Email has long been considered one of the pillars of customer support. But with the emergence of real-time channels like social media and chat, it has been pushed towards the background. That doesn’t mean that you have to forget about it, though. Here is how you can get a strong start with email-based customer support for your service agents.
The Benefits of Effective Email-Based Customer Support
The first thing that will likely come to your mind when talking about email-based customer support is why you should. Here are the key benefits that will convince you to go for a strong start with it.
Easy Access
While it doesn’t have the real-time component of chat or social media, email customer support is still very accessible. With most people now having their smartphones, they can read through their inbox wherever they are. They can also quickly send their questions and just wait for a response later instead of having to wait for an agent to come.
A Trustworthy Channel
One interesting thing about email communications is that many people still find it more trustworthy than other channels. This has to do with them putting more weight on written communications. After all, customers put all the effort into writing their concerns to you. By responding in the same manner, you show that you are serious about helping.
A Cost-Effective Option
Setting up an email service is still a lot easier than either a live chat or phone-based customer support. You don’t even need additional hardware and software for it. This makes it a lot easier to integrate it into other support channels.
Customer Expectations on Email Support
With all the benefits that email customer support has, it also carries a lot of expectations from people. The main concern here is how fast you can respond to the requests that you receive. Customer service expert Jeff Toister says that about 43% of customers expense a response to their emails within a day. Meanwhile, 19% expect a response within an hour. The latter is considered the standard that businesses should aim for.
But it doesn’t stop at just how fast you can answer customer emails. People also place great emphasis on the quality of service you can provide through the channel. In particular, they would want to have their issues resolved without too much back and forth.
Launching An Effective Email-Based Customer Support
The first point that you would want to work on to improve your email customer service is decreasing response time. While you might already have good response times, it always helps to improve it further. Your customer will greatly appreciate even a small increase in speed.
Improving First Response Time
First response time refers to how fast you get to answer the initial email from a customer. Since that customer might be contacting you for the first time, you want to act as fast as you could. After all, that will live a good initial impression.
To get an idea of the average first response time for a certain support period, you can use this simple formula.
Image from Superoffice.
Once you have determined the average response time, begin exploring ways to improve it. Autoresponders are particularly useful tools here, as you can handle dozens of incoming emails at the same time.
For the most part, you can simply set a reply acknowledging the receipt of their email. You can then provide them information on what comes next, such as the expected response times. Linking to specific sections of your knowledge base that address the sender’s concerns also helps decrease first response time.
Organizing and prioritizing the emails also help decrease initial response time. Create a ‘’triage” system that will quickly tag and prioritize each new email that comes in. When your agents see the tags, they can decide faster on how the mail should be handled.
Agent numbers can also contribute to slower response times. This is especially the case during peak season when your email customer center is swamped by a large volume of requests. In this situation, consider outsourcing some of that volume to a third party. You can have the company handle the least urgent ones. This lets your in-house team focus on the more complex emails.
Get A Strong Start With The Righ Email Content
How you respond to customers is also important for effective email customer support. What you want to provide is something that will not only have the relevant information but also show that you care for customers.
Personalizing your email responses is one useful strategy. Always refer to customers by their given name if they have provided it. And you would want to start with a semi-formal greeting. This helps them become more comfortable reading the email.
A Strong Start In Addressing The Customer\’s concerns
It is an obvious point but you should ensure that all the sender’s questions are answered within your initial response. List down all these questions and mark all those that can be resolved immediately.
In case of questions that can\’t be answered outright, explain to the customer why it is so and quickly respond to these in your next email.
But questions aren’t the only things that you would want to address in your reply email. You also need to address the emotions within the customer’s email. Take note of signs of frustration or anger and know how to handle these. Assuring them that you are doing your best to resolve the issues will calm them. In case you really can’t do anything, be ready to admit it and say that you are sorry.
Follow Up Your Strong Start Proactively
Good follow-up also plays a role in effective email-based customer support. Don’t wait for them to inquire again about the status of their support issue. Take it upon yourself to quickly update them on what’s happening. You can also offer any intermediate solutions in case the problem has yet to be resolved.
Image from SuperOffice.
Even if you have already resolved the issue in the first email response, make it customary to send a follow-up afterward. Here, you want to check if the solutions you provided are working for the customer. Not only will they appreciate the thought but you will also be able to immediately handle any issues that do crop up.
Have A Strong Start With Email-Based Customer Support
Effective email-based customer support will help fill gaps in your customer support ecosystem. Because of that, it is still a worthy channel for you to build on. Follow the strategies we have provided and you will have a strong start in satisfying customers.