The Importance of SaaS Customer Support in a Post-COVID World

 “Among the company functions that are hardest-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic is customer service. Issues related to the pandemic dramatically increased the level of customer emotion and anxiety in service calls, making a job that is hard for reps on a normal day far more challenging.”

–Extracts from Supporting Customer Service Through the Coronavirus Crisis (HBR)

Without a doubt, the Coronavirus pandemic has changed the world – and this includes the world of customer service. As the pandemic continues to maintain a tight grip on healthcare systems and economies, businesses now have to deal with higher customer service expectations than in the pre-pandemic days. Customers now demand fast, accessible, and empathetic brand interactions, 24x7x365 customer service, and support via texting, live chat, and chatbots. And more than anything else, they demand meaningful and personalized experiences and two-way conversations, not impersonal and meaningless transactions or one-way communication blasts.

Contact centers that can meet these new demands can garner greater customer loyalty, higher sales, and stronger reputations even in a demanding, post-COVID landscape. And Software as a Service (SaaS) will play an important role in helping them achieve these objectives.

SaaS Customer Support: Customer Support vs Customer Success

SaaS customer support is about looking beyond on-premises support systems to cloud-based systems that simplify life for both agents and customers. In a post-pandemic world where many contact centers are working with remote/virtual agents, this new support model is vital.

Traditional customer support teams respond to customers, resolve their queries, and even help improve the customer experience. However, SaaS customer support enables them to look beyond customer support and single transactions with customers to customer success and long-term relationships that endure beyond a sale. They proactively work with customers and help them find success with the organization’s product or service. They focus on providing great service after every sale, so that the contact centers can ensure customer retention, garner their loyalty and advocacy, increase customer lifetime value, and ultimately, sales and profits.

Key Elements of SaaS Customer Support

In today’s buyer economy, quality customer support is critical. However, it can also be time-consuming and expensive – if not handled correctly. SaaS customer support can effectively address these challenges, if it includes the following key elements:

Easy-to-find support widget or link

A hard-to-find support link or widget frustrates customers, while SaaS apps with easy access to visible and intuitive support resources help customers, increase their satisfaction, and keep them coming back.

Useful and Updated FAQs

Many customers prefer low-friction self-help tools instead of talking to a support agent. A SaaS system with an updated knowledge base, in-depth content, and answers to common queries is perfect for such users, and can also reduce the burden on human agents.

Fast Answers with Live Chat

With live chat customer support, customers can get their questions answered on-demand and in real-time. Plus, by adding features like co-browsing, the contact center can quickly address customer queries to improve customer experiences, and even boost sales and customer lifetime value.

Omnichannel Support

Email and phone support are no longer adequate for today’s contact centers. By leveraging AI-powered customer service platforms like Syrow, contact centers can offer responsive, personalized support to build trust and long-term customer relationships.

Powerful Agent Tools

SaaS-based contact centers have access to powerful agent tools for collaboration, information gathering, and automation. From Unified Agent Desktops and CTI connectors to scripting tools and wallboards – contact center agents can leverage many tools to provide real-time support from anywhere while minimizing handling time, improving first call resolution, and enhancing customer experiences.

Strategies to Successfully Implement SaaS Customer Support

Implementing successful SaaS customer support requires a rethink of the customer support philosophy, which in turn should be driven by the company’s values. The entire customer support team should be aligned with these values, and use the right communication channels to deliver support in the ways customers expect and demand. A cloud-based system effectively synchronizes the entire team and makes relevant information available to them via key integrations with CRM, ERP, and other systems, so they can provide timely, quality, and personalized support to customers with every interaction.

It’s also important to identify the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure performance, identify gaps, and address them continuously and iteratively. Asking customers for feedback via surveys, reviews or polls is a good way to find performance gaps and make the required changes. Benchmarking important metrics like response times, first call resolution, handling time, number of complaints, customer satisfaction (CSAT), etc. against industry standards or competitors can also help improve performance.

Conclusion

For modern contact centers, exceptional customer service is the only differentiating factor that really matters. With SaaS customer support, they can develop a more customer-centric mindset and deliver memorable, personalized experiences that translate into stronger customer retention, more opportunities for upselling and cross-selling, and stellar reviews and ratings in a highly competitive, post-pandemic world.

Key Takeaways:

•  A cloud-based system effectively synchronizes the entire team, via CRM, ERP, etc. to provide timely, quality, and personalized support.
• Customers feedback via surveys, reviews or polls is a good way to find performance gaps, and the changes required.
• SaaS customer support helps in developing the customer-centric mindset and personalized experiences, creating opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.
• SaaS-based contact centers have access to powerful agent tools for collaboration, information gathering, and automation to provide real-time support from anywhere.
• AI+human-powered omnichannel customer service contact centers offer responsive, and personalized support to build trust and long-term customer relationships.