How do you stay ahead of the curve in customer support?
It’s customer support enablement.
In this article, we’ll delve into what customer support enablement is, why companies need it, and how storing your internal documentation and processes in Tettra can significantly benefit your customer support and product teams.
What is Customer Support Enablement?
Customer Support Enablement is a comprehensive approach to equipping your customer support teams with the knowledge, tools, and resources they need to provide exceptional customer service. It involves a combination of processes, technologies, and strategies aimed at empowering support agents to handle customer inquiries efficiently and effectively.
The goal is to enhance the customer experience by ensuring that support teams have access to up-to-date information, best practices, and the means to resolve issues promptly.
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Why Do Companies Need Customer Support Enablement?
Take a step back in time for a minute: The evolution of customer support has transformed from traditional call centers into a multifaceted, digital ecosystem.
Initially, support was primarily phone-based, but with technological advancements, it expanded to email, chat, and social media. Customers now expect instant, round-the-clock assistance.
Customer support enablement emerged as a response to these changes, emphasizing the need for streamlined processes, knowledge management, and technology integration to meet the evolving demands of modern life while maintaining a consistent, efficient support presence across diverse communication channels.
And it’s about ensuring that frontline customer support workers get what they need.
In the Harvard Business Review, researchers Jochen Wirtz and Ron Kaufman note that customer agents understand the business of customer satisfaction. It’s the other teams – those that support customer support – that don’t:
“After all, customer service reps usually understand the importance of satisfied customers; often the real problem lies with logistics, IT, or some other back-end function that isn’t meeting frontline colleagues’ needs. When that’s the case, efforts to retrain customer-facing employees may waste time and generate frustration. So include everyone in service training, and focus special attention on internal service providers.”
– Harvard Business Review
And companies are viewing this as more of a priority than they have in the past.
The customer experience is 19% more important than it was in previous years, according to a recent study from McKinsey.
With all that in mind, it’s imperative for companies to support their frontline customer care employees in tangible ways.
How Do You Implement Customer Support Enablement?
- Assess Current Support Operations:
- How is your support team doing right now? Actually ask them. Start by evaluating your existing customer support processes, technologies, and resources. Identify pain points, inefficiencies, and areas in need of improvement.
- Set Clear Objectives:
- What are you trying to achieve? Define specific, measurable objectives for your customer support enablement initiative. These could include reducing response times, increasing first-contact resolution rates, or improving customer satisfaction scores.
- Invest in Technology:
- Implement the start, stop, continue mindset for this. What tools do you need to add, which tools do you need to keep, and which tools do you no longer need? Choose the right technology stack to support your customer support enablement efforts. This may include customer relationship management (CRM) systems, knowledge management platforms like Tettra, chatbots, and other communication tools.
- Create an Internal Knowledge Base:
- Your support team needs a place to find all their internal information, not just an external knowledge base for customers. Create a comprehensive internal knowledge base that contains up-to-date information, FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and product documentation. Ensure content is organized and easily searchable.
- Train Support Agents:
- How are you onboarding new support agents? Provide thorough training to your support agents. This should cover product knowledge, customer service skills, and how to use the tools and knowledge base effectively.
- Implement Standardized Processes:
- Establish standardized internal support processes and workflows. Clearly define how support requests are triaged, escalated, and resolved. Ensure consistency in responses across all support channels.
- Enable Self-Service:
- Promote self-service options for customers by making the knowledge base accessible through your website, app, or customer portal. Encourage customers to find answers on their own.
- Integrate Tools:
- How do your tools connect? Integrate customer support tools with your CRM system and communication platforms (e.g., Slack, MS Teams) to streamline information sharing and collaboration among support agents.
- Feedback Loops:
- How’s it working? Establish feedback loops that allow support agents to contribute to knowledge base content. Encourage agents to report common customer questions and provide solutions for documentation.
- Continuously Improve:
- Customer support enablement is an ongoing process. Regularly review and refine your processes, update documentation, and adapt to changing customer needs and technology advancements.
- Monitor and Measure:
- Continuously monitor the performance of your customer support enablement efforts. Use metrics like CSAT scores, NPS, and resolution times to gauge success and make data-driven adjustments.
- Communicate Changes:
- You won’t know if your new support enablement programs are working unless you find information to back up your success. Collect data on support interactions, response times, customer feedback, and KPIs. Analyze this data to identify areas for improvement and track progress toward your objectives. Keep both your support teams and customers informed about changes in support processes, self-service options, and the availability of the knowledge base.
- Provide Support and Resources:
- Keep it going. That’s what support enablement is. Offer ongoing support to your support agents as they adapt to new processes and tools. Ensure they have access to resources and training materials.
- Seek Customer Feedback:
- Actively seek feedback from customers regarding their support experiences. Use this feedback to make improvements and enhance customer satisfaction.
Implementing customer support enablement requires a well-planned and holistic approach, focusing on technology, training, processes, and customer-centricity. It should be a dynamic process that adapts to the evolving needs of both your support teams and your customers.
What Are the Benefits of Customer Support Enablement?
- Improved Customer Experience: A well-structured customer support enablement program ensures that support agents are well-prepared to assist customers. This leads to quicker issue resolution, higher customer satisfaction, and ultimately, customer loyalty.
- Enhanced Productivity: When support teams have easy access to knowledge and documentation, they can work more efficiently. This reduces the time spent searching for information and allows agents to focus on helping customers.
- Consistency: Customer support enablement promotes consistency in how issues are handled. Standardized processes and documentation ensure that all customers receive the same level of service.
- Reduced Training Time: New support agents can get up to speed faster when they have access to comprehensive training materials and resources.
How Can Tettra Help with Your Customer Support Enablement?
1. Centralized, Internal Knowledge Management
Tettra is an AI-powered internal knowledge management system that helps you curate important company information into a knowledge base. Tettra will house everything your support agents need, from FAQs to product documentation. With Tettra, your support teams can quickly access accurate and up-to-date product information and documents, leading to faster issue resolution.
2. Integrate with Slack, MS Teams, Zapier, Google Docs, and more
Tettra seamlessly integrates with popular communication tools like Slack and MS Teams. This means that support agents can access the knowledge base without leaving their preferred communication platforms. This integration enhances collaboration and allows teams to share information effortlessly. You can also add external links to sites like Google Docs, GitHub, or improve workflows with Zapier, making it easy to capture and share knowledge across your organization. This flexibility empowers your support and product teams to collaborate and stay informed.
3. AI-Powered Search
Tettra’s powerful context-driven search feature ensures that support agents can find the information they need in seconds. No more digging through endless documents or folders – Tettra’s search functionality streamlines the process and boosts productivity.
4. Content Verification and Updates
Tettra offers content verification features to keep knowledge base content up-to-date. With designated “knowledge experts” who can verify information, you can ensure the accuracy of your documentation. This is crucial for maintaining trust with both customers and support teams.
5. Q&A Workflow
Tettra’s Q&A workflow captures questions from your support teams, creating a feedback loop that allows you to continuously improve your documentation. This ensures that your knowledge base evolves alongside your products and services. If no answer is found, the support team can create a question, assign it to the knowledge expert, and then answer will be stored.
Customer Support Enablement, powered by Tettra, equips your support and product teams with the knowledge they need to provide exceptional service. Investing in customer support enablement with Tettra not only improves your support team’s efficiency but also leads to happier customers and a stronger competitive edge in the market.
Make the smart move today and unlock the potential of your customer support and product teams with Tettra.