Provide help where it's needed: Build Customer-centric Support

Supporting customers goes beyond having an email or phone number with people on the other end to respond. It is a mentality of how you want customers to experience your customer-centric product and services. You need to ensure you are guiding customers every step of the way. This session will take you through a practical approach to work with Product & Marketing teams to ensure your users are supported from the first website visit to the renewal stages. We will explore how your product can be enhanced to provide users with support where they need it, when they need it as well as how to nudge your users to success through automation, in-product guides, and UI changes.

Transcript

1. PROVIDE HELP WHERE IT'S NEEDED: WORKING CROSS-FUNCTIONALLY TO BUILD CUSTOMER-CENTRIC SUPPORT @StossInSupport cstoss@gmail.com
2. AGENDA • What is Customer-Centric Support? • Why Cross-functional? • 3-phase Approach • Keys to Success
3. WHAT IS CUSTOMER-CENTRIC SUPPORT? • Email, phone or chat aren’t always enough • Guide customers at every step of their journey • Ask yourself: “Where are my customers?” If the answer includes anything but “On my Support Contact Page” You can improve!
4. WHY CROSS-FUNCTIONAL? • Inside your application: Embed support • On an IoT device: One-touch support • On your website: Prominent KB search bar • Near a phone: Accessible number If the customer is …
5. THREE-PHASE APPROACH • Remove unwritten knowledge • Increase Self-service • Nudge Users • Make Search bar front-and-center on your Support page • Embed knowledge search in your SaaS product • Replace “For further assistance, please email support@company.com” with a link to something immediately useful • Phase 1 can result in ~10-20% case deflection Phase 1 - Document your knowledge
6. THREE-PHASE APPROACH • Add in some smart searching (eg. Elastic Search) • Bring in some machine-learning (eg. Solvvy, Guru) • Guide users to a decision (eg. Ada, Drift) • SaaS Bonus – Proactive Support! (eg. Pendo, Intercom) • Identify issues based on patterns you know lead to support tickets and automate them away! • Phase 2 is about efficiency ~15-20% increase in individual load Phase 2 - Automation
7. THREE-PHASE APPROACH • Better Error Messages in Product • Guide the User to a self-serve solution • Real-time Guides • Walkthroughs of your product and Embedded screenshare (eg. Median) • Proactive Diagnostics • Send diagnostic data to support when known patterns occur • Phase 3 is about customer-centricity and will improve your NPS and CES Phase 3 - Product Guidance
8. KEYS TO SUCCESS Gain Buy-in Cross-functional understanding of the value of self-service and positive customer experience is integral to success Start Within All the necessary Support work must be done in Phase 1 to enable Phases 2 & 3 Progress, not Perfection This approach can be broken into smaller chunks. Most important is to have a roadmap with the right functions and make consistent progress