Choosing The Best Customer Service Channels for Your Brand

Email, telephone, social media, live chat, WhatsApp, the list goes on. With a plethora of channels to pick from, how do you choose the best customer service channels for your brand? Do you focus on the most efficient and try to drive cost savings? Or would it be better to offer channels that boost customer satisfaction?

The reality is that customers want to reach out to you on their favourite channels, on whatever device they use, and failing to service them can impact both your reputation and your bottom line. So, how do you determine the best channels for your customer service?

One: Identify Your Customer Service Goals

Every customer support channel has its strengths and weaknesses; each one has its place. To figure out which channels will work best for your business, you need to first understand your business goals.

It’s important to note that these goals might change depending on who you ask in the company. The Executive team might want to reduce costs and boost your sales. However, Operations may want to introduce faster, more effective channels for the team, and Marketing might be more interested in reinforcing the overall customer experience.

Customer support touches many parts of a business and can have an impact on your overall brand reputation and revenue. That’s why simply choosing one or two goals is likely over-simplifying matters. It’s crucial that everyone in the Management team is clear on the company’s goals and can collectively agree on a list of priorities when it comes to choosing the best customer service channels for your brand.

Two: Define Your Customers

To achieve your business goals without harming your brand, you must also consider what your customers want. Our own research shows that an astonishing 88% of customers are less likely to shop with a brand again if its customer service is poor, and 58% chose the ability to contact a brand however they want as one of the most important aspects of customer support.

So, whilst the business may need to save money or increase efficiency, this may not be what your target audience care about when it comes to the quality of your customer service. If you chase the wrong KPIs at the expense of your customers’ needs, you’ll risk frustrating them and even sending them to your competitors.

By studying your historical interaction data, you can quickly glean an idea of which channels your customers prefer. And, just as importantly, which times of day and week they use those particular channels. But it’s also important to get down to the ‘why’ of the data. If most of your customers are reaching out to you via a phone call at the weekend, is this due to preference or necessity?

To that end, you should also consider surveying your customers for their opinions. Not only will this allow you to create a clearer picture of where to steer your customer support in the future, it also lets your customers know that you care about their needs and are committed to providing them the best possible service.

Three: Determine the Pros and Cons of Each Customer Service Channel

So, you know the goals of the business and you know what your customers want. Now it’s time to match them together against the pros and cons of each customer service channel. Luckily, we’ve listed them here for you!

Please note: these pros and cons are not exhausted and you may identify others depending on your goals, products/services, or customer base. We recommend chatting to an experienced customer service consultant when considering which channels would be best to target.

For most brands, offering only two or three channels will never be enough. A blend of more efficient, live channels and slower, non-live channels will often provide the ideal mix to hit your business goals and keep your customers happy.

But it’s crucial that you have enough agents and robust customer service software to provide a truly omnichannel solution so there are no dips in service. At FM, we benchmark the customer service of brands across many industries. Through our work, we’ve found that as much as 24% of messages to businesses go unanswered. Simply providing the channel is not enough; you must service it effectively to see its benefits or else you risk doing more harm than good to your brand’s reputation.

Four: How to Introduce New Customer Service Channels

Great, you know which channels you should be focusing on. Now what? Well, here’s the hard part. It’s time to launch new channels, phase out old ones, and streamline the rest. But how do you introduce new channels without having a negative impact on your operation? This is the most complicated part of the journey, and we recommend working with an expert to protect your brand reputation.

Outsourced partners can provide you with years of experience when it comes to finding the right channel mix and funnelling customers to your preferred channels. Customer service consultants like FM Outsource can recommend new software, smart automation, and effective marketing campaigns to ensure that the transition period is smooth and pain-free for both you and your customer base.

If you’d like to chat to one of our consultants about how we can help you boost efficiency, improve quality, and even increase your sales through your customer service, reach out to us today.

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