Customer Support

What is customer support?

Customer support is a range of customer service activities utilized to assist customers, help them get the most out of your offered product or service, and resolve their issues with the said offers. 

Providing assistance in planning, installation, troubleshooting, onboarding, maintenance, upgrading, and product disposal all fall under the customer support category.

The quality of a company’s customer support plays a significant role in customer satisfaction and retention. In a world where everything is digital and your brand reputation can be ruined or built up in a blink of an eye, it is important to focus on the quality of customer support that you offer.

Importance of customer support

Customer support is an important function of any successful company that offers a product or service. This drives customer satisfaction, giving a huge impact on customer retention and brand loyalty.

Aside from retaining existing customers, excellent customer support encourages word-of-mouth advertising. As a result, businesses with satisfied customers generally continue growing and exponentially.

Customer support best practices

Support team can keep the process seamless by following some of these best practices.

Respond to consumer requests quickly

Customers expect a response to their inquiries as soon as possible. Letting them know that you received them can be helpful to them and to the support team. This will give a good impression to the customer. 

Keep messages clear and concise

An immediate response can have good feedback, but giving attention to the detail can create a huge impact on customer satisfaction. Responding to customers with clear and concise solutions shows that you value their time. 

Offer self-service support options

Providing excellent customer support involves not just showing immediate response but also making it simple for customers to assist themselves.

You can make frequently asked questions and how-to articles that walk customers through the steps needed to solve common problems. This will lessen the queries the customer support team needs to face. 

Make it easier for customers to get support

When customers need support, they usually look for contact information on your website. So,  make it easy for them to find contact details by displaying them in the more accessible places on your website.

Customer support vs customer service

People make the very common mistake of using customer support and customer service interchangeably. Customer service is a broad term that refers to the activities that a company does to help improve its relationship with its customers. Customer support falls under this category.

Customer support, on the other hand, is a more specific term that refers to the assistance provided to customers when they need help with your product, from installation to the end of the service.