There are different types of customer service and each has a unique set of offerings that every business can employ. Consumer service is not always persistent, and it is not the same universally.
In the past, there used to be a customer care section where individuals had to arrive physically to get their problems resolved. With the emerging technologies, this scenario has completely changed.
In today’s age, proactive customer service is an imperative company’s offering, but what type of service to deliver differs as per the customers’ demands. In this blog, let’s have a look at the most popular customer service types and which one is appropriate for your brand.
Table of Content
What are the Different Types of Customer Service?
In today’s age, customer service is an essential business offering. However, what types of customer service to deliver differs as per the customers’ demands and business needs.
Selecting the one that is right or exercising them in tandem, means that you propose better and consistent services. Below are some vital services that can aid you with your routine customer service activities:
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Phone Support
In the era of social media, a phone conversation still proves to be a powerful method of solving customer issues. Agents can resolve issues quickly and deliver personalized and detailed support if customers can get assistance over a phone call.
As per Microsoft’s report, this kind of customer service is one of the popular choices from the rest of the service types available.
Phone support can be costly as it can consume much of an agent’s time. Nevertheless, software with an integrated comprehension can aid you in better assessment of how many calls agents can take, how much staff is needed, and how ticket volume can be increased from your phone support.
Highlights:
- With an apt phone service software, you can also take the advantage of automatic ticket creation, full customer history, call recording and supplementary time-saving tools.
- To deliver the best service, you will need to contemplate greetings and hold music, routing rules, and the hours your agents are available to answer calls.
Pros
- Individuals tend to talk faster than they type. And this makes phone customer service an efficient and fast mode
- Direct communication allows better acknowledgement of customers’ reactions
- A phone is a device that is known to all age groups. So, non-tech-savvy consumers can also use it
- Favourable mode for any urgent or a complex problem
Cons
- Unspecified or long hold times when the operators are occupied
- Poor network coverage can avert from making a call
- Trends vary with the passing generations. Usually, the youth prefer texting rather than calling
Companies That Could Avail Benefit:
- In any private sector, several customers feel safer resolving sensitive or high-priority problems over a phone call.
- The public organization is bound by firm legal controls. Hence, the customers must understand procedures and regulations properly.
Public Private Education Healthcare Healthcaret Legal Legal eCommerce or retail company Government Accommodation Courier and delivery Banking Email Support
Email customer service is the common, widespread, and classic way customers communicate with companies. With an apt software, email is the easiest method to prioritize, delegate, and organize customer support connections in a place. What is so exceptional about email?
It is difficult to find anyone without an email account and individuals can reach to log an inquiry at any time.
Highlights:
- Often, email can serve as an internal type of support.
- It is also generally the first type of support any business can offer.
Pros
- Each email discussion history can be easily archived to be accessible at any time to customers and support agents
- Repetitive inquiries can be computerized with predefined replies
- Email permits customers to send an inquiry whenever it is appropriate to them, even beyond regular operational hours
- You can modify your professional email signatures and email designs
Cons
- It is an indirect type of communication support that makes the assessment of a customer’s sentiments tricky
- Complex problems require a series of replies and threads in making the overall discussion time-consuming
- It is slower to read and present any sort of problem in a written format
- An email follow-up support can add on the top of the total time expended on a distinct customer
Companies That Could Avail Benefit:
For private businesses, with a huge pool of foreign and local consumers, emails can be beneficial since they can be computerized and sent at any time.
Public Private None eCommerce or retail company Accommodation Self-service
A self-service knowledge base can provide official knowledge on your website and assist agents with the data they require to serve their customers in a better manner. It can also aid your business to recognize and seal the knowledge gaps prevailing if any.
Such a service includes instructional videos, webinars, tutorials, infographics, help-files, demos, online tools, guides, and documentation – collectively termed as Knowledge Base.
Gartner forecasts that by 2022, around 85% of the customer service communications will begin with self-service. A study by Statista stated that a majority of 88% of consumers answered by admitting that they anticipate companies to present online self-service options.
Highlights:
- By authorizing customers to aid themselves through an online community, customer service portal, interactive voice response, or help center support, you can decrease customer friction while also refining efficiency and rapid resolution.
- Delivering self-service support is the new standard for imparting customer service. Such an excellent self-service experience can reduce support costs, upsurge internal agent engagement, and increase customer satisfaction.
Pros
- Fewer email queries and phone calls
- Available at any time of the day or night
- Content can be displayed in several languages to encounter foreign customers’ requirements
- Combines diverse sources of information – audio and visual – useful for consumers with visual or hearing impairments
Cons
- Entails more effort to formulate as compared to FAQs
- Requires skillfully written content to make sure that all explanations and instructions are clear and easy to understand
- Needs timely maintenance to confirm that the information is up-to-date and accurate
Companies That Could Avail Benefit:
Customer self-service functions well for any business but could be more valuable to companies that deliver a complex product or an extensive range of support services. It is also suitable for public sectors that are generally associated with numerous formalities and regulations.
Public Private Healthcare Transportation Education Legal Government SaaS or IT Legal Healthcare Airlines Education Banking Build an advanced knowledge base for your customers and give them answers fast – real fast.
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FAQ Customer Service
Most organizations have a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on their website. These pages comprise a sequence of questions that are usually asked by consumers. They include a diversity of topics – business hours, product or service usage, and prices.
FAQ pages are proven to be significant as they save time for both employees and customers. With CloudTutorial, the users do not have to go through the difficulty of communicating with the customer support teams to get responses to their basic questions.
These customer service teams do not have to spare time unnecessarily offering support for the inquiries that are recurrently asked and could be answered with a uniform response easily.
Highlights:
- Your FAQ page can be a beneficial PPC and SEO asset
- Proactively support your customers by anticipating their requirements before they even ask for it
Pros
- Lessens repetitive customer calls and email enquiries
- Lower charge of arrangement and maintenance as compared to phone or email service
- The FAQ part is on the website. Hence, it can be reachable at any time
Cons
- Needs consistent maintenance to make sure that the information stays updated
- Requires to be written proficiently to answer the query straight to the point
- No distinct approach – only the foreseeable and common questions are encompassed
Companies That Could Avail Benefit:
For any business, the FAQ customer support service is a reasonable form to supply its customers with the responses they are looking for. Also, it is not mandatory to have a fixed number of questions. It completely depends on the company’s needs and can be adjusted accordingly.
Social Media Customer Service
One of the most popular forms of customer service is social media customer service. Such service is delivered through social media channels available on the internet like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Here, the communications from agents must be accurate, timely, sensitive, and brief.
You can have a chat with your customers on social media platforms using several different ways:
- Post comments on your social media queries or posts
- Have group conversations if you analyze that many customers have the same problems or concerns
- Have a personal conversation via ‘Direct Message’
Pros
- Public responses to a company’s post may reduce the number of similar queries
- Private discussions can be executed via live chat conversations
- The consumers can create groups focused on your service or product where they can reply to each other’s queries and share customer experiences
- Public enquiries can be responded to by another user or a customer service agent
Cons
- Negative feedback can be shared easily with various users. So, be diplomatic and honest to avoid any escalation.
Companies That Could Avail Benefit:
Social media customer service is a great mode for any business or entrepreneur wanting to use any prevalent means of online social communications. It presents several ways of replying to customers’ questions.
Moreover, this service can be incorporated with the best chatbot software to make reservations, chat with any customer, place orders for them or book appointments.
Public Private Government Restaurants and Food Education Retail company or eCommerce Games and Entertainment Education Accommodation SaaS or IT Beauty and wellness Live Chat Customer Service
Delivering real-time interactions as a service can produce a personal association with customers who are looking for immediate support. With messaging and chat abilities, a service team or agents can involve customers over mobile apps, websites, and even prevalent messaging apps like Twitter, LINE, and Facebook Messenger.
When your customers require an effective and fast way, without any interruption in their experience, you can opt for this type of service.
In fact, as per a report by Statista in 2019, the customer satisfaction rate with the usage of live chat in the real estate business was 98.56%. Around 42% of customers say that they choose a live chat function because they do not want to wait on hold. And 92% of consumers feel content by using live chat.
Highlights:
- Chat as a mode of conversation can aid businesses to anticipate certain customer queries and offer assistance whenever they need it the most with such chat support.
- Real-time conversation in addition to email support can aid avert customers from churning. It also empowers the team of agents to assist more customers in much less time, which results in more happy customers.
Pro tip:
- Try not to reply to your customers with dull and generic responses. Make usage of live chat as well as chatbots to your benefit. Construct script smart responses and a chatbot to entice and engage consumers in any conversation.
Pros
- When incorporated with chatbots, repetitive discussions can be computerized
- The conversation history is retained by both sides for reference
- A support agent can have manifold live chats at the same time
Cons
- Live chat is faster than email communication but still slower than a telephone conversation
- It averts from having a precise assessment of customers’ emotions
Companies That Could Avail Benefit:
On the surface, the live chat service seems to be an apt tool for private organizations due to its innovative and casual nature. Nevertheless, public institutions can also take advantage of live chat customer service as it is low-maintenance and an inexpensive tool that can certainly ease the load of daily recurring tasks.
Public Private Education Airlines Healthcare Restaurants and food Legal Games and Entertainment eCommerce or retail company Education Healthcare Accommodation SaaS or IT Beauty and wellness On-Site Customer Service
This is the type of customer service that is offered to individual’s offices or homes. Through this on-site service you can have experts:
- Offer you therapeutic services to preserve your mental and physical health
- Repair your mechanical and electrical appliances
- Consult you on dissimilar things concerning your professional and personal life
- Make you teach diverse courses
Highlights:
- When customer service representatives visit the customer, she or he can communicate properly and the customer can define the problem or issue that they have been facing. This results in a proper understanding of the issue and a quick solution for it by the representative.
- Such delivery of a rapid customer service solution fortifies the brand quality of the business. This, in turn, makes the business more reliable.
Pros
- Much suitable for the customers who do not want to go and visit their service providers
- Sanctions better understanding of consumers’ needs and pains
- Permits for consolidation of the brand quality through the exhibition of expertise
Cons
- It takes much money and time to reach a customer’s place reserved
Companies That Could Avail Benefit:
The on-site customer service would be most appropriate for the businesses offering beauty services, repair, and maintenance. It is also preferred by entrepreneurs who deliver teaching, training, therapy and consulting sessions.
HTML table 6Build an advanced knowledge base for your customers and give them answers fast – real fast.
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Choosing the Channel of Customer Service
As you can see, there are various types of customer service each offering a unique solution to deliver a great customer experience. Now the question is, ‘Which customer service communication channels must be your main focus, and which you can put as a future choice?’
An informed decision about how and where to employ your customer service resources can be taken based on the three factors:
- Your field – norms and trends you must be aware of
- Your consumers – their needs, expectations, abilities, and context
- Your customer support teams – their skills, interests, and capacity
A dependable service quality across manifold support channels will meaningfully influence a company’s revenue. And hence, more businesses are capitalizing on omnichannel customer service.
What is Omnichannel Customer Service?
Omni-channel customer service incorporates social, text, interactive voice response, instant messaging, and email to offer a cohesive brand experience so that customers can shift between various channels and still can experience the unchanging quality of service.
Such customer support solutions render you the chance of serving your customers in a diversity of ways that are not only effective and convenient but also enhance your brand’s credibility and image.
Omni-channel offers the following experiences to deliver the best customer service:
- Enhance your social media response times
- People can expect decent mobile services
- SMS works well across the industries
- Self-service can be much beneficial to impart quick customer service
- Email customer service is the leading form of providing consistent customer service
- Live chat support can augment your sales
FAQs
The 4 types of customers are relationship buyers, price buyers, poker player buyers, and value buyers.According to Andrew William Gibson, there are three primary levels of customer service. They are the desired level, unanticipated level, and expected level.The 3 most important things in customer service are clear communication skills, empathy, and patience.
Conclusion
The types of customer service your company delivers are more than just the channels on which your customers can contact. Contact CloudTutorial to get convenient and personalized customer service and deliver customer services.
One of the best practices to administer is to invest in good support software to combine your customer inquiries and solve them rapidly. This will assist you to use your funds efficiently and also expand your business.
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