Providing good customer service is vital for the success of your startup company. But that service is often more of the reactionary kind. You only provide support when the customer asks for it.
But there is a better way to approach providing support: being more proactive. That can give you a considerably more effective way of meeting your customers’ needs. So, how do you implement it? And how can Virtua Solutions help you out? Let’s explore this more.
Why Proactive Customer Support?
Reactive customer support is still very much a valid approach. After all, most of the support engagements you have are initiated by the customer. But adopting a more proactive approach gives you several benefits.
Save Time For Your Agents And Customers
Time is a valuable commodity when it comes to customer service. People might not always have the time to wait for you to resolve their issues. On the other hand, your agents might become too preoccupied with these customers that they can’t handle anything else.
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Providing more proactive support helps both sides. For customers, it means they can quickly resolve the issues they have. Meanwhile, your agents can have more time handling other essential support duties.
Preventing Major Pain Points
Sometimes, the biggest headaches that your customers encounter are the smaller ones that they initially overlooked. Or it could be situations beyond their control that you could still handle better.
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Being unable to respond to such situations when they arrive will not be good for your reputation. But with a proactive approach, you anticipate these issues and devise solutions for them. With that, your customers have something to lean back on to deal with such problems and resolve them before they get out of hand.
Building A Loyal Customer Base For Your Startup Company
Good reactive customer service, by itself, can already help you build a strong following. But adding proactive support will give your customers more reason to stay. When they see you take time to discover issues that they might not be aware of and resolve them, people will also be likely to purchase more from you.
The Components Of Effective Proactive Customer Support
The next question you might have is where your startup company should begin when implementing proactive customer support. You need to have these several essential elements when building your proactive service.
Startup Company Customer Research
As is with reactive customer service, proactive service begins with having a comprehensive knowledge of your customers. That involves researching what issues your customers are experiencing. You also need to anticipate potential ones they might encounter based on their behavior.
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A big challenge with that research is that you need to conduct it regularly. Customer behavior can change quickly. We help you by conducting the research in the background. Our team will handle the various market research tasks, such as monitoring social media comments. We then provide you with a comprehensive report of our findings. With that, you are sure to have the information on which to base your strategies.
Another way to know more about your customers is by asking for feedback from them. You can incorporate that feedback in your regular customer service engagements. Additionally, you can engage them in conversations for that purpose.
Self-Help Options
Another integral part of good proactive customer service is a system of self-help options. Customers can use these to find solutions on their own. With this, your support team can focus on more complicated issues.
A well-maintained knowledge base is at the core of this self-help system. It contains the basic information about your products. There is also a section on the most common questions people might ask. Additionally, you should provide solutions not just for the common issues they encounter, but also for the new ones they discover.
Other forms of self-service that you provide include:
- Chatbots
- Mobile apps
- Community forums
- Automated phone systems
- Automated service kiosks
The type of self-service that you offer should match the preferences of customers. This way, they will be more inclined to use these as intended.
One thing to note is that these self-help options require maintenance for customers to get the most out of them. Virtua Solutions can handle all that maintenance work in the background. We will ensure that all information in your knowledge base is updated and correct. Additionally, we can assist customers in using the other options you provide.
Commitment
Beyond the tools and technology, your startup business will succeed in providing proactive customer service through strong commitment. Your team needs to be ready to take on the responsibility of delivering service even when they least expect it.
Here, you have two goals to fulfill.
- Make yourself available: This isn’t just about making it easy for customers to reach you. You can also reach them to deliver the solutions they need.
- Help customers help themselves: You should be ready to guide customers to the solutions they are looking for without being too imposing.
Note that much of this is also present in your reactive customer support strategies. As such, you can consider proactive service as an evolution of the former. Here, you become more focused on ensuring that they succeed in using your products or service.
Through Virtua Solutions’ help, you can stay committed to these goals. Our customer support agents will expand your reach to the channels your customers use most often. And as mentioned above, we can help you ensure that your self-help services will do their jobs without fail.
How Your Startup Company Can Go Beyond.
Of course, providing proactive customer service doesn’t stop here. As the name says, you need to be ready to give more to them even before they ask for it. Here, you need to be creative in the other kinds of service you offer them.
Create A Loyalty/Rewards Program
One nifty way to provide additional service to your customers is through a rewards program. The idea here is simple. As you give them more rewards, the more they are likely to return and engage with your business.
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Of course, the strategy lies in the rewards that you offer. Make these rewards as further solutions to the concerns customers might encounter. For instance, before they even start considering whether to renew a subscription to your service, you can already provide them a reward for doing so. Giving them that early treat will help them decide better.
Proactively Own To Your Mistakes
Being proactive isn’t just about being ready to assist customers. You should also be ready to own up to mistakes. And here, that should not only be the case when they raise the issue to you.
Instead, actively look for these potential mistakes and fix them before customers even notice them. You can inform your customers afterward and already provide them with the solutions they need. By doing so, you save them a lot of potential headaches.
Be Proactive And Let Your Startup Company Serve Customers More
Being more proactive in your customer service efforts will require you to expand your capabilities. We are ready to help you do that by providing an expert team for your needs. Sign up with us today and make your startup company customers happy.