Have you ever wondered why one support team gets back to you in no time and the other takes days before you hear back from them? The secret to getting back to customers quickly isn’t just typing faster or hiring more people, it’s about how you set up your workflow in your helpdesk. Let’s take an example of two different support teams here to understand it better.

It’s almost that time of the year again! The holiday season is here – and what is usually a season of cheer and happiness, can be a nightmare for customer support teams. A lot of industries see a huge influx of customers during the holiday season which directly results in a large number of customers needing support and expecting to have their issues resolved as quick as possible.

Every industry has its own version of the “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” scenario, and the Internet is no different. In this case, digital marketers and customer service professionals tend to clash over the question: does great user experience translate to great customer experience? Or is it the other way around?

Offering omnichannel customer service is the core of any organization’s support strategy. But, in some cases it’s not possible for agents to do everything, and it’s critical that there is a plan in place for assigning agents to channels. There are two methodologies for channel assignment: a shared agent model and a dedicated one. In a shared model, agents handle some or all channels simultaneously. In a dedicated model, agents are focused on a single channel.

The warnings say robots are coming for our jobs, but it’s more accurate to say they—AI-supported automation, that is—are taking over tasks that should be automated anyway. Taking the rote functions out of a customer service agent’s job is the perfect way to leverage AI, but support roles must evolve parallel with the technology.

Have you ever opened an email with a subject line written in all caps, and the first sentence sounded something like “I have never been so frustrated in my life as I am with [your product here]!!!”? If you have, you aren’t alone—many of us every day respond to angry customers and do our best to de-escalate the situation, gain back their trust, and help them use our products.

Just trust me. You’ve heard it before — maybe in a movie scene, or from a partner in crime, or an especially tough coach. Just-trust-me! In today’s marketplace, products may be a dime a dozen, but trust — well, that’s worth its weight in gold. In fact, statistics suggest that a landslide 83% of customers are more likely to recommend a trusted company to friends, and 82% will be more inclined to use that brand more often. It’s a relationship.

Feedback in business is crucial to growing and improving. It’s beneficial for any business to take a closer look at what is working and what could use improvement on a regular basis. But how do you do that? Where do you start?