Team eCommerce Next interviewed Niraj Ranjan Rout from Hiver to get more insights on omnichannel strategy. Following is our interview with him:
Understanding the differences between omnichannel and multichannel helpdesks
An omnichannel helpdesk uses integrated channels, such as phone support, live chat, SMS, and email etc., to enable seamless customer interactions. It ensures a holistic support experience by unifying customer data across multiple channels.
For instance, in a single dashboard, support agents get the complete visibility of a particular customer interaction, their queries, and other key metrics – all in one place. Customers don’t need to repeat their queries on multiple channels.
Whereas, multichannel helpdesks, offers convenience to customers across multiple channels. All the channels are not integrated. That means customers have the flexibility to reach out to a company on any channel they prefer to communicate with.
The context and customer history aren’t shared across channels in multichannel helpdesks. There is a distinct conversational stream for each channel in a multichannel helpdesk.
Organizing support requests and improving response times for the best outcomes:
Every 3 out of 4 customers want their queries to be resolved instantly. So, how can support teams ensure fast response service using a helpdesk?
One of the best ways to do it is by organizing and prioritizing support requests. For instance, inside a helpdesk, support agents get complete visibility of a customer query.
Managers can easily assign queries to particular support agents, use tags to categorize emails based on their nature, and use automations to route queries to specific team members. They also get visibility on which support agent is closing which ticket. Prioritizing and answering customer requests becomes faster and simpler.
Moreover, support teams can also create canned email responses in a helpdesk, to easily send replies to repetitive customer queries. A helpdesk even integrates with tools such as live chat and knowledge base – that means customers don’t need to wait to get their queries answered.
How to use omnichannel insights in a helpdesk to improve your customer strategy:
Omnichannel insights and analytics are a game changer for any business to improve customer satisfaction. How can a helpdesk help?
A helpdesk gathers and analyzes insights (such as customer interaction data) from multiple channels to present a complete picture of how effective the customer support function is.
Insights and key support metrics such as first response time, average resolution time, CSAT, etc. can be tracked in a helpdesk. You can also track specific metrics that matter to your team.
Let’s say, you want to find out the resolution time for all queries tagged as ‘Priority’ that have been assigned to your support agents. A helpdesk can easily get detailed insights in just a few clicks.
Also, different types of reports, such as customer conversation report, CSAT report, and support team report etc. are accessible in a helpdesk. Companies can understand which support function needs improvement, or which support rep needs training, and even which customer experience must be personalized.
How do helpdesks help in improving internal team collaboration?
Building an efficient and collaborative support team is crucial to keep your customers happy and get their queries answered on time. In a help desk, you can unify all your teams to improve communication and collaborate seamlessly.
Support teams don’t need to switch from one application to another to get help about a query from other teams. A helpdesk offers features, such as email notes, to instantly share a customer conversation to a particular teammate.
Let’s say, Jack from the customer support team needs help on a query from Sam, who is a support supervisor. Instead of forwarding the customer email to Sam, and waiting for his reply, Jack can just @mention Sam in a note which appears alongside the email. Sam gets a notification and can respond to Jack in no time.
Brands need to set clear expectations with customers
Setting customer support expectations is important. It is a good way to build trust with your customers and also help support teams offer service as per customer preferences.
Help desk software allows support teams to track and respond to customer requests in an organized manner. Moreover, a helpdesk solution guides teams to create, configure, and manage SLAs (service-level agreements) easily.
In a helpdesk, you can set up different SLAs for different types of queries. For example, all customer emails tagged as ‘priority’ can have an SLA of 1 hour. A heldesk also notifies relevant stakeholders before an SLA violation is about to happen. This way, you can proactively respond to customer requests.
A helpdesk sets clear expectations and it helps hold your customer support to a certain standard.
