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?

Running a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) company is fun. It’s usually created by a couple tech enthusiasts with a great idea and extensive coding knowledge. Getting those first few customers feels amazing, and your core focus is on making them happy. They’ve got your cell number and you’re just a phone call away for anything they need.

Of everything a business-to-business (B2B) company must be great at in order to grow, delivering personalized customer support at scale needs to be a priority. You know this. But, knowing something and doing something to make it happen are two different things. Making customer support personalized, then continually improving upon the experience is what truly shows your customers that they are a top priority for you.

Last year, we highlighted some of the key customer service trends to watch in 2018 and many of them came to fruition. The shift in perception of AI and automation was arguably the most significant. Once a thought of the distant future, many companies began adding these concepts to their workflows and roadmaps. Once again, for the third year in a row, here are 7 customer service trends to watch in 2019…

The fundamental principles that define effective customer service apply across all industries and business types. But certain distinctive characteristics of the business-to-business (B2B) environment can have a huge influence on your approach to training customer service staff.

It’s no surprise that AI (Artificial Intelligence) is really starting to make an impact in the customer service industry. How companies interact with customers is being strongly influenced by this emerging technology. Sure, the “chat bot” comes to mind immediately, but even that has taken a backseat to larger uses of AI which still involve (and improve upon) the human element.

It usually requires a special kind of person to succeed in customer service. These individuals are in constant contact with customers, which makes them symbols of how a business performs. Good customer service employees are eager to help; bad ones are eager for the day to be over.

If you’re new to customer-focused industries, you may look at the title of this post and think “what is a web based help desk solution”? It’s an online system help desk teams use to not only stay organized but to become more efficient. Many emerging companies rely on emails and spreadsheets or even a small in-house solution to keep track of customer information. But what if there’s a better way?

There are A LOT of features available for companies to choose from when deciding what’s important in their Business to Business (B2B) customer support software solution. We made this list to help companies think about the key features these solutions offer and their value. Without further ado, here’s our list of 20 essential features in a B2B customer support system.