Types of Customer Service 

Customer service aids clients. This support can be before, during, or after the customer has bought products or used your services. A great customer service experience goes a long way in retaining clients and expanding your business. There are different kinds of help you can supply to your customers. Let’s look at and discuss the five types of customer service you can offer your clients.

Traditional Support

Humans are tactile beings. Many people like physical stores and dealing with other people in person. Traditional support provides a more personal experience between you and the client. Even in such a digital world, many customers prefer the traditional way of doing things. One-on-one contact usually makes customers more at ease and feel assured about their purchase or the service they have been provided with. Regarding quality service, walk-in customers at an actual location are ideal; however, for the employees, it can be slow and tedious, not to mention dealing with angry clients can be challenging. There are pros and cons to this type of customer service, though.

A conversation between employee and client can go more smoothly because you can pick up on spoken and non-spoken cues to interpret where the conversation is heading. You can also discern what your customers want and need from their real-time responses. Other positive things of this assistance include making a solid connection, having meaningful conversations, building trust, confidence, and customer loyalty, and being able to up-sell or cross-sell store items.

The negative aspects of this customer service method are that round-the-clock support is impossible. Online platforms are more convenient than in-person assistance, and building a distinct customer service area at your business can be pricey.

The traditional style of service is most suited for a business with numerous locations and not having a solid online presence. This is where a dedicated customer service area must be implemented.

Email Support

Email support has been around for some time and remains one of the most popular and first types of client service a business offers. Since over fifty percent of people worldwide have email accounts, this support will only increase in the future. Many customers find email support easier, convenient, and efficient. It’s an organized way to document any problems the client is having. They can even attach images, videos, and other files that relate to their issue to help explain things better.

The pros of email customer service include giving customized answers to clients, having a way to document an ongoing conversation, copying and pasting answers as a solution for repetitious questions, and sending out automated follow-ups and scheduling is a breeze.

The con of this service is that you can’t always oversee all emails and could miss out on some. It can be tedious to write long responses, and clients can get upset because the answer is not prompt enough.

This model for customer service works well for B2B associations where complications or disputes can be more intricate, and employees need the time to remedy them. The proper email administration software can be a simple way to arrange, prioritize, and assign customer service communication in one location.

Messaging and Live Chat Support

One method that is gaining popularity is where customers can message or live chat with a business (like they can with family and friends). This service offers the speediest response to clients, and they can multi-task while waiting for an agent to solve their problems or answer their quandaries.

This kind of support is beneficial in many ways. On your website, embed a chat or messaging window and customize it to your specifications. Representatives can help clients while purchasing items in real-time, increasing sales. Personnel can talk with many different customers on chat at one time and cross and upsell effortlessly.

The downside to live chat support is that customers might feel the answers are robotic and rehearsed. Clients want an immediate solution to their problems, and agents have difficulty discerning emotion through text.

There are also automated chatbots you can set up for continuous support, 24/7, that can handle repetitive questions and requests, making them a key component for a support team.

Phone Support

Many customers like speaking to someone over the phone to solve their issues rather than visiting a store or office in person. Phone support has been a staple in customer service for many decades now.

It all starts with a human voice on the other end of the phone, cultivating a positive rapport and personalized experience for the client. Interaction happens in real-time, and there is a call-back component for a client’s convenience.

The downside is extended wait times for customers, and agents can’t do multiple calls at once. Intensive training is needed for phone support and long duration, or international phone calls can cost your clients money.

Self-Service

When solving their issues, the modern-day client gets a feeling of empowerment. It’s a way to get help with little effort by using a self-service portal, help center, or online community through an app or website for easy questions and answers. It would be best if you made sure that the self-service customer experience runs smoothly and that they can easily find the information they seek.

This method is available and convenient for existing and prospective clients all day and night. It will minimize the volume of support tickets and have agents concentrate on more pressing client problems. It’s a good idea to cater to international customers by having a multilingual base of operation.

Depending on how your knowledge base is set up, it might be hard to retrieve the correct information, and it will be near impossible to have the answers and solutions for every customer request or issue. If you have multiple people updating the system, it might lead to an inconsistent tone.

Various businesses like auto dealership service departments and auto repair shops provide after-hours support for their customers. They use secure night drop boxes, which let clients drop off their vehicle’s keys in a night drop envelope, indicating what service they require (right on the envelope). This enables the business to cater to the wants and needs of their customers outside regular work hours, without any employees present, with the use of night drop boxes and envelopes. If your automotive service business can benefit from a Car Key Night Drop Box visit https://mbrmarketing.com/service-department/night-drop-boxes-and-envelopes.

In Conclusion

Clients nowadays like more than one option to interact with their favorite companies and brands. The modern client likes digital options like social media and live chat, whereas others want traditional ways to communicate like email or phone support. Ask your clients directly if you are unsure about what customer service methods are best suited for your business. Also, you need to keep on trend and offer your clients the best customer service possible. Offering the best customer service methods can generate sales, cut costs, and, above all, make your customers satisfied and happy.

Sumegha Gupta

A tech-freak self-motivated professional that thrives on innovation and overcoming challenges. She is a trained writer and scholarship holder. Went through with writing for a lot of big media houses. Writing is her all-time favorite job. Know more about her on facebook