Owning a business is one of the most overwhelming challenges because it always consists of a high-risk and high-reward situation. This is the reason more than 90% of businesses fail in their first year. If you have passed the first year of your business, congratulations, you have formally stepped into the market.
Now that your business is in the market, this means you have plenty of competitors as well. So, to retain your customers, meet their expectations, and build a solid customer base, you need to step up your customer support game.
In case you are struggling to start a customer support department or you think it might break your bank, keep reading, as we will answer all your questions.
How Does the Customer Support Team Offer Competitive Edge?
Running a small business means you do not have enough money. In this scenario, investing in a customer support team may seem like a risky move.
In this day and age, customer support is no longer a complementary service; instead, it has become an industry standard. A good customer support team not only helps you convert all the bad reviews into good, they also empower your research team by helping them understand the expectations of the customer. Moreover, they also contribute to marketing by keeping your team updated on the targeted audience.
Simply put, a good investment in customer service can go a long way. However, if you are worried about exceeding your budget, here is a six-step blueprint for implementing budget-friendly customer support:
5-Step Blueprint for Implementing a Budget-Friendly Customer Support
1. Select Communication Channels
Your customer service department should not be restricted to one communication channel only. When you restrict your customers to just calls or emails, you miss out on the biggest chunk of customers. As per YouGov business, 40% of the customers today prefer chat over call.
When you provide only one communication channel, you risk disappointing the rest of your customers. This is the reason why big companies create an Omni channel communication experience, which helps with seamless communication without any chokeholds.
Since most of the social media channels and online communication modes are free, there is no budget involved. You can even get a good social media-planning dashboard free and attach all your communication channels for a better user experience.
2. Select Your Target Audience
Now that you have all the social media channels in mind, it’s time to prioritize ones that you will be using the most for providing customer support.
To make this possible, you need to understand your audience. For instance, companies that target their millennial customers usually prioritize Meta as their social media communication channel while companies targeting Gen-Z opt for TikTok.
While targeting the audience, also keep ethnicity, social background, and race in mind. This will help you laser focus the target and eventually it will help you maximize your reach. An example of this is Optimum, which is a major Internet service provider in the US with a primarily English-speaking audience, but with Spanish speakers as their second biggest target audience. To cater to their Spanish audience they have a dedicated número de teléfono de Optimum, where customers can contact them anytime and seek guidance about internet service in their native language.
3. Learn From Case Studies
Experimenting is good but learning from case studies help you avoid expensive mistakes and allow you to learn all about the market standards. Big tech brands like Apple, Amazon, and Uber that are famous for their exceptional customer service should be studied as a benchmark.
Since most of these companies are high-end tech brands, keep in mind that your business might not work accordingly. So, try to select a brand within your niche. You can also look at the overall evolution of a brand, and your competitors in the market and study their strategies.
4. Select an AI Tool
Now that you have your preferred audience, your response messages, and brand information ready, you can shortlist an AI tool. While most people think, using an AI tool can be expensive, experts in the customer support department claim that it can be game-changing.
To put things into perspective, an AI tool can cost you somewhere between 30-40 dollars per month. Using an AI tool reduces your response time, helps you communicate with your customer, schedules the feedback, and offers you a way to keep track of each tick.
On the contrary, if you opt for manual work, it is expensive and time-consuming, there is no tracking involved and there is a high risk of human error as well.
5. Automate Your Customer Support
Now that you have shortlisted your AI tools, it is time for integration. You can start by integrating your AI tools with your website. This will work as a chatbot, helping you communicate and guide the traffic coming to your website.
Moreover, you can use automated IVR to redirect and categorize your customers. Furthermore, you can also automate social media messages with a good AI tool. While most experts discourage the use of automation, no one can deny that automation actually works and can boost your productivity.
With the aforementioned step-by-step guide, you can build a budget-friendly customer service for your business and be on your way to beat every competition in the market!
