Customer care automation essentials

It’s generally accepted that it costs three times more to find a new customer than it does to sell to an existing one. For this reason, one of the most important aspects for a company is the person who has chosen us and the experience we can provide for him or her.

Perhaps this is the cause why we can find a wide range of service tools on the market that will help to achieve better customer judgment. However, finding the perfect one to match may represent a challenge as these can vary considerably in functionality and amount.

In the following, we summarize the basic capabilities that may be expected with regard to these software packages.

Communication channels with clients

• Email (connections with your Exchange server)
• Self Service desk
• IP telephone integration

Automatic email messages

• Create and edit HTML templates (for example: use your logo)
• Possibility to paste the information of the fields into the email template
• Customization about events when you send the email

Relieving pressure on agents

• Knowledge base for agents and customers (possibility to use rich text and pictures)
• Built in solution templates for agents (change field values and send emails with the matter of clicks)
• Possibility to check the registered cases of a client

Categorize and prioritize cases

• Set the right group of agents automatically according to the chosen category
• Set priority matrix based on different criteria

Customer portal

• Expanded knowledge base for clients
• Registration forms
• Possibility to overview and edit logged cases
• Possibility to communicate with clients

Reports and Dashboards

• Set and manage different SLAs or OLAs
• Create lists of cases by custom criteria

Other

• Mobile availability
• Customized document creation
• Possibility to create workflows
• Contract management
• Handle cases together (answer or close many cases in the same time)

Before you chose you should consider the following

• How far you should wish to get in mid-term from the way of simple complaint settlement to the customer-centric service provision. Is should cost a lot to upgrade or change your tool.
• Find your budget. It should depend of your return of investment ratio on customer satisfaction.
• Clarify your security expectations

In my experience, the team who do the correct assessment of needs and customization of opportunities are at least as important to success as the software itself.

And don’t forget, the best point to winning (or losing) a customer’s loyalty is when the customer have a problem with the product or service you provide!