Types of customer service you should know about

Introduction

Effective customer service is a key part of any successful business strategy. Recently, customers have started using digital communication tools to give companies feedback about products. As a result, numerous new customer service tools have been created. Therefore, it has become a necessity for companies to offer multiple channels and types of customer service.

Customer service is the support a company offers to its customers. Support begins during the purchasing process and usually extends past the purchasing date. During the purchasing process, companies provide customers with information about their services to help them make informed decisions.

Customer service is important for businesses looking to grow their brand loyalty and maintain their customer base. Successful companies create an environment where customers feel comfortable coming for assistance. When customers are confident that they will receive the help they need, they’re more likely to repeat purchases. Furthermore, they will probably become advocates for your company and recommend your brand to others.

Nowadays, companies have started offering types of customer service support on various platforms. Besides telephone, customers can now find support via email, webchat, text message and social media. There are many tools to help companies provide customers with the help they need. However, there are two basic types of customer service: proactive and reactive.

Proactive Customer Service

This is one of the types of customer service that identifies and resolves issues before they escalate. It focuses on customer success and for that reason, the majority of consumers prefer proactive support. In fact, about 68% say that proactive customer service improves their perception of a brand.

Advantages of Proactive Customer Service:

Higher customer loyalty and a better service experience
Lower volume of issues and requests
Trust and strong customer relationships

Disadvantages of Proactive Customer Service:

Annoying to some customers

You can deliver proactive customer service by solving an issue in advance. The other way to do it is by providing self-help resources.

Proactive Types of Customer Service:

Self-service
On-site
Live chat
Chatbots

Reactive Customer Service

Reactive service comes after a customer files a complaint, experiences a problem or feels generally dissatisfied. It is usually more stressful as support agents are dealing with negatively charged people. It also makes a less positive impact on the customer experience and brand perception.

Advantages of Reactive Customer Service:

Helps to identify frequent issues
Can help with customer retention

Disadvantages of Reactive Customer Service:

More workload for support agents
May increase the churn rate

Types of Customer Service

Walk-in service departments

This type of customer service is usually slow and inconvenient. Especially for people who have to visit the physical storefront to get their concerns addressed. However, one-on-one interactions can be practical when it comes to building a rapport with your customers. You get the opportunity for a meaningful conversation, know a customer better and get feedback in real-time.

However, in-person interactions can sometimes require offering a solution to an angry customer right away. In fact, a single customer case can take up the majority of your time. Ultimately leading to a delay in the work you were scheduled to do.

Advantages and Disadvatantages of Walk-in Service Departments

Advantages of Walk-In Customer Service:

Have face-to-face interactions with customers and understand their problems better
Win the trust of your customers as well as prospects
Get the opportunity to recommend other similar products and increase sales
Get non-verbal cues from customers (eye contact, gestures, facial expressions, etc.)

Disadvantages of Walk-In Customer Service:

Maintaining a separate in-house customer service section can be time-consuming and expensive
That space can be instead utilized for selling more products
Having an “only physical help section” makes your business appear outdated

Telephone support

Telephone support is a classic way of offering customer service. Moreover, it is probably the oldest customer service type. However, a phone conversation remains a powerful way to solve problems. In fact, around 61% of US customers prefer phones as their go-to channel to resolve customer service issues. To receive telephone support, customers call agents on the phone to ask questions and explain their problems verbally. This allows them to describe complicated situations with ease. Furthermore, support agents can resolve complex issues faster and deliver detailed, personalized support.

However, there are some challenges in telephone support processes. For example, poor cellular service can lead to dropped calls. Moreover, limited staff availability can lead to long wait times. Furthermore, it can be expensive when it comes to customer service. However, with the right software, you can get valuable insights. For example, the number of calls, full customer history, call recording and other time-saving tools.

This type of customer service works great for online businesses. Also, for companies who value personal connections with customers. It also works for businesses and institutions that handle complex cases. The phone will allow them to instantly answer all the questions the customer may have. In addition, it is ideal for B2B or B2C sectors that deal with high-priority or sensitive requests.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Phone Customer Service

Advantages of Phone Customer Service:

Deliver a personalized experience to each customer
Customers can interact with an agent and get the right solution in real-time
Improve your chances of First Contact Resolution (FCR)
Offer automated call back feature to interact with customers at their convenience
Takes less time than typing or email exchange
Easy to use for different generations
More natural human-to-human interaction

Disadvantages of Phone Customer Service:

Long hold times can decrease the customer experience
Customer service agents cannot handle multiple calls at the same time
Phone support requires intensive agent training
Heavily dependent on the quality of reception
Possible high charges for international customers
Time-consuming and frustrating operator transfers

Self-service support

This support is ideal for customers who want to access information easily and answer questions on their own. Furthermore, this type of customer service is inexpensive and requires zero wait time from a customer. However, information should be well organized including videos, images and step-by-step procedures. In addition, it should be kept up-to-date with the terms and policies of the company.

Self-service is a great fit for businesses that get common service requests. For example, refund and exchange requests, questions related to product configurations, billing requests etc. Self-service support primarily exists in the form of frequently asked questions (FAQs) published on a company’s website. Furthermore, it can include chatbots, knowledge base articles, product guides, video tutorials and more.

Self-service is ideal for customers who wish to get relevant help with minimum effort. Over 60% of US customers prefer an automated self-service portal for simple queries. For example- websites or mobile apps. By letting customers help themselves, you can reduce customer friction while improving efficiency and delivering faster resolutions. Taking that into account, every business should include some sort of self-serve customer service solution.

To make the most of this type of customer service, your team members need to be informed. For instance, your support agents need to know your customers’ needs and typical questions they have. You’ll also need to ensure a great SEO and UX of your self-service sites. The goal of such a customer service solution is for your customers to find your blog easily. Customer self-service works well for any industry. However, it could be more useful to companies that offer a wide range of services or complicated products. It’s also a good option for public institutions that deal with many regulations and formalities.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Self-Service Support

Advantages of Self-Service Knowledge Base:

Be available to both existing customers as well as prospects 24×7
Reduce your support ticket volume significantly
Allow agents to focus on more important customer issues
Create a multilingual knowledge base to cater to customers from different parts of the world
Combines various resources
Customer-friendly
Low maintenance (in case of infrequent product changes)

Disadvantages of Self-Service Knowledge Base:

It might be difficult for customers to locate relevant information
You will have to update your existing help content or add new pages constantly
Impossible to cover solutions for all customer problems or requests
The different writing styles and knowledge of contributors can lead to inconsistent documents
High maintenance (in case of frequent product changes)
Labor-intensive in case of a complex product

On-site support

This type of customer service is provided in person, at home or customer’s workplace. Companies use on-site support to provide repairs and troubleshooting services to customers with technological issues. The biggest advantage of this support is that it allows interaction with customers on a more personal basis. Consequently, it can help build stronger customer relationships to make repeat business more likely.

This type of customer service is very convenient for customers as it’s delivered to their door. A customer service representative arrives at the customer’s site to deliver a service in person. However, this type of customer service is not convenient for the company, though. It requires close collaboration between the customer service team and an on-site service representative.

Furthermore, on-site customer service is usually very expensive. You have to worry about aspects such as hiring remote professionals, their training, travel expenses and more. However, certain products require the physical presence of an assistant when something goes wrong. For example- installing a product at the site, annual maintenance or product repairs.

Advantages and Disadvantages of On-site support

Advantages of On-Site Customer Service:

On-site customer service acts as a more convenient option for customers
Real-time service can lead to better problem resolution
Serves as the last resort when all other channels have failed
Customers can check the authenticity of parts being replaced
Field expertise display
Natural face-to-face interactions

Disadvantages of On-Site Customer Service:

Visiting the customer’s location can prove to be time-consuming
On-site service is quite expensive and cannot be offered to all customers
Agents have to be trained in multiple customer service areas such as technical support, etc.
Agents can get frustrated due to unpredictable working hours and location
Requires an on-location support team

One-on-one customer service makes sense only when an on-site presence is necessary. For example, appliance repairs and inspections would be hard to deliver over the phone or any other medium.

Live chat support

This tool is very popular because it satisfies customers’ need to get their issues quickly resolved. For instance, customers usually reach service agents within a matter of seconds with live chat. Furthermore, the instant and web-based format usually means customers can multitask when wait times do occur.

Customers can use live chat support to instant message a service agent on a company’s website. As a result, agents provide them with solutions and answer questions. Moreover, customers can search within the chat widget to find answers to their queries. One way to provide this type of direct customer service is by implementing live chat on your website.

According to this research, customer service provided by live chat is 17-30% cheaper than a phone call. The reason is simple – the phone doesn’t allow you to manage multiple customers simultaneously. When you compare the various customer service options, live chat offers the fastest response times to customers.

This service is greatly appreciated by users who avoid human interaction. A customer can make queries and get responses in the middle of a purchase. Customers from a different time zone can report an issue anytime because live chat offers round-the-clock accessibility. You can add live chat to your online store by downloading plugins, such as Zendesk Chat, Pure Chat and LiveChat.

Consider live chat for your customer service if you:

Have an online business
Prefer to stay closer to your customers
Want cost-efficient but premium customer service

Advantages and Disadvantages of Live Chat Support

Advantages of Live Chat Customer Service:

Assist customers in real-time when they are shopping and increase sales
Agents can handle multiple customer chats at the same time
Easily integrate upselling and cross-selling opportunities
Canned responses to automate repetitive replies
Webchat conversation archive
Customer-friendly
Proactive customer service
Website integration and high customization
Integration with various third-party apps
No frustrating operator transfers

Disadvantages of Live Chat Customer Service:

Chat replies can often feel scripted and robotic to customers
You are required to offer a solution to the customer almost immediately
The use of emoticons or slang by customers can prevent a meaningful conversation
Faster than email but slower than a phone chat

Chatbot Support

Chatbots are useful virtual assistants. They can answer customers’ questions, collect feedback and much more. If a chatbot is unable to resolve a customer issue, a customer is routed to relevant agents. However, despite the popularity and cost-saving benefits, conversations with chatbots lack a human touch.

The most significant benefit of chatbots is that they can receive support 24/7. Customers also don’t have to interact with anyone to get their issues solved. Businesses love messaging for the same reasons as customers: it’s fast, convenient, personal, and secure.

Lately, all sorts of businesses have been adopting chatbot technology, including B2B and B2C ones. The real estate industry is one of the top five industries profiting from the use of chatbots (28%). But chatbots will also work incredibly well for other businesses.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Chat Support

Advantages of Chatbot Customer Service:

Be available to customers even when your team is offline
Schedule meetings with customer service or sales teams
Automatically share links to relevant self-help articles, videos, etc.
Improve your chatbot function over time by adding more questions and answers
24/7 customer support
Zero customer wait-time
Cost-effective
Reduced number of queries to solve

Disadvantages of Chatbot Customer Service:

Chatbots can offer only limited responses to customers
Robotic responses can frustrate customers and force them to speak with an agent
AI-powered chatbots can be expensive for your business
Limited in independent query solving
Conversation design requires logical thinking
Chatbot conversations often lack empathy and personalization

Email support

Email is the classic and common way customers communicate with companies. With the right email management software, email can be one of the easiest ways to organize customer support interactions. While email support is often slower than live chat support, it still provides customers with numerous options. For example, to contact service agents through a text-based format without directly interacting with another human.

This helps customers document important information, explain clearly and avoid time-consuming efforts to receive support. In fact, customers consider email as a more trustworthy and professional channel. In addition, it’s an inexpensive way to communicate to your consumers. Furthermore, your agents get more time to respond. However, after a point in time, it becomes difficult to keep track of every single email. In such a case, you can adopt customer email management software to ensure their proper tracking.

Nowadays, 4.3 billion people all over the world use email and send 269 billion emails every day. Accordingly, your customers choose email customer service because they believe it’s the fastest way to resolve their issues. Email customer service is a good option for companies with a large pool of foreign customers. That’s because their customers can send their queries at any time of the day or night. In addition, it is appropriate for companies that deal with risky or sensitive issues.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Email Support

Advantages of Email Customer Service:

Record and document customer conversations over a period of time
Add a professional touch to your customer service using email signatures
Automated email notifications to update customers about the status of their issue
Easily attach relevant images, videos, docs, or other files
Canned responses for repetitive customer questions
Customized email designs

Disadvantages of Email Customer Service:

Delayed email responses can make customers feel frustrated
Keeping track of emails can get challenging
Typing long replies can be time-consuming
Lack of real-time human-to-human interaction
Difficult to personalize experiences
Difficult to read emotions
Easy to miss

Social media support

Social media is no longer limited to social interactions between friends and families. In fact, it is one of the most popular digital tools used for communication across the globe. And companies have adapted it to serve as a powerful channel for customer service.

To make use of social media you have to constantly monitor all of the available channels. The best way to do that is to have an employee dedicated to resolving social media queries. Moreover, use proper social media monitoring software that will notify you whenever someone mentions your brand or product.

Social media is an excellent choice for online businesses as they can interact with their audiences in various ways. To respond faster to direct messages, they can integrate live chat with the platforms like Zendesk. According to statistics, around 20% of US customers demand an immediate response to their social media questions or complaints. And live chat integration, coupled with chatbots, will speed up chats, bookings and orders.

The social media platform is used by many companies to advertise their businesses. Besides, it helps them make people aware of their services. However, it is also used to provide support to the customers. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram are the most famous social media platforms. By providing timely help, you can show your potential customers that you genuinely care for them.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Support

Advantages of Social Media Customer Service:

Customers can reach you right from their most-used social media apps
Share proactive messages to update customers about downtime
Allow customers to help each other by creating community pages
Share customer service success stories and enhance brand reputation
Integration with live chat apps

Disadvantages of Social Media Customer Service:

Negative customer reviews or comments can impact brand reputation
For large businesses, it becomes difficult to track every single social media mention
In most cases, the solution has to be shared on another channel
Customers can share tweets or posts at any time of the day, even when your team is not available

IVR Support

Interactive voice support is an automated telephone system. It interacts with customers through a dial pad, keypad or voice requests. Based on the customer inputs, IVR systems can understand their problem and offer the correct information. It is a great way for companies to support customers with very simple questions without the agent’s presence.

IVR can handle basic customer requests with ease. For example, when a customer calls to confirm an appointment. The IVR might ask for the customer ID and offer the requested information. In fact, a thoughtfully created IVR can improve the customer journey. However, improper implementation can spoil the whole purpose and lead to frustrated and unhappy customers.

These systems can be updated frequently to store relevant information that customers are looking for. Hence, support agents can focus on resolving issues that voice support can’t handle. The fundamental challenge of using interactive voice systems is that customers aren’t interacting with an actual human. That means they will sometimes be redirected or put on hold many times. However, this can be avoided by designing IVRs that allow customers to request help from an agent when necessary.

Advantages and Disadvantages of IVR Support

Advantages of IVR Customer Service:

IVR is available 24/7/365 to assist customers with their queries
It can make your business appear more professional
It can improve the call traffic flow by routing customers to relevant agents
Your agents get the time to focus on more pressing issues

Disadvantages of IVR Customer Service:

Limited IVR options can be frustrating for the customers
IVR requires a heavy upfront investment
Complex customer issues cannot be solved using IVR
Frequent changes in the IVR menu can confuse customers

Video Customer Service

Video is becoming one of the most powerful types of customer service. Live video sessions can help with technical support, product demonstrations or understanding the challenges faced by a customer. However, videos don’t have to be live. For example, you can record tailored walkthroughs and demonstrations. Afterward, you can share them via social media, help center or other channels.

This will allow customers to access the support videos anytime. Moreover, to replay segments in order to apply the troubleshooting steps better. Furthermore, you can use it for personalized customer service. For example, record thank you videos for customers to appreciate them for being loyal to your business.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Video Customer Service

Advantages of Video Customer Service:

Schedule online video meetings in seconds
Uploading support videos online can help you reduce your ticket volume
Personalized, one-on-one interactions
Easily share recorded videos on social media, help center or other channels

Disadvantages of Video Customer Service:

Not suitable for an audience that isn’t tech-savvy
Low internet speed or poor connection can decrease the support experience
Creating interactive videos for every common issue can prove to be expensive
Live video sessions are prone to distractions

FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions

This is one of the types of customer service that requires the least amount of investment. The FAQ page can be created on the official website or App as well as on social media platforms. A person who prepares FAQ must have deep knowledge about the company’s services and the company’s policies. In addition, the FAQ page is also helpful to convert potential customers.

Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC)

Annual Maintenance Contract is one of the modern ways of providing types of customer service to customers. It is the best way to maintain customers’ loyalty to the organization. Many organizations provide free of cost or at a minimal charge AMC to the customers who buy their products. This way, they can stay in touch with customers. AMC can be provided to the customers free of cost before their warranty or contract expires. After the contract expires customers can be asked to renew the contract or get the paid services.

Conclusion

As seen above, there are various types of customer service your business can offer. In reality, the type of customer service you offer should be empowered to deliver proactive service on any channel. Nowadays, proactive engagement is becoming a crucial type of customer service. It means identifying your customers’ issues and resolving them before they reach out. This can be done through FAQs and self-service pages to email your customer about a specific matter.

The types of customer service you choose will depend upon numerous factors. Such as the demographics of your target audience, their interests, your company’s budget, team size and more. It’s best to mix speed, convenience, personalization and self-service to create excellent customer service for your brand. For example, start with live chat. It’s economic and gives you the flexibility of scaling in accordance with your business requirements.

To choose the best types of customer service for your business, you can always directly ask your customers. Find the channels that work best for them and build the types of customer service around these channels. In addition, keep an eye out for emerging channels. Adopt those that gain popularity among new customers and save the company’s time and money. in short, strive to be proactive and solve issues before they escalate. As a result, it will improve your brand reputation and customer satisfaction metrics. Consequently, you will gain more loyal clients.