Helping customers remotely. For some companies, the most normal thing in the world for years, for others something that they are forced to learn because of the corona virus. In many industries it is possible to offer online support and it benefits both you and your customers.
24/7 digital self-support
You can offer online support through a support site, a customer portal, or an app. In all cases, it comes down to offering your customers the opportunity of digital, self-support at any time. This brings us to the three major benefits of online support:
- Open 24/7: customers do not depend on your opening hours, but solve their problems and raise their questions whenever they want to.
- Digital: no need for customers to travel to the office or store, or to hang on the phone endlessly. They can simply access the support environment with a phone, tablet or PC.
- Self-support: Customers can find answers to questions themselves, check documentation and read instructions. They don't need you.
"To provide top quality support, you should consider online support as an extra option for customers."
What should you pay attention to in a support site?
A few things to take care of when offering online support:
- Security: the website must be secure and visitors should not be at any risk of having their login credentials being misused.
- Manage access: take good care of who has access to the site, how you provide the login credentials, how users can reset their password, etc.
- User-friendly: Provide a support environment with a good look & feel that is user-friendly and intuitive.
- Relevant features and content: the most important thing of course; the features you offer on the support site and the content you share is decisive for the success of the support site.
- User manual: explain clearly how the support site works in a user manual.
Maintain your personal touch
To provide top quality support, you should consider online support as an extra option for customers. They should still be able to reach you by phone and email, and (when permitted again) you should help your customers face-to-face. But by offering online support you expand the possibilities for customers. They experience better support, while your support costs drop. So, win-win. But online support is not personal and therefore should not replace other forms of support. You should not hide behind ticket numbers and response times, but should continue to strive to help people as well as possible.
