How To Improve Your Customer Service Response Time?
What is Customer Service Response Time?
Did you know that according to a report by Superoffice about 88% of consumers anticipate a response from business within an hour? This means that businesses do not meet customer expectations when they take more than 60 minutes of response time to reach out to a ticket raised by a customer. But what is response time? In simple words, customer service response time is the period between a ticket being raised and the first help desk response received by the customer for that ticket. Great customer experience is driven by small elements like response time and this is why it is essential for businesses to work towards ways to reduce customer service response time. When customer service expectations are not met it can not only lead to unhappy customers but also affect profitability in the long run. When businesses work on ways to reduce customer service response time it can not only improve customer responsiveness but also increase customer satisfaction rates. By using the right CRM tools businesses can not only improve response time but also create a positive brand image at the same time.
According to a report by Customerthink when asked what would most improve customer service experience, about 40 % of the respondents believed that having faster response times would improve customer experience.
Why is it important to reduce the customer service response time?
When businesses don’t improve their first call resolution or response time it can lead to a wide range of problems like –
- Decreased customer onboarding
- Low customer satisfaction levels
- Lowered customer retention rate
- Bad customer feedback leading to a negative brand image
- Reduced sales leading to low profitability
Tips to improve customer service response time –
- Omnichannel help desk software
Using an omnichannel help desk management software like Kapture CRM helps businesses integrate all their customer care support channels on a single platform. Omnichannel customer support software helps integrate all sites in one place. This helps customer support agents handle queries from multiple help desk support sources. Using an omnichannel will not only prevent the flooding of tickets in inboxes but will also help customer care agents stay organized on all the tickets. Omnichannel facilities help customer care agents not only increase customer satisfaction but also increase response times.
- Enabling self-service portals
According to a report by Microsoft around 77% of customers reported having used a self-service support portal. Customers don’t always want to talk to help desk agents to solve their problems. They like to be independent and do their own research. Self-service portals aid customers by providing a knowledge base where they can find solutions to their problems or queries. Kapture CRM system’s Self-service facilities not only help businesses increase their customer service response time but also helps increase customer satisfaction.
- Using AI chatbots
Using AI chatbots for help desk management helps businesses cater to customer needs at any hour of the day. Unlike customer care support agents AI chatbots are not limited to office hours and are available round the clock. Since these chatbots are present 24/7 they solve customer tickets quickly and increase the company’s response time. In addition to this, they are also able to handle huge amounts of tickets all at the same time leading to a decrease in customer service agent time that can be used elsewhere.
- Automated responses
Automated responses like scripted emails or text messages are a kind of confirmation that a customer receives when they raise a ticket by sending a query or question.
Automated responses are scripted message templates that assure customers that the help desk team is going to get back to them. They are programmed in such a way that when a ticket is raised, the system automatically sends a message to the customer telling them that the business is currently working on solving their issue and will get back to them soon.
Increasing response time can be challenging if you don’t have the right tools. Using the right customer relationship management systems is a one-stop solution for all customer experience issues. To learn more about how you can increase your company’s customer service response time click here for a demo.
