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The old question of ‘who guards the guards?’ is prevalent in many aspects of society, and it always has been. When it comes to running a firm, it can also be a worthwhile venture to ponder this problem. Of course, the olden times of a medieval gatesman with a torch and a sword is probably a little outdated at this point, but we don’t want to question your security policy.
However, when it comes to providing essential services, such as support, it’s essential to support them too. This means not only being present for their needs but providing a rational structure to help them best deliver their value to your customers and clients. On top of this, sometimes support staff can encounter issues of their own. If you neglect to help resolve said issues, you might find it very difficult to truly benefit from their daily efforts. However, with the following advice, we believe you could truly make something worthwhile about this.
Please consider:
Flexibility
Support staff are only as good as their training, but even this cannot be fully actualized should they suffer when trying to provide a cohesive problem to a solution. Of course, guiding them through a range of essential steps can help them provide a uniform support experience for many of your customers. However, for those niche issues that need to be resolved, allowing your support staff to think laterally, to exercise important administrative control, as well as having all of their authority centralized can help them exercise a solution immediately.
For example, let’s say a customer calls and wishes for their account to be closed permanently, and their data to be removed. Instead of having to contact a higher-up, keeping your customer on the line for some time, giving them the authorial power to ask for verification and then delete the account, while logging a report as to why and how this happened can help them stay flexible. You can also help them with the use of:
Customer Accounts
Often, what saves time for the client will save time for the support representative. Customer accounts can be an essential part of this. Customer accounts can offer a log of activity, purchasing history, previous support tickets, contact information, purchasing analytics, and a range of other important information consented to when they created the account.
Asking for an email address or telephone number should be enough to help your support staff bring up all data collected on said individual, and this can help them benefit from said insight. They might be able to enact a much more profound solution, or simply get to the heart of the matter more quickly. After all, if they can take one minute reading up on previous support tickets rather than asking the client to repeat an issue for the seventh time that day, they have power. On top of this, support staff can verify the credentials of each account holder more thoroughly through the use of secure passwords or secret questions, allowing them to act in a secure way from the start.
Respect
Support staff, unfortunately, can take a lot of negative energy over the phone, in emails, or through live chat. Some customers or clients cannot directly distinguish between the individuals responsible for their problem, the company policy, and the person simply trying to work their job in the best way that they can. In fact, support staff are among the most frequent visitors of HR emotional sustenance programs in any workplace. It’s not hard to see why. They have to deal with a lot.
This is why it’s your job to support them. Again, a solid HR program can help them mitigate these issues. Allowing them to talk through the conflict they have faced can help them offload it. On top of that, ample breaks can be enough to help them deflate. However, you shouldn’t simply accept this kind of treatment. They are your employees, after all, and they are more important than losing one customer. This means that allowing your employees to cut the call off, at any time, for any reason, can help them immediately terminate a call should it become too directed, personal or aggressive. This puts the power into their hands, and they will appreciate you for that.
On top of this, recording calls for the purposes of training and legal security can ensure they can backup treatment they might have received if they want to recommend blocking or preventing the customer from mistreating more staff. On top of that, it could be worthwhile to use these aggressive calls as a hallmark in training, to show staff how they do not need to accept it, how it’s okay to report said person, and how a support staff member is only as good as the self-respect they hold. Believe us when we say that this approach might be absolutely otherworldly for support staff who could have received much different treatment elsewhere.
The Experience
An online helpdesk can be essential when trying to help your support staff organize tickets, answer a greater volume of them, and find solutions that are easy, practical, and dependable. For the helpdesk costs associated with setting a system like this up, the benefits are endless and also profound. You may be truly surprised to see just how effective planning this functionality could be.
On top of that, it’s important to consider the working conditions of your staff. For example, ensure they are given ergonomic, upright and comfortable chairs. Ensure they have enough room to breathe at their desk. Ensure they use light headsets with clarity instead of having to hold a telephone to their ears all day at the office. And allow them a solid reporting system should they need to make you aware of an issue. On top of that, do not treat them like low-rung employees. They are the ambassadors of your brand. They always, always, always have an effect.
With these tips, you’re sure to better support your support staff.
