Customer support isn’t what it once used to be. Today, customers would rather troubleshoot their problems by reading solution articles, than by writing an elaborate email about it, or waiting to speak to a support agent over the phone. With the increased dependence on self-service over traditional channels of communication, it has become necessary for companies to implement a customer portal where they can collate all the information the end-user requires.

No matter how skilled and experienced your customer support team, none of your agents can resolve every customer issue by themselves. For some tickets, they might need assistance from a developer. For others, they might need information from your warehouse or suppliers. And in some cases, they might just want to speed up the process by asking another agent who’s handled a similar issue for advice.

When today’s consumers run into issues or have questions, they expect solutions fast. Though tools like live chat have drastically decreased the time it takes to find a resolution, most channels still require you to wait for a support agent. But online self-service portals have changed that.

Good customer support is all about being able to deal with requests quickly. On social media, for example, customers expect responses to their support questions within 24 hours. Every retail support team out there eventually hits a point where the volume of support tickets it receives becomes too much. If your team hasn’t yet, it will in the future. And when that happens, you might not be able to respond as quickly as your customers expect you to.

As a support agent, there aren’t many things as serious as hearing there’s downtime. If the very word made you sit upright, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Happy customers are key to business success, whether you are a small company or a large enterprise. Though the end goal is the same, how SMBs achieve customer satisfaction differs from their enterprise counterparts. Small and medium business can’t afford to provide the same comprehensive customer services enterprises do, so SMBS must maximize their customer service investments.

Many factors are involved in creating an effective customer service strategy. The agents you hire, the support platform you use, and the internal resources you provide your team, can all have a significant impact on the level of service your customers receive. But while most business owners are aware of these major factors, there’s one that is often overlooked – Collaboration.

We’re living in the era of instant gratification. The realm of customer support is no exception. Customers today expect companies to respond to their queries or complaints almost as soon as a ticket is raised, and demand a quick resolution of the issue. In fact, the First Response Rate is now increasingly gaining importance as companies are beginning to see the kind of positive impact it has on customer satisfaction.

Online and offline retailers are at war. For years, offline retailers have been struggling to stem the tide of shoppers leaving their stores, abandoning them for the convenience of online shopping. But this year, finally, their efforts have seen some positive press. It’s not a matter of if, but when. So here’s the question for both retailers: How does online and offline customer service compare, and does it really make a difference?

Everyone is online these days. It’s a given that this is how we now live and interact. We would find it extremely difficult to guide our lives without the internet. But with this trend of interacting on a digital plane, it’s sometimes easy to lose track of the human side of our interactions. It’s only too easy to treat online experiences as mere “exchanges” instead of unique stepping stones for developing and understanding relationships.