Customer Service Software

All About Customer Service and Support Software

Customer service and support software assists customer service representatives with documenting, routing, tracking, resolving, and reporting customer concerns using a ticketing system that troubleshoots any and all issues. This software is typically referred to as help desk software, but it’s mostly applied to resolving IT (information technology) problems.

This type of software improves the resolution process of all customer concerns by automating some of the most common support functionalities. They increase customer satisfaction and improve the productivity of their agents.

You can purchase customer support management software as a standalone troubleshooting ticket system, a much broader CRM (customer relationship management) software suite such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Salesforce.com, or an enterprise software suite from vendors including SAP and Oracle.

Some support systems may integrate with other larger applications including sales force automation systems (which notify sales reps about chronic or critical issues), cataloging and inventory systems (to make sure that you have enough exchange parts in stock), and service dispatch software (to allow for repairs on-site).

Businesses utilize customer service and support software to help manage and track service communications face-to-face, via social media, through email, over the Internet, and by phone. But with hundreds of different software programs available, choosing the best customer service software for your business needs can be quite a challenge.

Common Features

Depending on scope and intent, there are a wide variety of customer service software products to choose from. The list below will outline some common features.

• Call routing - Customer service and support software relies on a lot of different criteria to ensure that customer calls get sent to the right customer service representative. Based on what the customer is calling about, one of the most basic functions will allow calls to be transferred to the correct department. More advanced systems that include automatic call distributors (aka ACD) can route phone calls based on which agents have the greatest level of appropriate skills, have taken the least amount of calls for the day, or have been waiting the longest. Some software will allow administrators to create custom rules for routing calls based on industry-specific (e.g. account status or service level) or nuanced principles.
• Auto-attendant - Auto-attendants are gatekeepers between contact with a human representative and initial dial-in. Auto-attendants integrate IVR (interactive voice response) technology that allows the computer to deliver dynamic options or responses based on keypad entries or voice comments. A basic auto attendant will direct calls to in-house or remote agents through an IP PBX (private branch exchange), while other attendants will fulfill requests (including device activation or account balance) or answer questions.
• Reporting and analytics - This type of software can assist department heads, managers, and coaches in guiding their teams to make more informed decisions by allowing them access to call metric data (including hold time and average handle time), customer satisfaction ratings, and resolving issues. This kind of software combines call archival and recording for easier compliance management and retrospective research.
• Mobile access - Mobile clients are offered for users to access desk phone features on their mobile devices. Remote and mobile service representatives can transfer, receive, and make calls, use internal collaboration tools such as a wifi or cellular network, or access directories.
• Case management - This can also be referred to as “ticketing,” and is an extremely important feature to have in your customer service software for support teams. It lets agents resolve and track service and product concerns through a variety of channels including social media, phone, instant messaging, and email. Moreover, it can generate tickets automatically through parsing data from customer communications and transcribing voice messages.

Types of Buyers

Certain companies have different requirements and drivers, which is important to make note of when you’re comparing customer support software systems. There are four different types of buyers we will discuss below.

• Field service buyer - They benefit from mobile access because they work for huge corporations that transport service to where the customer is located. These types of buyers will look for client integration that will work well with other applications. Several representative vendors include Microsoft Dynamics CRM, SugarCRM, FieldAware, and PhaseWare Tracker.
• Small business CRM buyer - Today’s small businesses are looking for more than just simple tracking capabilities for their contacts such as Microsoft Outlook. They want interactive tracking and trouble ticketing to improve relationships with strong support and service. Some representative vendors include SageCRM, Maximizer CRM, Zendesk, GoldMine CRM, and inContact.
• High-volume call center - These buyers operate more than one large call center and have goals to manage their business by utilizing automated scripts and rules which a majority of customer service applications support. These buyers should be on the lookout for programs that include CTI (computer telephony integration). Some vendors include GoldMine CRM, Salesforce.com, SAP, and inContact.
• Enterprise buyer - They work for companies that have many users and complex practical necessities. They value the idea of using an integrated software system across all business units and departments. The strategy they will utilize is the best of breed. Vendors include SAP, Oracle RightNow CX, and Salesforce.

Benefits of Customer Service Software

Having a superior customer service solution provides reporting and transparency to management on support processes, empowers agents, and boosts satisfaction. There are five benefits of using customer service systems which we will outline below.

1. Increased accountability - When each contact is documented, the system will allow management to be able to see which agent took care of which problem and provide them with ongoing feedback regarding their performance.
2. Improved coordination of accounts - Customer support systems can give both the service and sales organizations better transparency into a customer’s data when combined with sales force automation solutions. This produces benefits such as notifying an agent that repair parts are ordered so a customer won’t order double parts or letting sales representatives know if there are any outstanding issues before placing any calls.
3. Better asset management - Customer care solutions allow representatives to be assigned more efficiently when they are integrated with service dispatchers. In addition, integrating the software with an inventory management system will allow agents to inform to the customer with confidence that their repair parts are available.
4. Improved infrastructure scalability - Having a customer self-help system will handle straightforward problems which will give customers with more complex concerns quicker access to agents when they need them. The benefit will also allow a company to grow at a much faster rate while improving and maintaining customer satisfaction.
5. Ability to reduce the time required to resolve issues - This software will decrease the amount of time needed to resolve customer issues so your agents will be able to address more concerns, or if it’s the same load, fewer agents can be utilized to handle the calls. As an example, Zendesk customer support software was implemented by YouSendIt to respond to customer issues 35 percent faster.

Current Trends in Customer Service Software

On-Premise vs. Cloud

Most customer service software offers a multitude of options for deployment such as hosted (a combination of on-premise and cloud), software-as-a-service on the cloud, or on-premise. Other vendors have proprietary or virtual offerings. While many businesses are finding the lower upfront costs and mobility of cloud software better suited to fit their needs, there are downsides and benefits for each. According to a recent study, 35 percent of companies have started using cloud-based contact centers, while 28 percent plan to start using them within a year. That number will continue to rise in the near future if the long-term ROI and short-term savings are clear. The savings in IT employees and contact centers on average churns annual costs by nearly 30 percent.

Multichannel

The recent revolution of the customer experience has stimulated businesses to engage with customers how and when they choose to be engaged. Software developers are currently building systems that manage interactions through social media, mobile devices, on the web, and over the phone. This particular approach is called multichannel. It’s consistent with the reality that customers often look for help in more than just one place. Businesses will use data analytics and automation in the next couple of years to form relationships with these channels and determine which channels will add value and which will not. The telephone, however, is still the preferred method for 68 percent of people who need customer service.

Integration with CRM

Peripheral functionality must integrate with business tools you already have in your company, which is why customer service software includes pre-built assimilations with popular CRM (customer relationship management) solutions. If you can’t connect to a central database of customer data to look something up, what good is it to have ticket management and call routing features? CRM will integrate with your customer service system to get the most out of your click-to-dial and CTI abilities, log notes and call history, and trigger screen pops (recovery based on IVR input). There are some sources which indicate that CRM integration saves about 20 seconds per call, which can save up to thousands of hours each year.