We’ve all been in that situation where we were frustrated, couldn’t figure something out, and decided to call for help. At that moment, you’ve made a decision that this issue has overwhelmed and prevented you from moving anything else forward until it is resolved and getting someone to help is all that more important.
How best does the person helping you resolve the matter? What challenges will they face when interacting with you? How can they turn a negative experience into something positive?
These are all the questions to consider when facing support requests as an Austin IT support company. Sadly, I’ve seen and experienced too many times where customer service was swept under the refrigerator because of the lack of training and misunderstanding of the matter. I’ve personally had my fair share of 1800-Customer-Service phone calls where the person on the other side might as well have been from a different planet because they simply didn’t fully understand the matter or how to address it.
Why Customer Service Is Everything In IT Support
For IT companies, a positive customer experience should be the mainstay of your entire team. We believe it’s why people do business with us – and how we differentiate ourselves from the competition. We build upon our relationships and consistently provide a positive experience with our clients whenever and however possible. From the first interaction with our administrators, on to the resolution of your issue with our support engineers, and finally to the quality assurance with our client services, we’re consistently working to an overall positive experience for our customers. Our customer experience is reinforced with a follow-up phone call to each and every resolution. Also, we provide an opportunity to tell us how we’re doing by sending our customer satisfaction survey as we’re always building on and improving our customers’ experience.
Tip: Do what you say, do it on time, and be consistent.
The focus should be the customer, and the resolution to their problem your goal. A strong IT support team will have great customer relationships and will understand its customers’ challenges. Bottom line, your IT support team is the face of the company and your customers’ experience will be defined by the skill and quality of the support they receive.
To deliver a positive customer experience and excellence in customer service, as an IT company your team should do the following:
Be patient, empathetic, and a good listener. By patiently letting the customer explain their issue, you’re giving the customer a chance to set the priority, need for urgency, and affect the issue has on them and/or their business. Be a good listener and gather what details they provide during their explanation. Ask questions if needed. Once you’ve given the customer a chance to explain their issue, genuinely be empathetic and put yourself in their shoes – you should genuinely want to help and resolve the matter.
Clear communication, learn to adapt, and have great work ethic. Know how and when to communicate with the customer to help resolve the matter. Keeping a clear line of communication shows your concern to their problem and willingness to resolve it. The customer should never have to check in for a status update, or to get you moving. Each situation is different – learn to adapt and handle surprises with ease. Get a sense of the issue and know how to adapt accordingly. With great work ethic, you’ll know to see the matter through from problem to resolution.
Be available, knowledgeable, and accountable. At any given moment, you should be available and ready to assist the client with their issue. No one likes to be pushed into a queue and possibly forgotten. Their issue should be equally important to you, as it is to them. To lessen the burden, knowledge is key to resolving issues timely, and accurately. If you’ve resolved an issue before in the past, refer back to the resolution, apply it, and test. Confirm with the customer if you need to and be sure it meets their expectations. Lastly, if you’ve made a mistake or dropped the ball, show you’re accountable. Don’t blame anyone else, own up to it, and get back on track. When you admit to your mistakes, you build trust and confidence in the customer.
As an IT support company, remember that your customers are the most important part of your business. You should make customer service your top priority and always work for improvement. Make an effort to reach out to your customers and ask for their feedback. By doing so, you’ll keep a healthy balance of positive reinforcement for both the customer, and your support team.
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