Customer service is, without a doubt, an incredibly important component of any good business. Whether your customers need help with their products or if they need your assistance with something else, they’ll turn to you first and trust you as a reliable and approachable source of information.
However, if you’re hard to reach, don’t have the right communication channels open or just don’t have the staff numbers to man the support lines, then you’re not going to impress your customers.
To assist you, we’ve created a list of the most important contact methods that you should be including as part of your business model. You may already use some of these, but we’d recommend all of them if possible to get the most exposure.
Email is perhaps the most basic form of customer contact that we have in the digital age. If you’re not using email, then you’ll need to set it up as soon as possible so that people have a direct way to communicate with you should they need assistance.
Snail Mail
People often think that snail mail is dead because email and other digital communication methods are faster. However, snail mail will always exist as long as we have physical addresses and post boxes. Snail mail is often the preferred choice for senior citizens that have yet to grasp technology, but it’s also popular among people that want to send you personalized messages with physical media.
Phone Systems
It’s important to at least have one phone system in your business. However, if you’re a fairly large company and have support staff ready to answer calls and respond to queries, then voice over IP systems should be installed to make things easier.
Social Media
Using social media for customer communication is relatively new, but it’s without a doubt one of the fastest ways to get a message to a company. Social media channels need to be manned by specialized staff so it does require a bit of special training, but it’s well worth the investment because millions of users are active on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Message Boards
If you have a fairly large user base then creating a message board or community forum could be a brilliant idea. These boards typically require moderators, but there will likely be members of the community that would be more than willing to help you police the message boards to remove spam, help you answer questions and even do it for free. While a bit slower than social media, it’s still a great place to keep information and could even help with your website’s SEO.
Live Chat
Lastly, live chat software is a great way to give your customers a quick and simple way to contact you without having to use social media or telephone. It’s great for troubleshooting and solving immediate issues, but it does require a bit of training to use the software and you’ll need support staff manning it fairly regularly in order to deliver the best customer experience.
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