Top 6 Common Customer Service Problems & Their Solutions

Customer Service Tools
Customers are more aware of their rights today than ever before. With the increasing competition in the market, they are spoilt for options. Businesses are quickly realizing that customers refuse to settle for anything less than the absolute best, and therefore, they need to up their customer service game if they want to retain as well as gain customers. Excellent customer service tools and management tools are a pressing requirement for all businesses, irrespective of the industry they belong to. Good customer service is the only thing that guarantees profitability for businesses in customer-based industries such as healthcare, automobiles, hospitality, travel & tourism, and banking, among various others. In the absence of a good and efficient customer service strategy, businesses fail to grow and make profits. As a result, they end up losing potential customers to their competition. Even today, many businesses stick to manual dialing, which is an ineffective customer service mechanism that prevents businesses from realizing their full potential. Although manual handling of calls was useful at one time, we have come a long way in offering support to customers. Businesses are turning to omnichannel setups to take customer management to the next level.    

Need for Customer Service Software 

While businesses realize the need to ensure impeccable customer service, they have also come to terms with the fact that it can often be an insurmountable challenge. Also, the bigger the business, the more difficult it becomes for it to offer good customer service and after-sale support to its customers. There are a number of smart customer service tools for small business that help businesses achieve this. While companies used to set up call centers and employ a larger number of people to handle calls until recently, it became increasingly difficult for them to handle customers as their businesses scaled up and the customers grew in number. As a result, businesses found it difficult to keep up with the customer demands that were increasing exponentially. Many businesses rely on manual calling, which is a one-dimensional customer support channel. While manual calling appears to be a viable option for providing customer support, it has several drawbacks. It's not only expensive and time-consuming, but it also can't keep up with the growing volume of calls, which is only going to increase as the company grows. This is why businesses need to come up with a viable strategy for managing their customers better. They need to invest in the best customer service software for small business. However, handling calls is just a part of the strategy and can not fill the void that the lack of a good strategy creates. Customer service should be at the top of any business’s priority list, and they should employ all the required tools and strategies in order to ensure 100% customer satisfaction.    

Customer Service Strategy 

In the absence of a well-thought-out and practical strategy, businesses face several challenges in meeting the requirements of their customers. There are many factors that lead to a poor strategy. Irrespective of those, a bad strategy can be catastrophic for the healthy growth of a business. Some of these factors include:
  • Lack of resources for investing in a good strategy
  • Not taking customer feedback constructively
  • Not investing in the right tools and software solutions
  • Having a rigid approach
  • Not having a skilled staff to handle customer grievances
  • Not evolving with the times
Irrespective of these factors, a poorly constructed or, worse, a lack of a customer service strategy gives rise to a number of avoidable challenges. Even when businesses come up with a good strategy, they struggle with its implementation due to a lack of the right customer service tools and management tools.  

The 6 Most Common Customer Service Problems and Their Solutions 

It is not uncommon for call centers to encounter angry customers. However, they must understand that, in most cases, the customers are angry for a reason. Most of the time, it is because they feel undervalued and their grievances go unheard. This can harm a business in the long run. Tackling angry customers is a skill that business owners acquire with time. It is important to understand the causes that give rise to such problems in order to eliminate them. Different problems require different solutions. However, almost all of them require extensive planning, tools, resources, and earnest sincerity from the service agents to solve clients’ problems as their only goal. Listed hereunder are some of the most commonly faced customer service challenges and effective solutions to overcome them.   1.   Call waiting timeOne of the biggest drawbacks of manual calling is that it requires customers to wait in call queues before they can reach a customer agent, who may or may not be skilled enough to solve the customer’s problem. However, that is a different problem all on its own. Customers have to wait in call queues for minor things such as confirmations, reminders, and updates. This causes many customers to abandon the call, which leaves their problems unsolved. In the long run, this harms the brand value as they become infamous for offering bad customer support. Solution:  The solution lies in automation. IVR is one of the most reliable customer service tools for small business.  With the help of IVR, customers can be led to solve most of their problems on their own with the help of an intelligently designed IVR menu. This brings great convenience to both customers and businesses. While it saves customers from the trouble of waiting in long queues, it also helps businesses reduce the load on their customer service agents, who can divert their attention to addressing more complex issues and do not have to waste time giving confirmations to customers, which can be taken care of with the help of IVR.     The IVR solutions by SAN Softwares are an effective way to handle phone calls. IVRs perform a variety of tasks with high accuracy and efficiency, to the point where a growing number of companies rely on them to provide excellent customer service. IVR systems can be hosted (EasyGoIVR) or installed locally (San IVR). Hosted IVR solutions, on the other hand, allow businesses to operate remotely.    
  1.     Uninformed Agents
Customers often have to wait in long queues in order to reach the right agent to get their problem solved. This is a problem in itself and needs to be tackled. However, an even bigger problem arises when the call gets routed to an agent who is clueless about the problem and is incapable of coming up with a solution for any reason. As a result, the customer’s problem remains unsolved.   Solution:  Before addressing this problem, we must understand the reason that caused it to arise. One of the two reasons this usually happens is that the customer support agent is unskilled. Secondly, the agent is not concerned with the department the problem is related to. I.e., the call got routed to the wrong agent. In either case, it is the customer who gets inconvenienced. Both of these problems can be tackled through strategic planning. Even in cases where companies have employed the best customer service software for small business, their customer service agents still need to be trained and taught the necessary skills so that they are able to assist customers in a better way. They should be taught customer management skills that help them handle crisis-like situations. More importantly, companies need to invest in the necessary IVR tools that come loaded with useful features such as smart call routing. Smart call routing directs the customer’s call to the next available agent who is capable of solving the customer’s problem.   Apart from these, IVR voice bot solutions add to the overall customer experience. With reminders, confirmations, follow-up calls, appointment scheduling, and more, the San IVR voice bot is a useful tool that helps businesses improve customer satisfaction. It's a dependable voice bot that can handle a wide range of tasks. An outbound dialer is another important IVR tool. SanOBD is a powerful IVR blasting solution that helps businesses reach out to new customers and expand their reach. SanOBD is a result-driven IVR blasting solution that assists businesses in gaining more customers.    
  1.     Poor ticket management 
With multiple tickets assigned to each customer, it's nearly impossible to keep track of them all. It creates a lot of uncertainty for customers and causes them to be inconvenienced. When there is no proper mechanism for registering and managing tickets, disputes are more likely to occur. With the help of a good ticket management system, these issues can be easily avoided. Customers are frequently required to make multiple phone calls in order to resolve their issues. In the majority of cases, they must start from the beginning each time. It becomes more difficult to track a customer's journey, and issue resolution becomes more time-consuming. This can be inconvenient and, in the long run, reduce productivity.   Solution: Effective dispute resolution is ensured by smart customer management software solutions. They are designed in such a way that calling is simple and that all operations can be easily streamlined. The majority of companies have put in place smart ticket management software solutions, which are a powerful tool that ensures complete customer satisfaction. A ticket management software ensures that once a ticket is registered, the customer's journey is tracked, and the customer can reconnect with the previous agent and resume their journey from where they left off. This ensures that ticket management software solutions keep track of a customer's journey and enables businesses to provide the best possible solution for them. Investing in good ticket management software allows businesses to improve their customer service. It makes it easier for businesses to deal with complaints and disputes. SanTMS is a top-rated customer relationship management and ticket management system. It enables companies to provide the best possible customer service. It is a multi-featured solution that makes businesses more productive and successful.    
  1.     Unavailable or inaccessible support 
It has been seen that in many businesses, the customer support service is as good as absent. Businesses can be rigid and not keep up with the latest trends. Many a time, there are only a handful of ways in which customers can reach businesses. And even then, they are disappointed to find that they are unavailable for their customers. For instance, in many cases, even today, businesses can only be reached by their customers through phone calls. The customers are then met by busy lines and they end up waiting in queues to get their queries answered. This can be frustrating for customers as they are made to waste their valuable time waiting to get in touch with an agent.   Solution:  There is a need for businesses to adopt an omnichannel approach. This means that they need to identify the channels that their customers prefer the most and be actively available on those for handling any customer queries. As a result, companies end up becoming more approachable and readily available to help their customers. Omnichannel customer service guarantees quick resolution of customer problems and, as a result, customer satisfaction and loyalty. Omnichannel customer service is one of the most indispensable customer service tools and management tools for customer service because of the large number of benefits it provides. These are:  
  • Pleasant customer experience
  • Catering to as many customers as possible
  • Increased customer satisfaction
  • Better customer retention and loyalty
  • Interacting with customers through various channels
  • Automated support through chatbots and IVRs
  • Collecting valuable feedback from customers.
  • A data-driven approach to the dispute resolution
  • Improved productivity and profitability
 
  1.     Over-automation 
While the term over-automation itself sounds a bit far-fetched, over-automation is still possible. Although the digitalization of customer service has gained momentum and customer service tools for small businesses have gained popularity, it is possible for businesses to overdo it. In that case, it ends up becoming counterproductive. Over-automation and its ill effects can be seen in the high abandonment rates of some IVR calls. While IVR menus and bots are supposed to be of assistance to callers, they serve no purpose when customers urgently need to speak to a human assistant. There are several reasons that cause customers to abandon calls. There are several common mistakes companies make with IVR systems. Some of these are:
  • Long waiting time
  • Unnecessarily long IVR menus
  • Over-complicated menus
  • Adding too many options
  • Asking customers to repeat information
  • Inability to connect to assistants
  • No option to request a callback
  • No personalized experience for customers
  • Being put on hold repetitively
  • Irrelevant promotional audios on hold
  Solution:  Businesses need to realize that software solutions should be incorporated into their business strategy in order to enhance the customer experience, not diminish it. However, many businesses over-automate the process and make customer support inaccessible to their customers. No amount of automation can substitute for the human touch, which is important for building trust and loyalty among customers. IVR menus should be uncomplicated and should be kept as short as possible. This ensures that they are easy to use. Moreover, many IVR options do not offer a call-back option. This requires callers to stay on hold before they can be connected to the next available agent.  
  1.     Unresolved Dispute 
Disputes are an inevitable part of any business. Most of the time, the lack of communication creates confusion between customers and businesses. Many businesses deal with disputes and disagreements on a regular basis. Solving them is usually tedious and time-consuming. This has a significant impact on productivity because it frequently results in the waste of valuable resources. It can also result in financial losses for a company. More than that, this has an adverse impact on the company’s brand value and credibility. Therefore, it is important to put in place an effective strategy for resolving disputes and use all the necessary tools to achieve the same.   Solution:  Voice logging systems should be used by businesses and call centers to record all conversations between the agents and the customers. This is important because logged calls can be used as tangible evidence in the event of a dispute. Voice logging software ensures transparency, which is the most important factor in a company's success. Call recorders are essential for maintaining transparency and resolving disputes. SanLogger is a voice recording software developed by SAN Technologies that ensures that all of your calls are accurately recorded so that they can be used in the event of an emergency.

 Best Customer Service Software for Small Business 

As businesses grow and expand, it becomes increasingly difficult for businesses to keep up with the ever-increasing customer grievances. Therefore, it is more feasible for businesses to create a custom-built software solution that allows them to provide uninterrupted services to their customers. Customized software solutions are scalable and allow businesses to provide the best possible support to their customers. SAN Softwares, a leading software development company in India, has been providing the best customer service tools for small businesses. We provide the best customer service solutions and customize them to suit the requirements of your business. We provide solutions that are reliable and help businesses reap the benefits of customer service software. We provide customizable customer service tools and management tools, depending upon the nature of your business and its requirements. Our software solutions are easy to install and use, and can be integrated with the existing telephony setup and other systems. It is a one-time investment that helps large organizations and contact centers exceed customer expectations. Our multi-featured calling solutions handle calls efficiently and streamline business operations, thereby allowing businesses to be more productive and profitable.
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