platforms
Social media is a totally free communication and marketing channel for your corporation. Many firms deal with the latter, however the former is simply as consequential.
Even in case you’re not focusing on social media audiences with adverts or different advertising and marketing methods, customers will attain out when you’ve got any type of enterprise web page. Many individuals discover contacting firms by Instagram, Twitter, or Fb handy, so it’s essential to maintain that choice open for them.
Usually, prospects will ask for a similar assist by way of social platforms that they might by electronic mail correspondence. Nevertheless, they count on outcomes a lot sooner. You’ll be able to keep away from the necessity to monitor every platform continuously by connecting them to your helpdesk:
As a way for delivering omnichannel assist, this protects you time and ensures that no messages go lacking. Plus, it means you don’t need to direct prospects who attain out by social media to ship you an electronic mail – if that have been their most well-liked channel, they’d have finished so already.
With Groove, when prospects message you through social media channels like Fb Messenger, they’ll instantly present up as conversations in your assist inbox. In the event you’ve been cautious of utilizing social media platforms as buyer communication instruments because of the time funding, this simplifies your workflows and allows you to be extra current on your viewers.
4. NPS Monitoring Device
Up to now, we’ve spoken at size concerning the worth in sending out a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey to your prospects. NPS capabilities as a “snapshot” of buyer satisfaction. It’s one of many easiest metrics to implement and measure, and illuminates many facets of the client journey.
Extra particularly, it measures the chance {that a} buyer will suggest your services or products, and permits them to supply actionable suggestions:
A platform like Delighted can combine along with your helpdesk to make leveraging this metric easy. NPS is calculated primarily based on responses to a easy query, as follows:
- Clients reply to a single query survey, which you’ll be able to routinely ship out by way of Groove.
- They charge your product/service, and ship again written suggestions.
- The suggestions seems in your dashboard, the place you may see each the fundamental metrics and the detailed responses.
Your customer support staff can reply to good and dangerous evaluations alike, or use the interior be aware Delighted provides to supply tailor-made customer support. This type of suggestions is significant for enhancing the general buyer expertise and ensuring individuals really feel heard.
5. E-mail Advertising and marketing Platform
Whereas technically a promotional device, electronic mail advertising and marketing can be utilized by your buyer assist staff for proactive communication.
You’ll be able to ship out emails about scheduled upkeep, downtime, product updates, or new options to present prospects. Relying in your platform, you could possibly create segmented lists as properly. This allows you to provide highly-specific communications – for instance, sending out particulars on find out how to use new options solely to the consumers of a selected product.
After all, you’ll must construct up an electronic mail listing first. For that, we’d suggest Mailchimp:
This specific platform is inexpensive and straightforward to be taught. Plus, it’s helpful for extra than simply electronic mail advertising and marketing campaigns. Integrations mean you can entry subscriber lists instantly out of your helpdesk, the place you too can edit subscription statuses:
Integrating Mailchimp with Groove additionally allows you to:
- Establish buyer mailing lists subscriptions from each ticket
- View buyer profiles for mailing lists
- Subscribe/unsubscribe prospects from mailing lists, with out leaving the inbox
6. Enterprise Telephone System
Telephone calls could seem to be an outdated type of customer support. But it surely’s nonetheless an choice that many purchasers count on, particularly in case you’re an online-only enterprise.
If your organization does provide cellphone assist, it’s price investing in a device that optimizes this channel. It’s additionally a good suggestion to ensure it’s built-in along with your different buyer communication instruments. Calls don’t depart a paper path (often), so it may be straightforward to overlook or overlook to comply with up on them.
An excellent place to start out is with JustCall, a cloud-based resolution:
It affords a variety of options and choices, together with:
- Inbound and outbound calling
- Voicemail transcription
- SMS & MMS
- Stay name monitoring
- Name/SMS analytics
- Clever routing
- APIs and webhooks
JustCall can even connect to your helpdesk, to maintain all communications centralized. It manages prospects, name information, and logs, then synchronizes every part with Groove:
Your staff’s name logs and recordings are accessible out of your Groove dashboard and shared mailboxes. Conversations are matched with present buyer profiles, which is particularly helpful when the identical prospects attain out by a number of channels. You’ll be able to see their full histories, and supply more practical, personalised service.
7. On-line Discussion board
Whereas assist boards may appear a bit antiquated, you solely have to have a look at the success of platforms like Reddit and Quora to know the potential buyer worth. Group message boards are nonetheless alive and properly.
Collaborating in communities your audience frequents is an effective way to develop your model. Nevertheless, you too can profit from constructing your individual neighborhood area.
Boards are wonderful buyer communication instruments. They:
- Supply a devoted place for purchasers to listen to updates, ask questions, air considerations, and so forth
- Allow for self-service – devoted customers may help reply questions for you, lowering assist inquiries and tickets
Happily, as of late there are platforms that allow you to handle a neighborhood simply and cheaply. In the event you don’t provide this channel on your prospects but, Discourse is a strong choice:
1000’s of manufacturers use Discourse for discussion board creation, together with Unreal Engine, Asana, and Zoom. Due to its consumer demographics, it’s an particularly good match for SaaS firms and different tech-focused small companies. Discourse affords a free open-source model, in addition to plans with extra customizable performance.
As soon as arrange, a discussion board is virtually self-sufficient. In case your neighborhood grows massive sufficient, you may even supply moderators from amongst its customers. Nevertheless, we’d suggest sustaining an official presence and ensuring your viewers is aware of the discussion board is an open line of communication proper to the supply.
Home All Your Buyer Communication Instruments in One Place
The extra buyer communication instruments you make use of, the extra obtainable you’re to potential and present consumers. On the similar time, managing many alternative platforms takes time away from different essential duties.
We’d suggest just a few choices at a time, primarily based on what’s most related to your corporation’ distinctive wants. Begin with the necessities, and work your method as much as the nice-to-haves. It’s a good suggestion to survey your present buyer base first, to see what communication channels they like.
Plus, don’t overlook that lots of the above options might be housed under one roof with Groove! Our buyer assist dashboard retains every part in a single place, so you may talk successfully and effectively regardless of how individuals attain out.
