The goal of every customer service team is to ensure that a customer’s issues or grievances are being addressed. Whether that’s a returned item, a billing discrepancy or a software bug – the first line of defense is the agent that your customer reaches out to. But what if the issue is the support received itself?

In 2016, Uber made an unexpected move and left Slack for Mattermost. The ridesharing company needed an enterprise-grade collaboration tool which Slack couldn’t scale. When Uber decided to create its messaging solution on Mattermost, both companies collaborated to implement an upgrade of Mattermost platform to meet Uber’s needs. Akamai, the world’s leading content delivery network service provider, has been using Zulip for remote collaboration with employees for many years.

Simply put, your business needs customer service strategies that improve their productivity and customer satisfaction. The right strategies help your customers resolve their issues faster and enable your agents to provide better support. Here are five of the winning customer service strategies every business should be using.

For more and more companies, offering customers exceptional omnichannel service and support has become a top priority. Customers have come to expect that they can connect with companies in the channels that are the most important to them—whether that’s email, phone, live chat, self-service FAQs, or social media. And for hundreds of millions of people around the world, that list of critical channels now includes WhatsApp.

Today’s consumers expect a prompt, seamless support and service experience across all touchpoints, every single time. This translates to frequent, but shorter customer interactions as consumers have more access points to your brand. The expectations are clear: Support agents have a growing need to manage customer queries on-the-go.

It’s not uncommon for growing businesses to build out their own support teams. No matter what industry, if there is a website that customers and users interact with, that technology will need someone to maintain and update it. For businesses with multiple locations, it can be even more critical for their websites to remain up-to-date as that can be the main unifying entry point for customers in any location.

More isn’t always better. Take your local supermarket for example. Say you need to pick up a salad dressing before dinner, but you’re famished—you just want a dressing that will taste good so you can eat in peace. Yet, with over 175 salad dressings to choose from, a quick trip to the grocery store could leave you in the fetal position in aisle three wondering which dressing would best complement your three-ingredient salad.

We are thrilled to be a finalist for 'best open-source project' at DINAcon 2019. Wire is leading the way in bringing secure enterprise collaboration to organizations all around the world and being open-source is a crucial component in achieving our mission to protect organizations' digital assets.

for many, Facilitating a meeting or a workshop may seem like a dreadful task. Facilitating a remote workshop – even more so. There’s something inherently challenging about not being in the same room with your team. You can’t really revert to small talk when the atmosphere gets stiff. You can’t create a warm welcoming atmosphere to ease everyone into the exercises. And let’s face it, ice-breaking games over video conference can seem nothing short of awkward and cringy.

The last thing customers want to do over the holidays is sit on hold or get shuffled between departments in search of answers to their questions. It’s enough to make even the most loyal customers say, “Bah humbug!” As the holidays rapidly approach, companies that want to avoid ending up on their customers’ naughty list are taking stock of their customer service and support departments in advance of the holiday rush.