The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant effect not only on people’s health but also that of businesses. Because of lockdowns and travel restrictions, companies had to significantly alter their operations. Customer service is one department heavily affected, as agents try to continue assisting patrons during the situation. Let’s take a look at the different challenges facing customer service teams during this crisis and how they are overcoming these.
The challenges of customer service during the COVID-19 pandemic
Arguably the biggest restriction put on customer support during the pandemic is the limited number of agents available. Due to the travel restrictions placed in their locales, many agents were unable to report to their offices. On the other hand, companies were also forced to reduce their staff to curb the disease’ spread.
Because of this, companies are unable to provide support for a large volume of customers. People would often have to wait longer than usual for an agent to come in. These delays create customer dissatisfaction that negatively reflects on the company.
Limited Customer Support Methods
Adding to that difficulty is the limited number of support channels that customer service teams can utilize. Face to face customer support is one of the channels that had to go during the onset of the pandemic. This method is still of importance for fields like banking where clients needed to appear in person. But with the social distancing rules in place, companies had no choice but to switch to other channels.
Other means of customer support like phone and even live chat have also been reduced in their capacity. While remote work allows these channels to continue, agents don\’t have access to the same infrastructure as they have in support centers. This makes it harder for them to manage and resolve incoming inquiries.
This was made worse by the sudden shift due to the pandemic. Companies found themselves not having enough resources for large scale remote work. The time that it took them to remedy the situation meant they had to work with an even reduced capacity for some time.
Increased Customer Service Requests
Interestingly, customer support requests have also gone up during the pandemic. Support ticketing provider Zendesk reported that there was a 20% increase in global ticket requests during March 2020. The three industries that saw the biggest increase were:
- Remote work and distance learning companies
- Airlines
- Grocery store chains
The Burden on Customer Service Agents
While the impact of COVID-19 on customer service is often seen through the lens of the company as a whole, agents also have their challenges. Many agents found themselves struggling to meet the increased support demands.
In a study by the Harvard Business Review, it found out that the number of calls agents assessed as “difficult to handle” doubled. The study noted that the increase is due to customers becoming more emotional and anxious during these times. This makes it more challenging for agents to reach out and assist them.
And customer service agents themselves are not immune to that anxiety. The study notes that many are anxious about the security of their jobs amid the crisis. This adds to the struggle that they are already having with the limited capabilities they can use for their work.
Improving Customer Service During the COVID-19 Pandemic
To overcome these challenges, companies need to rethink how they provide customer service. Their goal here is to lessen the impact of the limitations on the quality of support they can offer. Companies also need to support their agents so that they can effectively engage customers.
Streamlining the customer service process is the first thing that companies need to do. Here, they have to review all their customer support channels and see which ones have been severely impacted by the pandemic. From there, companies can remove the non-essential channels and reallocate resources for the ones that are still functional.
For instance, since face to face support is now out of the question, companies can instead assign the agents that normally handle it to other channels. This helps increase the manpower that is already available for those channels. By training their customer support teams for working with different channels, companies can implement these changes much faster.
Companies can also streamline their customer service processes by setting up the right integrations. Social media integrations are some of the important ones to consider, as these let you reach out to more customers during these times. Other integrations will help you process customer data faster to better determine the right kind of support needed.
Establishing a comprehensive self-service platform also helps in cleaning up the support process. Customers can rely on these for common concerns, freeing agents to focus on more pressing cases. Additionally, agents themselves can use these to help answer relevant questions.
Helping Service Agents Better Manage Customer Frustrations
The previously mentioned study by Harvard noted that many support agents often rely on established policies when handling COVID-19 related requests. But as these policies are not designed for the current situation, they leave the agents powerless in resolving these calls. Here, the study recommends that companies should help agents more freely assist customers.
Teaching the right language techniques can help do that. For instance, using phrases like \”Let’s see if we can help you figure this one out” assures customers that agents are on their side. Beyond that, agents also need to adapt to specific customer support situations instead of relying solely on predetermined policies.
Image from QMinder.
Here, Harvard recommends an “integrated coaching” approach. What this is coaching done in short bursts during customer calls. This helps managers see the finer aspects of agents’ customer engagements and guide them accordingly. Integrated coaching can be easily done virtually, making it more accessible to agents who are working from home.
Helping Agents Cope with the Stresses of the Job
Customer service agents also need a support system to more effectively respond to customer concerns. Companies should take advantage of the various collaboration tools to connect agents with each other, as well as with people from other departments. This so-called “network judgment” climate allows agents to tap into the collective wisdom of the team. Real-time collaboration tools like Slack make this strategy easier to implement.
Companies also need to actively boost the morale of their customer service agents. One way they can do that is by publicly recognizing agents who have done exceptional work of assisting customers. This tells everyone they have the company’s full support in them.
They would also want to regularly reach out to agents to see how they are doing. From there, managers can encourage agents to seek their guidance when needed or even just to talk about issues. These give customer service agents more breathing room, helping them prepare for the next batch customer requests.
The triumph of customer service amid of COVID-19
While the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected business operations, it should not spell the end for companies. The strategies outlined here guarantees that they can continue providing effective customer support even with all the challenges. Follow them and you can keep customers and agents happy even during this crisis.