Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

After switching to a different email address, I recently logged in to my client account to change the contact information my mobile company had. On seeing the email field greyed out and uneditable, I visited their Help and Support page for assistance. Live chat support was available. It was 9:31 in the morning. Someone was already waiting for me—Gie. This Facebook Messenger-based bot initiated the conversation with one of the more tedious stages of getting support: account verification.

The internet gives brands a unique customer service opportunity that didn’t exist even a few years ago. Now, brands can directly communicate with customers, and customers can share stories about brands with just a few clicks. This means that stories about your business can be sent out to thousands of people almost instantaneously, making them accessible to 3.39 billion internet users1. Sometimes these stories gain a huge amount of traction and can place your company in front of new prospects.

Customer service most often relies on a support team that works to help all levels of your organization. But those teams don’t just run on their own. They need someone to lead the team and make important decisions when the going gets tough. That’s where a customer service manager (CSM) steps in.

Customer service is a stressful job. People are constantly coming to you with issues that they feel should be your top priority, and they want quick fixes. After a while, the stress will begin to build up. If you don’t have a way to de-stress, you’re going to eventually burn out, and lash out at a customer or a colleague. So, it’s important to find ways to keep your stress levels under control. I want to share six great ways to do it.

What a customer takes home from a brand is the experience it provides. Gartner proved that customer experience is a game-changer for brands. In fact, 81% of companies1 expect to compete on the basis of customer experience in 2019. This head-on competition is driving brands to strengthen their customer experience strategies.

Product launches can be an exciting business. A new offering means another opportunity to win more clients and make more money. Most of all, it means another shot at leaving your personal imprint in your industry. Your pour hours of energy into brainstorming, planning and executing within every segment of your business, from marketing to manufacturing. Before you know it, it’s time to pull the cover and reveal your latest and greatest creation.

The past two decades have witnessed emails going on to become one of the most preferred modes of contact in customer support. The reason for this newfound affinity was straightforward. They were easy to use, track and respond. Though email support isn’t dead, chat as a support channel has become more engaging and favored among customers in recent times.

Customers today are increasingly searching online before making a purchase. In fact, 75% of consumers admit to making judgments on a company’s credibility based on the company’s website design1. Be it a pair of sunglasses or a ticketing software, the first place a customer visits is the brand’s website. Which is why brands have to make sure they offer a great digital customer experience.