As we add more technology to our lives to meet our business needs, the customer support software system has become increasingly essential. It’s now much more than just a ticketing system! It’s evolved into a vital supply of customer data and information. As you evaluate your own customer-centric systems and processes, here are 11 must have features to look for in a customer support software system…

Too often, businesses don’t place enough value on building positive relationships with their customers. The term itself, “positive relationship”, is a bit generic and isn’t exactly easy to quantify. This means it’s often a factor many businesses ignore and takes on a lower priority over time.

We live in an era where technology is advancing so quickly that it’s hard to keep up. Think back to ten or even twenty years ago when you needed to get to a business meeting. You had to print out your plane ticket, rental car information, and sometimes even directions on where you needed to go.

When calling a business, people want their issue to be resolved quickly. A recent survey from Clutch found that nearly 8 of 10 people consider an “efficient resolution to their issue” to be one of the three most important traits they value when calling a business. Despite the rise of chatbots and text support, telephone customer support is still critical. People value speed and availability, but some calls still require a human touch.

Sometimes how a customer speaks to you is just as important as what is being said. A compact label for this type of refined communication is customer sentiment. As more customer service software solutions are placing an emphasis on sentiment, it should come as no surprise that companies are looking to leverage this “hidden code” in communication to work smarter and more efficiently.

In the data-driven corporate world we work in, metrics are everything. And, thanks to so many technology solutions on the market, getting information is easier than ever before.

Too often, customers rush to the phone whenever an issue or question pops in to their mind. While having customer conversations is great, too much communication can be harmful and have a negative impact on your business. To alleviate some of this communication, more companies are leveraging an online customer portal to stop mundane conversations before they even begin.

When evaluating software, it’s easy to fall back on what you’ve done in the past. Your work computer likely has Windows and the Office suite installed directly on the machine, so why shouldn’t you have software for sales, customer support, marketing, or other industries right alongside it?